Fantastic, and fascinating book! I loved it! Could not put it down, so well researched

A few years after the 1917 Revolution it was decided to build a House of Government on a muddy island in the Moscow River to house the Soviet Bolshevik elite. Designed on an enormous scale, the vast complex contained apartments, courtyards, a theatre, library, gym, hair salon, post office, cinema, laundry, shop, day care centre, clinic and social club. Everything the new revolutionary class could possibly want to turn their lives into the bourgeois paradise they had fought to destroy. The first residential sections were finished by 1931 and by 1935 there were 505 apartments with 2,655 registered residents. Far removed from the collectivist egalitarian ideals they originally espoused, the leading Bolsheviks had never had it so good.
But by the late 1930s the House of Government had earned the reputation of having the highest per-capita number of arrests and executions of any apartment building in Moscow. “No other address in the city offers such a compelling portal into the world of Soviet era bureaucratic privilege and the horror and murder to which this privilege often led”. 800 residents were arrested or evicted during the purges, 30% of the building’s population. 340 were shot, and it wasn’t long before the arrests spread from the residents to their nannies, guards, cleaners and other domestic staff.
With the Nazi invasion of 1940, the House of Government was largely evacuated and after the war few residents returned, and the building’s exclusive nature had gone for ever.
This enormous sprawling epic, endlessly fascinating, with its vast cast of characters and exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) historical detail, is hard to take in in one reading. It narrates the complete story of the building and its many and varied inhabitants, often in their own words, and it is these personal stories that make the book so compelling. Well-selected photographs enhance the text. This is one of the most absorbing books about the Revolution and its aftermath that I have ever read. By focussing on just one building, the history of the Soviet Union comes to life in a vivid and atmospheric way. At times the author digresses a little too much, and it all becomes a bit too discursive. He argues that Bolshevism was a millenarian cult, a religious sect hoping to establish a new Utopia, and when that Utopia failed to materialise, the psychological damage done to its adherents was severe and long-lasting. Chapter 3 is mainly about religion and foe me this detracted somewhat from the overall impact of the tale being told. But this is a minor quibble, and overall this wonderfully magisterial book is a triumph of social and political history.

Originally, I sampled this one from Netgalley, then gave in and pre-ordered it. The beautiful book now rests on my Russian Lit bookshelf.

I still haven't officially reviewed it simply because it's a tome that deserves a slow reading. The beginning pages were simply exquisite, the details are profound and resonating. The writing style reminds me of someone trying to recall strong memories of days long past in an attempt they will be preserved. These early chapters describe street scenes and scents in such detail, I'm sure folks who've actually been here can relate. The chapters are organized chronologically and give an overview of the Bolsheviks house.

What I find most intriguing about this is a uni press has published a work of fiction, essentially a novel. What makes it stand out above other novels is it's also trying to be a biography with some historical facts blended in. From what I've gathered, it looks quite successful in this endeavour.

I think any fans; casual or academic of Russian History, Biography, Memoir, Literary Fiction could enjoy this work. From a writer's point of view, the writing style is unique blend of fiction, biography or historical fact. Keep in mind, it's 1100 pages, so isn't a light read!

Link to my video review showing some features of the book
https://youtu.be/9hyvfRfn800

A hefty tome but nonetheless utterly engaging history of the high-ranking Soviet officials who occupied an apartment block in Moscow called the House of Government until the time of Stalin's purges in the 1930s and 1940s. Brilliantly researched and compellingly written, it tangibly details the Russian Revolution and the historical atmosphere of the times. The Communist party members privileged to live in this new construction got to enjoy amenities and luxuries that were absolutely unheard of for the average Muscovite worker, their very lives in the 550 furnished apartments an affront to the Communist ideology they espoused. As we see, they themselves came to suffer for their proximity to the heart of power, and one by one they were purged during the paranoia of the purges.

An excellent, richly detailed read especially for this 100th anniversary year of the Russian Revolution, through the lens of the residents of this apartment complex, we learn so much about the politics and life of the times. Should be required reading for anyone who retains any fondness or nostalgia for what life was like in Soviet times.

