thanks.

3 views and not one recommendation, damn.

lawd, I'm thankful this thread will be on page 2 before lunch.

jami0mckay said:

I bet you can get 9s to recommend about 8,000 books.

But you should probably take that over to OWB, just for all of our sakes.

Imago said:

what happened to all the love?

CarrieMpls said:

this thread is meant to restore the balance, now that dans turned all age of aquarius on us.

jami0mckay said:

It's an altruistic and all to primal love that I feel for my fellow orgers that prompts me to say that

Imago said:

sassy!

jami0mckay said:

oh, I see. In that case, carry on.

CarrieMpls said:

Mach said:

thanks

jami0mckay said:

That's the funniest shit I've read in ages from anyone


GROUP HUG... Kremlin Style!

XxAxX said:

thanks

I'm also looking into the 'alien pope' theory

jami0mckay said:

i have a friend who is THE ultimate conspiracy theorist and he tells me the pope is part of a vast plot to steal water from planet earth and raise her temperature so it is more suitable for the aliens.

so next time i see that pope guy, i'ma snatch off his hat, expose him to the world

XxAxX said:

sounds like a foolproof plan

jami0mckay said:

yep. grab his wand/staff thingy too, cause that's how he communicates with the mothership

If you mean recent Russian history, this is the only book anyone would need...

http://www.amazon.com/Tra...1929223064

For anything Soviet read Roberts Service or Conquest.

For anything before that, I don;t know, read wikipedia or some shit.

I'm just got this book and am looking forward to getting started on it. It's the history of Central Asia in the wake of the fall of communism...

http://www.amazon.com/Tra...1929223064

I've heard great things about it. He talks a good deal about the Andijan massacre, the third anniversary of which was just the other day. I meant to start a thread about it but forgot.



FUCK BORIS YELTSIN!

2the9s said:

For a fairly objective study on Soviet history then you can't go far wrong with CConquest or Service that's true. I've read a very interesting work on the Cheka and coercion tactics. The author's name escapes me though. There was also aan interesting piece called 'Gulag' which was published a couple of years ago or so. Again, I forget the author's name. For life in the gulags and for first hand accounts try Solzhenistein. It's something like that anyway!

I dunno if this is what you wanna read about but I have a textbook on the Russian Revolution by Richard Malone. It's pretty good and easy to read.

JDInteractive said:

I wouldn't say Conquest is objective at all. He's a former communist/socialist who argues with all the zeal of the converted. He's always excoriating the left for being blind to the horrors of communism etc. I think he has more in common with the neocons in a lot of ways. (His recent book The Dragons of Expectation is a screed against the left.) He was awarded the medal of freedom or something like that by George W. Bush!

Still, he's a brilliant guy and The Great Terror is a must read.



Anne Applebaum? I read a review of that book by John Dolan in the eXile and that soured me on her! Yeah, I'm impressionable like that...



Yeah, The Gulag Archipelago, frustratingly long and documentary but essential. You might start with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Russia: A History

The English historian E.H. Carr is very readable and mostly objective on the Russian revolution and the Soviet period.

On stalinism: "The revolution betrayed", by Trotski. The books of Marcel Liebman on Russia are valuable also.

Ah ah, same for me here, exactly, word for word, about Applebaum - I've read too many killing critiques of her analyses by the Exile to ever be able to take her seriously. I've been totally swept by those Exile guys, but then, who wouldn't be?

2the9s said:

I've got piles of Russian history books back at home - so not here with me. So just at the top of my head:

- 'Lenin's Tomb' and 'Resurrection' by David Remnick
- Soviet Politics - 1917-1991 by Mary McAuley
- The New Russians by Hedrick Smith [not strictly speaking a history book but gives great insight into the last years of the Soviet Union

I've got piles of Russian history books back at home - so not here with me. So just at the top of my head:

- 'Lenin's Tomb' and 'Resurrection' by David Remnick
- Soviet Politics - 1917-1991 by Mary McAuley
- The New Russians by Hedrick Smith [not strictly speaking a history book but gives a great insight into the last years of the Soviet Union.]