2008-10-29 Still Whispering

You will never read a more granular, detailed and moving book about what Stalin did to his own people. The final whispering of the generations persecuted,the sheer number of people's stories might be overwhelming if they were not so individual and peculiar, so consistent and so different. You may go in thinking Stalin less evil than Hitler, but you will not finish this book with that idea. The sheer scale of the madness, the length of time it went on, will take your breath away. Orlando Figes writes plainly, and tells you first, what happened during the chapter (the context), then provides detailed examples, and follows a few family stories all the way from 1917 till today. This is great scholarship and history, valuable to professionals and ordinary readers.