Molotov's Magic Lantern

When Rachel Polonsky went to live in Moscow, she found an apartment block in Romanov Street, once a residence of the Soviet elite. One of those ghostly neighbours was Stalin's henchman Vyacheslav Molotov. In Molotov's former apartment, Rachel Polonsky discovered his library and an old magic lantern. Molotov - ruthless apparatchik, participant in the collectivizations and the Great Purge - was also an ardent bibliophile. Molotov's library and his magic lantern became the prisms through which Rachel Polonsky renewed her vision of Russia. She visited cities and landscapes associated with the books in the library - Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Akhmatova and many less well-known figures. Some were sent to the Gulag by the man who collected their books. She writes exceptionally well about the longings and aspirations of Russian writers in the course of a journey that takes her to the Arctic and Siberia, the Crimean summer and Lake Baikal, from the forests around Moscow to the vast steppes. In each place she encountered the spirit of great artists and the terrible past of a country ravaged by war, famine, and totalitarianism.

ISBN 0571237800   Pages 416 ISBN13 9780571237807 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 686 Publisher Faber and Faber   Published in London Imprint Faber and Faber   Height (mm) 240 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 161 Publication date 11 Mar 2010   Spine width (mm) 35 DEWEY 947.0842   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		Maps
		Prologue
1		Romanov		15
2		Apartment 61		58
3		The Banya		93
4		Lutsino		115
5		Mozzhinka		135
6		Novgorod		158
7		Staraya Russa		181
8		Rostov-on-Don		205
9		Taganrog		229
10		Vologda		252
11		Archangel		277
12		Murmansk and Barentsburg		297
13		Arshan and Irkutsk		313
14		Ulan Ude and Kyakhta		335
		Epilogue		355
		Note		371
		Index		377

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