Molotov's Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History by Rachel Polonsky is an unforgettable exploration of a country and its literature.
Rachel is a very well-respected academic and journalist who has written for Prospect, Guardian, TLS and Spectator among others. She now lives in Cambridge with her family.
Praise for "Molotov's Magic Lantern"
“Cogently descriptive, empathic, plucky, and acerbic, Polonsky
begins with a tour of Moscow’s grim landmarks of the Stalin era,
then ventures out into the countryside, excavating the tragic and
heroic stories of writers and scientists who suffered banishment
and worse, many the victims of Molotov’s industrious murderousness
. . . Polonsky is so steeped in Russian history and literature that
everywhere she goes, her inner magic lantern projects the past onto
the present, the imagined onto the real, and what we see is an
illuminated land of immense brutality and beauty, suffering and
spirit.” —Donna Seaman, "Booklist "“The result is an eccentric
work, daring in conception, peculiar in construction, that
incorporates all Polonsky’s teeming scholarly knowledge of Russia
and the Russian people . . . In the course of her travels, Polonsky
visits monasteries, dachas, sanatoriums and bath houses. H
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