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Red Plenty

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 648 ratings · 161 reviews

Once upon a time in the Soviet Union....

Strange as it may seem, the grey, oppressive USSR was founded on a fairytale. It was built on the twentieth-century magic called 'the planned economy', which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950's, the magic see...more

Hardcover, 434 pages

Published August 19th 2010 by Faber and Faber (first published December 31st 2007)

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Aug 26, 2010 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, russia, ebook-available

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Reviewed by The Observer, Strange Horizons, The Guardian, The Independent

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Jun 18, 2012 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, library, faves

extraordinary blend of historical fact and fiction, real life people (including presidents, scientists and economists in USSR) and fictional characters.
details the idealistic socialist goal of building an economic system to allow USSR to overtake USA standard of living without recourse to capatilism and market forces and the potential to achieve this through early applications of computing technology and linear dynamics.
fascinating chapter on cancer in a character presented as a tense, probabili...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Boris Limpopo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Spufford, Francis (2010). Red Plenty. London: Faber and Faber. 2010. ISBN 9780571269471. Pagine 451. 7,02 €

amazon.com

Un libro difficile da definire, ma certamente da raccomandare.

Verrebbe la tentazione di ricorrere alla parola portmanteau costruita con fact e fiction e definirlo faction. Peccato che in italiano fazione significhi una cosa diversa: per la verità anche l’inglese faction vuol dire la stessa cosa dell’italiano, almeno come primo significato («a small organized dissenting group withi...more

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May 29, 2013 Seth Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

tl;dr It has geeks and Communists? How could I not like it?

Red Plenty is a historical novel—the style, indeed, reminds me of Elsa Morante’s History: A Novel—about the Soviet mathematicians, economists, and computer programmers in the 1950s who believed that they could make socialism work. As you have probably noticed, they failed, but RP, like any good tragedy, lets you feel the exhilarating rise before the depressing collapse, even as you know the collapse is inevitable. It takes you back to th...more

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May 13, 2013 Liam Kofi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy, socialism, economics, fiction, political

Here is the blurb:

"Strange as it may seem, the gray, opppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the twentieth century magica called "the planned economy", which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things taht the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working.

Red plenty is about that moment in hisotry, and how it came, and how it went way; about the brief era when, under the rash...more Here is the blurb:

"Strange as it may seem, the gray, opppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the twentieth century magica called "the planned economy", which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things taht the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working.

Red plenty is about that moment in hisotry, and how it came, and how it went way; about the brief era when, under the rash leadership of Nikita Krushchev, the Soviet Union looked forward to a future of rich communists and envious capitalists, when Moscow would out-glitter Manhattan, and every Lada would be better engineered than a Porsche. It's about the scientits who did their genuinely brilliant best to make the dream come true, to give the tyranny its happy ending.

Red Plenty is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as Sputnik, as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant, and as different from what you were expecting as a glass of Soviet champagne."

And that gives you a pretty good idea of what it is about - precisely because, I think, from reading that it is kinda hard to say what the book is about! I'll spend most of the time here summarising this book; if you think you would enjoy this book from the description I give then I can guarantee you will - it is a fascinating and well-written piece. But I realise it is not for everyone, so the most I can do is give you an impression of what this is about

The best way I can think to describe this book is as the fictional-history of an idea. The book is made up of series of vignettes (some of which are connected, others of which are stand alone) concerning life in the Soviet Union between 1938 to 1970, with most taking place between the late 1950s and mid 1960s. Each vignette tells the story of a different person or group of people - from Krushchev himself down to rural peasants - who interact in different ways with the idea. Some are real people and real stories, others are fictional. We see how, in response to the demands The Idea places on them, these characters' lives are changed for better or worse. Although there are some recurring characters, it is clear throughout that what we are meant to take away from their lives is really the story of this idea's journey through history - it's attempt to make itself manifest in the concrete affairs of mankind, and how it was helped and hindered along the way.

What is that idea? Optimisation. The belief that through the rational organisation of the resources and productive forces available to us we could bootstrap our way out of the economic problem; we could end scarcity, and make prosperity and plenty available for all. The book tries to explore "the cleverest version of that idea", or the "most subtle of the Soviet attempts" to create a genuine working paradise. This is the version of that idea based on the work of the Nobel prize winning economist, Leonid Kantorovich.

