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Russia's Sputnik Generation : Soviet Baby Boomers Talk about Their Lives - Donald J. Raleigh

Russia's Sputnik Generation

Soviet Baby Boomers Talk about Their Lives

By: Donald J. Raleigh (Editor, Translator)

Paperback | 1 June 2006

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Russia's Sputnik Generation presents the life stories of eight 1967 graduates of School No. 42 in the Russian city of Saratov. Born in 1949/50, these four men and four women belong to the first generation conceived during the Soviet Union's return to "normality" following World War II. Well educated, articulate, and loosely networked even today, they were first-graders the year the USSR launched Sputnik, and grew up in a country that increasingly distanced itself from the excesses of Stalinism. Reaching middle age during the Gorbachev Revolution, they negotiated the transition to a Russian-style market economy and remain active, productive members of society in Russia and the diaspora.

In candid interviews with Donald J. Raleigh, these Soviet "baby boomers" talk about the historical times in which they grew up, but also about their everyday experiences--their family backgrounds; childhood pastimes; favorite books, movies, and music; and influential people in their lives. These personal testimonies shed valuable light on Soviet childhood and adolescence, on the reasons and course of perestroika, and on the wrenching transition that has taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Industry Reviews

. . . this is an extremely informative book. It is also highly readable, partly because of its novelistic qualities: the characters of both Raleigh and his informants shine through the text. The introduction to each interview includes a lively account of the interviewee's behaviour during the event as well as a narrative of Raleigh's various adventures, such as getting lost on the way, in the labyrinth of Moscow University, or being jumped on by an unannounced pet rat. The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs of the informants, for example, at May Day parades, on the beach, or dressed for graduation ball. At the very end, hiding beyond the Index, are photographs of Raleigh himself in 1967 and 2005. A valuable feature of the book is its sparing but deft drawing of parallels between Russians and Americans of the same generation, leading the reader to reflect on how far the book tells a specifically Russian story or, conversely, one more universal.Volume 86, number 4, October 2008

-- Anne White * Department of European Studies and Modern Languages University of Bath *

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Non-FictionHistoryRegional & National HistoryEuropean HistorySpecific Events & Topics in HistorySocial & Cultural HistoryReference, Information & Interdisciplinary SubjectsInterdisciplinary StudiesRegional StudiesEarliest Times to Present Day20th Century History from 1900 to 2000Military History
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