Secondhand-Zeit

Almost twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Empire. The Russians discovered the world, and the world discovered the Russians. In the meantime, Stalin is once again regarded as a great statesman, and the socialist past is increasingly romanticized, especially by young people. Russia, as Svetlana Alexievich puts it, lives in a time of "second-hand," of used ideas and words. The reporter interviews people who feel overwhelmed, humiliated, and betrayed by history. She speaks with women who fought in the Red Army, with soldiers, Gulag prisoners, and Stalinists. "Historians see only the facts; the feelings remain outside... but I see the world through the eyes of a human researcher." Anyone who wants to understand today's Russia must read this book. Svetlana Alexievich shapes the harrowing experiences of people into a narrative.