Absolutely stunning. I thought this book was about an apartment building constructed for high Soviet officials (The House of Government), the people who lived there, and their fates during the purges of the 1930's and 40's. But it is so much more than that. This book is not for the faint hearted, or someone looking for a quick read. It is an 1100 page tome, a detailed account of the Russian Revolution led by the Bolsheviks - how it began, the lives and beliefs of the people who ran the revolution, how they lived afterwards, their fates after Stalin came to power, how the Revolution betrayed the common people, and so much more. I admit to struggling through the first sections, with all the background and philosophy and comparisons of communism to various religions, words whirling about my head, when suddenly the intent of those sections would became crystal clear and I would think "aha! that is why this section is here, it led exactly to THIS." So don't give up! Every word is important! This book also shows how Russia itself became a complete metaphysical House of Government in the sense that the Government was everything, the Party was everything, Communism was everything, and they controlled every action and thought of the citizens with an iron hand. I thought the last few chapters were particularly riveting, as they related actual trial testimonies, and the fates of the Old Bolsheviks and their families during the purges and afterwards. Stories of some of the children were particularly heart wrenching. Anyone interested in history in general, or Russian history in particular should read this, along with anyone who really thinks Communism is a good idea. (Although those people tend to always believe they could make it work if they only had the chance.) This is an important book, one of the most enlightening and informative books I have ever read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Princeton University Press for the opportunity to read this exceptional work. I may very well go buy the hardback of this book for future reference.

While I appreciate that this is a large file, I don't think I could read such a huge book on my PC, in PDF format... I am very disappointed and apologise, but I cannot review the book. I will definitely buy a copy though, as it looks fantastic.

Some of the most high-profile victims of Stalin’s purges, namely, those who as privileged party members, were accommodated in the House of Government - the huge, forbidding apartment block opened in 1931, on the Moscow River’s embankment - were able, once Khrushchev sanctioned de-Stalinization, to have plaques erected there in memory of their loved ones. Some even sought to have the relevant family apartments converted into museums, as secular shrines to the departed, although Moscow’s housing shortage, which remains a constant whatever the changes in ideological climate, militated against this outcome.

Now, however, in Yuri Slezkine’s ‘The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution’ the families who comprised the Bolshevik elite before the revolution began devouring its children have received a superb literary memorial, which vividly brings them back to life in the mind’s eye of its readers.

The transfer of the capital to Moscow justified the creation of a building close to the Kremlin to house the Bolshevik apparatchiks and other worthies but egalitarian Bolshevik ideology could never justify the creation of such luxurious living quarters.

Thus in the 550 fully furnished family apartments in the largest residential building in Europe the new Soviet aristocracy enjoyed high ceilings and central heating as standard, whilst also enjoying access to amenities including a hairdressing salon, kindergarten, gymnasium, tennis court, library, laundry, movie theatre, and a cafeteria from which meals could be ordered for collection, at a time when most Muscovites had to make do with dilapidated and overcrowded communal apartments in which the stale smell of cabbage soup competed with the general stench of despair.

Slezkine argues that the Bolsheviks were millenarian sectarians who were forced to face the failure of their prophecies in the privacy of their apartments and thus failed to raise their children as future Communists, making them in at least one sense guilty as charged of betraying the cause once brought before Stalin’s prosecutors. The blueprints, bricks and mortar of the House of Government were, however, themselves a standing indictment of the betrayal of the Bolshevik dream.

Indeed, Bolshevism itself represents an admission of Marxism’s fundamental flaw – false ‘trade union’ consciousness on the part of the proletarian masses inhibiting their development of a true revolutionary consciousness obliging Lenin to develop an elitist party to seize power in their name; the dictatorship of the proletariat legitimising the dictatorship of the Bolshevik party.

Slezkine’s book is a cross between Jung Chang’s ‘Wild Swans’; and Robert Conquest’s ‘The Great Terror’, providing as it does a multi-generational portrait of the lives and loves of a fascinating group of people, roughly one third of whom ultimately found their residency at the Government House to be merely a staging post before the non-person oblivion of either incarceration or liquidation. Slezkine’s book is painstakingly researched and beautifully constructed and written so as to allow him to shed new light on a period of Soviet history with which we might feel ourselves familiar. Not the least of his accomplishments is his managing to chronicle epic events whilst never losing his focus on the human beings affected.

Unfortunately I am unable to download this title in the format available.
Thankyou however for your approval of my request to review it. I shall look forward to seeing it on publication.