Leonid Kantorovich invented a mathematical technique we now know as linear programming. It is a mathematical technique which (amongst other things) allows one to identify the best method for achieving your goals within a specified system. In particular, it can be applied to the economic system of a national economy. Kantorovich hoped that by making use of the fact that the Soviet Union (in theory) had centralised control over all aspects of production we could make actually optimise production within those economies. This would contrast with capitalist economies, who couldn't take advantage of this technique on a large scale because of their wasteful competition and lack of coordination. Here, in the Soviet Union: "The economy was a clean sheet of paper on which reason was writing. So why not optimise it?" (page 16).

This might just seem like a bit of dry technicalia, but it should be understood that behind the thought lay as much idealistic optimism as can be found in any literary description of communism. Kantorovich is presented as thinking to himself:

"Seen from the future time, when every commodity the human mind could imagine would flow from the industrial horn of plenty in dizzy abundance, this would seem a scanty, shoddy, cramped moment indeed, choked with shadows, redeemed only by what it caused to be created. Seen from plenty, now would be hard to imagine. It would seem not quite real, an absurd time when, for no apparent reason, human beings went without things easily within the power of humanity to supply, and lives did not flower as it was obvious they could. Now would look like only a faint, dirty, unconvincing edition of the real world, which had not yet been born. And he could hasten the hour!" (page 17)

This certainly captures the spirit of the thing.

For reasons historians still debate, the dream was never realised. By the late 1970s it had died, well before the fall of the Soviet Union. It would be ruining the book to tell you the reasons it presents for that failure, just as much as it would ruin a good detective novel to tell you who done it and why. I highly recommend finding out yourselves!(less)

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Mar 21, 2013 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Veterans of the Cold War and exiles from the workers' paradise...

Recommended to Alan by: Henry Farrell, on Crooked Timber

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics... the USSR. The Evil Empire, belligerent bugbear of the 20th Century West, bristling with ICBMs while cowering behind its Iron Curtain, leader in space exploration and builder of gulags, generator of endless metaphors, bloodily bootstrapping itself from a rural monarchy to a great power that could compete on equal terms with the giants of Europe and the Americas in just a few brief decades. At any rate, the Soviets were taken seriously, by proponents and...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Elf M. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Elf by: Crooked Timber

Red Plenty is probably one of the finest, and saddest, books I have ever read. It's hard to tell what it is. The best description I've heard is that it's science fiction-- only the science is economics, and the fiction is entirely based on real history. Red Plenty is about the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, told in a series of stories-- anecdotes, in many cases-- of the lives of ordinary citizens, apparatchiks, and intelligenzia of the time.

Some of the vignettes feature an ordinary citizen w...more Red Plenty is probably one of the finest, and saddest, books I have ever read. It's hard to tell what it is. The best description I've heard is that it's science fiction-- only the science is economics, and the fiction is entirely based on real history. Red Plenty is about the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, told in a series of stories-- anecdotes, in many cases-- of the lives of ordinary citizens, apparatchiks, and intelligenzia of the time.

Some of the vignettes feature an ordinary citizen we only see once-- to show us what Spufford wants us to see, life in the Soviet Union under Stalin, then Khrushchev, and finally Brezhnev. The central theme of the book is how close, how desperately close, the Soviet Union was to fulfilling its dream of red plenty, of turning Lenin's massive industrial push into a cornucopia machine that would crank out everything humanity ever needed, and how every opportunity the soviets had was squandered, in the end, by shortsightedness, by ideology, by political maneuvering, by sheer human perversity, by bad luck.

Spufford is a talented writer at setting up scenes, at drawing word paintings of places we've never been to and showing us the beauty and decay, the joy and terror. He's good at showing just how human Khrushchev was, and how desperately Khrushchev wanted to be a good man, and how badly he fared at it. If you want to read a book that makes you cringe, and sigh, and cheer, then Red Plenty is that book.

It starts in 1938, with the invention of Linear Algebra, and how this became the start of what we now call "big data." The soviets started a crash course in it, and in 1959 began cybernizing their command economy, trying desperately to organize networks of networks of industries to produce everything every citizen would ever want or need. It ends in 1970, with Khrushchev, retired and desperately depressed, looking back at all the potential wasted.

Every vignette ends with notes about what details are real, what quotes are authentic, and which Spufford crafted for dramatic effect. He's brutally honest with you, and himself, about how he's telescoped or compressed various events to make the drama more real. The EPUB version of the book is better than the print-- the notes are at the end of each chapters, and the truth of each note, dozens per story, are eye-opening. The print edition has the notes at the end of the book.

