The Soviet Century

Archaeology of a Lost World

By: Karl Schlogel, Rodney Livingstone - translator

Narrated by: Ciaran Saward

Length: 29 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

An encyclopedic and richly detailed history of everyday life in the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union is gone, but its ghostly traces remain, not least in the material vestiges left behind in its turbulent wake. What was it really like to live in the USSR? What did it look, feel, smell, and sound like? In The Soviet Century, Karl Schlögel, one of the world's leading historians of the Soviet Union, presents a spellbinding epic that brings to life the everyday world of a unique lost civilization.

A museum of—and travel guide to—the Soviet past, The Soviet Century explores in evocative detail both the largest and smallest aspects of life in the USSR, from the Gulag, the planned economy, the railway system, and the steel city of Magnitogorsk to cookbooks, military medals, prison camp tattoos, and the ubiquitous perfume Red Moscow. The book examines iconic aspects of Soviet life, including long queues outside shops, cramped communal apartments, parades, and the Lenin mausoleum, as well as less famous but important parts of the USSR, including the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the voice of Radio Moscow, graffiti, and even the typical toilet, which became a pervasive social and cultural topic. Throughout, the book shows how Soviet life simultaneously combined utopian fantasies, humdrum routine, and a pervasive terror symbolized by the Lubyanka, then as now the headquarters of the secret police.

Drawing on Schlögel's decades of travel in the Soviet and post-Soviet world, The Soviet Century is vivid, immediate, and grounded in firsthand encounters with the places and objects it describes. The result is an unforgettable account of the Soviet Century.

©2023 Karl Schlögel (P)2023 Recorded Books

Yes, it is long but,

Very much worth reading if one wants to grasp the inner workings and life within the Soviet system. In the West, particularly during the Cold War when we were all under the threat of mutually assured destruction from nuclear weapons, no one seemed to
fully grasp what life was like in the Soviet Union or how it came to be that way. The author does an excellent job of spelling out the evolution that came about from the Revolution. The narrator does a superb job with this book, and is perhaps one of the best narrators I have heard on Audible.

Perfect for scholars, General in-depth overview

This is a very long book, but understandably so. It contains a lifetime of perspectives on the Soviet Union, discussing family life, political change, and the culture of the Soviet Union in sometimes excruciating detail. Audiences look for a concise look into the USSR and the culture of "the people" will be very pleased, although there is far less about the outer republics, These areas would rightly deserve their own section.

Bar an in-depth study in Post-Soviet studies journals, papers, and other obscura, you will not find a more comprehensive general source. What it lacks in specificity on some of the outer republics and their experience, it makes up for in discussing the culture of the Soviet Union. It is a must read companion for any scholar or layperson that wants to dive behind the broad swaths of the Russian/Soviet subjects on Audible, which often repeat the same stories and narratives to a disappointing effect.

I highly recommend this audio book for those looking for a general perspective with high levels of detail. However, it does suffer from an academic style and long winded sentences. If you can handle thirty hours of often very depressing and academic stylized writing, you will get a lot out of this.

Long winded book

This books is tedious to listening to as the author writes in a long winded way and talks about irrelevant stuff. As a result I wasn’t able to finish listening to this long book. It should be rewritten after removing 2/3 of long winded chapters.