Night of Stone Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia

by Merridale, Catherine

• ISBN13: 9780670894741
• ISBN10: 0670894745
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-04-02
• Publisher: Viking Adult

Summary

Russia has endured more bloodshed than any other European country in the twentieth century. Yet, while countries such as Germany have learned the value of confronting the darker side of their own pasts, Russia has never faced the reality of its troubled history in a meaningful and collective way. In this provocative and highly original book, Catherine Merridale asks Russians difficult questions about how their country's volatile past has affected their everyday lives, their aspirations, their dreams, and their nightmares.

Based on extensive research including rare imperial archives, Soviet propaganda, memoirs, letters, newspapers, literature, psychiatric studies, and texts, as well as interviews with doctors, priests, social workers, policemen, survivors, gravediggers, and funeral directors, Night of Stone seeks answers to the questions: What is the true impact of violence in the Soviet century? How successfully have the Russians psychologically rewritten their own histories? What rituals have survived the Soviet regime, and what do they tell us of the Russia

Author Biography

Catherine Merridale is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Bristol.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Against the Darkness: An Introduction	1	(20)
Another Light	21	(26)
A Culture of Death	47	(26)
The Palace of Freedom	73	(28)
Transforming Fire	101	(24)
Common and Uncommon Graves	125	(29)
The Great Silence	154	(30)
Nights of Stone	184	(27)
Russia at War	211	(30)
The Pantheon	241	(29)
Death in the Age of ``Developed Socialism''	270	(27)
A Tide of Bones	297	(27)
Listening for the Dead	324	(25)
Notes and Sources	349	(32)
Bibliography	381	(12)
Index	393