Every time you read how the SU screwed up-- how the cyberneticists simplified planning in 1960 by valuing every piece of factory equipment, no matter how simple or complex, no matter how hard or how barely used, by its weight-- how the "shadow pricing" system meant to simulate a demand economy without being a market economy was repeatedly overriden by politicians trying to keep the marketplace "familiar" to ordinary Russians-- how the soviets banned "bureaucracy" as they understood Americans did it, and thereby created a system of favors and graft-- how the soviets invented the Lamaze birth technique, then neglected to teach it to expectant mothers but forbade physicians from otherwise helping those women give birth-- how in the 1970s the Soviet Union stagnated because there was no program for tearing down factories, no notion of upgrading from a manufacturing base-- you die a little inside. So much suffering, and yet Spufford convinces you that they meant well. They really thought they were going to create paradise on Earth. They were no more evil than Americans, or Europeans, or anyone else on Earth. They really tried.

The most remarkable thing about Perestroika, at the end of the book, is that Gorbachev was a true believer. He wanted to believe that red plenty could happen; it was Brezhnev and his "managed socialism" that had led to stagnation. The great program of cybernizing the economy, Soviet Union, of making the great chain from farm and mine to consumer and back, could actually really work. But twenty years of slow decay had led the young people to give up. When he started to institute his reforms, popular sentiment revolted. The wall fell. The Soviet Union was over.

These little glimpses into many lives, 18 in all, obviously don't tell the whole story. But they do give concrete examples of why the system failed, and more importantly, why it couldn't recover: there were no alternatives. Exceptional experiments were not allowed. Scientific investigation was "administered" rather than "supported." You can't command what you don't know you want: and nobody knew what they really wanted from computers, or the economy, or industry. And without that freedom to fail, they never had a chance to succeed. No matter how close they were.

If you ever want to know what the Soviets were thinking, Red Plenty will give you a heavy dose of understanding. Worth every second of your time.(less)

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Jan 20, 2013 Seth Kolloen rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the strangest and best non-fiction books I've ever read...even though it's partly fictionalized. Spufford realized he couldn't tell the story of the USSR's planned economy in a straight-forward way, because it was too vast, so he told the story through the eyes of characters (some of whom are real people). Daring, intelligent, and informative. The scope (and sometimes horror) of Russia in this period really is better understood through the minds of individuals...

"Like Peter the Great’s ci...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Shanthanu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, wr-male, history, russia, soviet

How can you not like a novel which begins : ``This is not a novel. It has too much to explain, to be one of those. But it is not a history either, for it does its explaining in the form of a story; only the story is the story of an idea, first of all, and only afterwards, glimpsed through the chinks of the idea’s fate, the story of the people involved. The idea is the hero.''

Of course, as some others have pointed out this is hardly reason to not call it a novel, after all, there have always been...more

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May 16, 2012 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars

This wonderfully strange – or strangely wonderful - book is a novel (with 60 some pages of endnotes and a 13 page bibliography) about the rise and fall of the planned economy of the USSR from the 1950s to the 1970s. This is one of the most peculiar books I have ever read. And it’s hard to believe that it’s hard to put down, but it is.

It was an incredibly ambitious utopian undertaking – to turn the country into a military superpower, an industrial giant and a thriving consumer society, all at on...more This wonderfully strange – or strangely wonderful - book is a novel (with 60 some pages of endnotes and a 13 page bibliography) about the rise and fall of the planned economy of the USSR from the 1950s to the 1970s. This is one of the most peculiar books I have ever read. And it’s hard to believe that it’s hard to put down, but it is.

It was an incredibly ambitious utopian undertaking – to turn the country into a military superpower, an industrial giant and a thriving consumer society, all at once.

The book is a series of short episodes set in the industrial, agrarian, academic and cybermetric worlds of the USSR. It’s a look down Alice’s rabbit hole. Example – a manufacturing operation needs a new machine to replace one damaged in an industrial accident. The factory which makes the machines has two models – one that duplicates the damaged machine, and a new improved model, which it refuses to sell as a replacement. Why? Because the new machine sells for less than the old and that would prevent the factory from meeting its profit projection. Why does the new machine sell for less? Because machinery for the chemical industry is priced based on its weight and the new machine which does more than the old, weighs less. So no sale. Or only the old machine.

There are dozens of stories like this, and a cast of characters that ranges from Nikita Khrushchev to minor academics trying to secure a place in this brave new world.

