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More About This Textbook
Overview
During the seventy years of Soviet communism, after Lenin and Stalin no person occupied a higher position over a longer period of time than V. M. Molotov. Lenin and Stalin left no memoirs; now we have Molotov Remembers. These memoirs, in the form of conversations with the poet-biographer Felix Chuev over seventeen years before Molotov's death in 1986, offer an incomparable view of the politics of Soviet society and the nature of Kremlin leadership under communism. Beginning with his early revolutionary activities, Molotov recounts his comradeship with Lenin, the Bolshevik seizure of power, and the perilous years of Soviet rule. First at Lenin's then at Stalin's right hand, premier and then foreign minister, he offers startling insights into the New Economic Policy; the collectivization of peasant farms and the liquidation of the kulaks; the repression of "counterrevolutionaries" in the late 1930s; the making of the Nazi-Soviet pact; World War II diplomacy with the Allies; the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe; and the rise and fall of Khrushchev. His portraits of an indomitable Lenin; a crafty, brutal, and ultimately paranoiac Stalin; and a host of other Soviet leaders are indelibly drawn from firsthand experience. Molotov Remembers is not only a major publishing event but a historical source of the highest order, throwing fight on the politics and psychology of the most influential episode of the twentieth century.
Editorial Reviews
New York Times
Offers real insight into top level Stalinist politics...Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This chilling memoir by an unregenerate Stalinist constitutes a major firsthand source on Kremlin politics during the Lenin-Stalin-Khrushchev era. Viacheslav Molotov, who died in 1986 at age 96, was an architect of Lenin's October Revolution, Stalin's second in command and Soviet foreign minister. Molotov deported 10 million people to Siberia and helped implement the liquidation of kulaks, or affluent peasants. He carried out the most murderous policies with ruthless efficiency, defending Stalinist morality as more humane than bourgeois morality. Breaking with Khrushchev, he was expelled from the Communist Party in 1962. Soviet-born Chuev recorded these 139 conversations with Molotov from 1969 to 1986. It's a startling insider account, brimming with revelations and opinionated perspectives. Molotov asserts that Lenin engineered Stalin's ``election'' as Communist Party general secretary. He also sheds light on the 1934 assassination of party boss Sergei Kirov, which gave Stalin a pretext for the Great Terror of 1936-38. Resis is professor of history emeritus at Northern Illinois University. (Oct.)Library Journal
Molotov was a central (and often sinister) figure in Soviet politics until his expulsion from the Central Committee in 1957. A foreign minister during World War II and an influential policy-maker in the early days of the Cold War, he was considered Stalin's right-hand man. His memoirs, compiled from a series of 139 conversations with the Russian writer Chuev between 1969 and Molotov's death in 1986, were first published in Moscow in 1991 to great acclaim. Molotov reveals the inner workings of the Soviet system, providing much new information about decisions, events, and prominent personalities. Historian Resis has attached an introductory overview on Molotov's career and importance and has also provided brief notes to each of the book's four major sections--International Affairs, With Lenin, With Stalin, and Since Stalin. A chronology of events from 1890 to 1986 is appended. Indispensable for all Soviet history collections.-- Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, Pa.Booknews
Over a period of 17 years before his death in 1986, V.M. Molotov (best known in the West as Soviet foreign minister during WWII and the Cold War, but also Stalin's predecessor as premier) held 140 in-depth conversations with the poet and biographer Felix Chuev. These conversations comprise a unique "memoir" of the political history of the Soviet Union. Translated from the Russian edition of 1991, and edited with an introduction and notes by Albert Resis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Product Details
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Meet the Author
Felix Chuev, a poet and biographer, lives in Moscow. Albert Resis is professor emeritus of Russian history at Northern Illinois University.
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