An encyclopedic and detail-rich history of everyday life in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union may no longer exist, but its ghosts remain, with evidence it left behind. What was life really like in the USSR? How did people feel, what did they hear, and what did it smell like? In "Soviet Era," Karl Schlögel, one of the leading historians of the Soviet Union, presents a fascinating epic narrative that brings to life the everyday world of a unique lost culture. A museum and travel guide to the Soviet past, "Soviet Era" explores in vivid detail both the larger and smaller aspects of life in the USSR, from the Gulag, the planned economy, the railway system, and the steel city of Magnitogorsk, to cooking recipes, military medals, tattoos from prison camps, and the ubiquitous scent of Red Moscow. The book examines iconic aspects of Soviet life, including the long queues outside stores, cramped communal apartments, parades, and Lenin's mausoleum, as well as lesser-known but significant facets of the USSR, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the voice of Radio Moscow, graffiti, and even the typical toilet, which became a pervasive social and cultural topic. Overall, the book shows how Soviet life simultaneously combined utopian fantasies, daily routines, and broad terror, symbolized by the Lubyanka, then and now the headquarters of the secret police. Drawing from Schlögel's decades of travel in the Soviet and post-Soviet world and with more than eighty illustrations, "Soviet Era" is lively, direct, and based on firsthand encounters with the places and objects it describes. The result is a memorable narrative of the Soviet Era.