In the end, “The Soviet economy did not move on from coal and steel and cement to plastics and software design, except in a very few military occupations, It continued to compete with what capitalism had been doing in the 1930s, not with what is was doing now. It continued to suck resources and human labour in vast quantities into a heavy industrial sector which had once been intended to exist as a springboard for something else, but which by now had become its own justification. Soviet industry in its last decades existed because it existed, an empire of inertia expanding ever more slowly, yet attaining the wretched distinction of absorbing more of the total effort of the economy that hosted it than heavy industry has ever done anywhere else in human history, before or since. Every year it produced goods that less and less corresponded to human needs. and whatever it once started producing, it tended to go on producing ad infinitum, since it possessed no effective stop signals except ruthless commands from above, and the people at the top no longer did ruthless, in the economic sphere. The control system for industry grew more an more erratic, the information flowing back to the planners grew more and more corrupt. And the activity of industry, all that human time and machine time it used up, added less and less value to the raw materials it sucked in. Maybe no value. Maybe less than none. One economist has argues that, by the end, it was actively destroying value; it had become a system for spoiling perfectly good materials by turning them into objects no one wanted.”

Read it - it's fascinating. (less)

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Mar 19, 2011 Nicholas Whyte rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a really interesting book, a light on an important period of history (the Soviet Union from 1959 to 1969) of which I knew much less than I had realised, looked at through the eyes of true believers in the economic system of Communism as it developed under Khrushchev, who were then bitterly disappointed as Brezhnev and Kosygin (and later Brezhnev alone) took over. I grew up at the tail end of the Brezhnev era, when the Soviet system seemed monolithic and permanent; subsequent events prove...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Ernie.tedeschi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Red Plenty is a work of historical fiction that thoroughly blurs the line between "history" and "fiction" in a fascinating way. It recounts the attempts by the Soviet Union in the 1960s to engineer their economy into prosperity and dominance over the West (hence "red plenty"). Spufford follows several characters -- as varied as an academic economist and Nikita Kruschev himself -- through various disjointed episodes in which they plan, implement, and ultimately recognize the failure of their econ...more Red Plenty is a work of historical fiction that thoroughly blurs the line between "history" and "fiction" in a fascinating way. It recounts the attempts by the Soviet Union in the 1960s to engineer their economy into prosperity and dominance over the West (hence "red plenty"). Spufford follows several characters -- as varied as an academic economist and Nikita Kruschev himself -- through various disjointed episodes in which they plan, implement, and ultimately recognize the failure of their economic strategy. Even though Red Plenty is a work of fiction and reads like a novel, it is impeccably footnoted and the author generously peppers his interpretation of historical figures with real quotes and, failing that, with real motivations. Spufford is thorough in documenting what part of each chapter is real, and what part is fiction, though even the fiction is often firmly rooted in actual events.

Spufford has a gift for taking larger-than-life historical figures and naturally weaving them into the mundane situations of everyday Soviet life. He also writes a convincing narrative, but this is a double-edged sword. Extensive notes at the end of every chapter make clear that none of Spufford's depictions come from first-hand experience. In fact, there's a sort of "Usual Suspects" effect as each chapter ends, where you aren't sure how much of the preceding narrative you really ought to trust as "genuine." Spufford's motivations seem pure, and his research is rigorous especially for a work of historical fiction, but Red Plenty should not be your first choice if you're looking for a reflection on the subtleties of Soviet life. Pardon my use of economics analogies, but this is a novel about macroeconomics written at the micro level.

This is a novel for those fascinated by the other side of the iron curtain and who have more than a passing interest in economics (the economics in the novel is not difficult to understand. In fact, the most technically-challenging passage in the whole book is about lung cancer). General fans of historical fiction will also be struck by Spufford's uniquely rigorous approach to his craft. (less)

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Nov 15, 2010 Frank Stein rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another novel, and one of the strangest I've read in a long, long time.

It's a novel based on, of all things, the attempt to transform the Soviet economy using cybernetics and computers in the early 1960s, during Khruschev's cultural "thaw." The author describes the book as a fairy tale, albeit a heavily footnoted fairy tale based on real people, but its really more like a science fiction story, one set in a land not more advanced but still very distinct from any we've known.

The story essential...more Another novel, and one of the strangest I've read in a long, long time.

