The Trial Begins

“Andrei Sinyavsky was a writer in the post-Stalin period. He was actually a friend of Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana. Sinyavsky got in trouble for his writing and was put on trial in the mid-1960s for publishing abroad without permission. The novella is set just before Stalin’s death. It’s at the height of the Stalin cult, which is all around. It’s fascinating, but it’s quite an unpleasant piece of work. All the adult characters are corrupt in their different ways.” Read more...

The best books on The Soviet Union

Sheila Fitzpatrick, Historian