{"product_id":"9780691237299","title":"The Soviet Century","description":"Author: Karl Schlgel\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780691237299\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 01 Feb 2025\u003cbr\u003ePages: 928\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Soviet Union is gone, but its ghostly traces remain, not least in the material vestiges left behind in its turbulent wake. What was it really like to live in the USSR? What did it look, feel, smell, and sound like? In \u003ci\u003eThe Soviet Century\u003c\/i\u003e, Karl Schlgel, one of the world's leading historians of the Soviet Union, presents a spellbinding epic that brings to life the everyday world of a unique lost civilisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA museum of  and travel guide to  the Soviet past, \u003ci\u003eThe Soviet Century\u003c\/i\u003e explores in evocative detail both the largest and smallest aspects of life in the USSR, from the Gulag, the planned economy, the railway system, and the steel city of Magnitogorsk to cookbooks, military medals, prison camp tattoos, and the ubiquitous perfume Red Moscow. The book examines iconic aspects of Soviet life, including long queues outside shops, cramped communal apartments, parades, and the Lenin mausoleum, as well as less famous but important parts of the USSR, including the \u003ci\u003eGreat Soviet Encyclopedia\u003c\/i\u003e, the voice of Radio Moscow, graffiti, and even the typical toilet, which became a pervasive social and cultural topic. Throughout, the book shows how Soviet life simultaneously combined utopian fantasies, humdrum routine, and a pervasive terror symbolised by the Lubyanka, then as now the headquarters of the secret police.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on Schlgel's decades of travel in the Soviet and post-Soviet world, and featuring more than eighty illustrations, \u003ci\u003eThe Soviet Century\u003c\/i\u003e is vivid, immediate, and grounded in firsthand encounters with the places and objects it describes. The result is an unforgettable account of the Soviet Century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u0026amp;#x27;An impressively evocative look at material life in the USSR, from gulags and the planned economy to Red Moscow perfume and the Soviet toilet  a \"lost civilisation\" of utopian fantasy and unbridled terror.\u0026amp;#x27; \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46803869827230,"sku":"ADS-9780691237299","price":49.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780691237299.jpg?v=1778206525","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780691237299","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}