It's a novel based on, of all things, the attempt to transform the Soviet economy using cybernetics and computers in the early 1960s, during Khruschev's cultural "thaw." The author describes the book as a fairy tale, albeit a heavily footnoted fairy tale based on real people, but its really more like a science fiction story, one set in a land not more advanced but still very distinct from any we've known.

The story essentially revolves around Leonid Kantorovich, the real-life economist who was the only Soviet to ever win the Nobel Prize in Economics, granted for his work on linear programming. He and a band of merry followers were transported by Soviet central planners to a gilded cage in the Siberian tundra called Akademgorodok ("Academyville"), where they were allowed a relative amount of freedom to talk, invent, and experiment, all with the hope that they would come up with exciting new ideas to transform the ailing Soviet system. Their hopes were later crushed during the Brezhnev crackdown, and some of these brilliant scientists were jailed or exiled.

The book's got a strange form. Its divided into six parts, each containing a lengthy introduction explaining the historical background to the following chapters. Also, the book ends with 60 pages of weighty notes, tracing many of the lines, even from entirely fictional characters, back to some real Soviet source. So overall its tough to classify this book as a straight novel. Also, its different chapters weave across dozen of characters, some of whom are the star of one part only to disappear completely in others. The characters are mainly used to demonstrate some peculiar idea or aspect of the Soviet system, but they are surprisingly well drawn, especially for bureaucrats and economists, and you're almost loathe to leave them at the end of each chapter.

One typical though fascinating part of the book traces how the lives of half a dozen characters are affected by the simple destruction of a viscose machine in a Soviet factory, and how this leads some managers worried about their standing with the party to seek the help of a "tolkach," a Soviet "fixer," to get a new improved machine, whose price, contra to the hopes of the economic reformers, is set by its weight instead of its value (!). This strange pricing in turn prevents the factory from selling it for fear of losing money, and the weird negative effects of the Soviet pricing system continue to ripple outwards in the following chapters. In one, a change in the price of meat leads to a riot in the small city of Novocherkassk that ended up killing 29 people (really happened). Again and again the book has similar real stories, parables even, that usefully illustrate the problems Kantorovich was trying to solve, and that make the whole economic debate appear lively and interesting.

This is a strange but worthwhile book, one that's able to wrestle with big ideas and to show how they impact real people, all without sacrificing much in the way of story or character. It's also a surprisingly quick read.(less)

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Aug 25, 2010 Doug rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics, non-fiction, literature, politics, historical-fiction

Easily my book of the year so far, this is a remarkably original and entertaining book.

This is a mixed fiction/non-fiction book about economics. Please don't let it put you off - this is not just a book for geeks and wonks (although they'll love it too), this is a story ultimately of people, and how people just won't do what they ought to, no matter what.

The unassailable position of Capitalism in it's current form is not due to the inherent greatness of Capitalism, but because of the manifest fa...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Caleb rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was by far one of the most original books I have read in years. It truly straddles genre of history and literature and I reject the term historical fiction as lumping it in with an entirely different group of books. Impressively researched (100 pages of endnotes that were fascinating and educational), it's the partly historical, partly fictional review of USSR from 1957 to 1968, during the period where there was a belief communism could catch up with the west due to central planning and com...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Karl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I haven't been this impressed with a concept for a long time. It's hard to exactly describe what Red Plenty is like, but a decent starting-off point is the historical fiction trend of the last several years.

The author did an immense amount of research on historical figures (from a scorned biologist in Akademgorodok to Khrushchev himself), through biographies and their personal stories, and constructed small narratives that each provide a facet of a greater one. In effect, Spufford set out to de...more

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Sep 14, 2010 Mihai added it

Shelves: fiction, history, read-2010

"Comrades, let's optimize!"

Coming from an operations research background, the mere idea of having a fiction book on dual prices had me drooling since I've first heard about it. To actually get several features on Kantorovich and mentions to both Danzig and Koopmans is just the icing on the cake.

So, what's going on here? It's a history of failed central planning in the USSR. However, it is a very humorous one, filled with good ol' Eastern European humor ("How do you call Khruschev's latest hairdo...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wasn't sure what to expect and was surprised to enjoy this as much as I did.

In broad terms, this is a work of historical fiction, with many of the characters real persons in Soviet history. The story centers on an attempt to perfect centralized planning of the Soviet economy by relying on computers and the use of pricing that would not be the same as pricing under capitalism that peaked under Khrushchev. Described in that way, it hardly sounds like an attractive read!

Spufford presents his sto...more I wasn't sure what to expect and was surprised to enjoy this as much as I did.

In broad terms, this is a work of historical fiction, with many of the characters real persons in Soviet history. The story centers on an attempt to perfect centralized planning of the Soviet economy by relying on computers and the use of pricing that would not be the same as pricing under capitalism that peaked under Khrushchev. Described in that way, it hardly sounds like an attractive read!

Spufford presents his story in six parts, each part made up of about two-to-four chapters that are ten to twenty pages long. There are continuing characters, but there are also characters and settings that appear only in one chapter - and there are probably as many characters as in War and Peace. The book starts with five pages listing all the characters and whether they are real, imaginary, or somewhere in between. I usually find such character lists off-putting, but in this case it is useful to peruse.

Each of the five parts starts with five to ten pages in italics providing historical and economic background information - again, typically I am not crazy about such things but in this case, it is OK.

Given that the organization of the book is so choppy, I can't explain why it still drew me in, but I assume it is because of my own interest in Russia, although perhaps it would be interesting for others because of the clever way he presents the story and how well it is written, how well the characters are put forth.

Spufford is seven or eight years younger than I am - it isn't clear where his interest in the Soviet Union comes from. He does not read or speak Russian and relied on a visit or visits to present-day Russia (apparently) and on extensive English language resources as well as having some things translated. I would be curious what Russians would think of his analysis and description of the Soviet Union. There are forty pages of notes at the end of the book explaining where he got very facts that are presented (in passing, I guess you would say) during the novel, plus there is a lengthy bibliography. Remember, this is nominally a work of fiction!

An amazing effort. What will he do next?

(less)

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Feb 05, 2012 Iain rated it 5 of 5 stars

A fictionalized history of Soviet Union economics. Absolutely terrific read, especially in the light of the current financial crisis.

If you've ever wondered how the USSR functioned day-to-day, this is the book for you. Spend a few hundred pages in the heads of Spufford's large cast of characters and it will all start to make a certain twisted sense, so much so that you may begin to wonder how Western-style capitalism can possibly function. As one character asks, "but who tells you how much bread...more A fictionalized history of Soviet Union economics. Absolutely terrific read, especially in the light of the current financial crisis.

If you've ever wondered how the USSR functioned day-to-day, this is the book for you. Spend a few hundred pages in the heads of Spufford's large cast of characters and it will all start to make a certain twisted sense, so much so that you may begin to wonder how Western-style capitalism can possibly function. As one character asks, "but who tells you how much bread you need to make?"

For a brief moment, in fact, the USSR appears to function rather well. The main strand of the story is how the problem of running an efficient command economy was solved, mathematically: linear programming to model the economy as a vast system of variables, computers to optimize it, shadow prices to decentralize decision-making. It would have worked! Or would it? Shadow pricing feels like a sci-fi MacGuffin, akin to "psychohistory" in Asimov's Foundation, or the "gordelpus" weapon in Stapledon's Last and First Men. It comes tantalizingly close, but the system is never fully applied. Applying it partially has disastrous consequences: raising meat and dairy prices leads to a demonstration in Novocherkassk, and the authorities respond by opening fire on the crowd. Towards the end, a Party apparatchik explains (to a scientist, as if to a child) how this magical pricing system could never have worked, as it would always be compromised by corruption all along the supply chain. Or is it simply that the Party was unwilling to relax their rigidly centralized control?

Another reaction I have to this story is that, like it or not, the ends justify the means in public consciousness. We see the Soviet Union as a failure not just because of the grim lives of its inhabitants, but because it failed. If it had been a roaring success, the inhabitants' lives wouldn't have been grim; they wouldn't necessarily be free, but would we care so much about that? Spufford's book paints a vivid picture of the Soviet Union as a promised fairyland built on a nightmarish bloodbath (the Stalinist purges), and various characters wrestle with the existential crisis this creates. If the grand project succeeded, could we possibly accept the bloodbath as justified? We accept the United States as a success, despite its early history of slavery and the ethnic cleansing of native inhabitants (and its current reliance on foreign sweatshop labour). The British Empire is less well-regarded these days; only because it ultimately failed? Uncomfortable questions. We at least have the freedom to criticize our society, unlike the citizens of the USSR.

I've been discussing Red Plenty purely as a history so far. Does it hold up as a novel? Yes, definitely. Spufford's characters (both real and fictional) are vividly drawn and true to life. It's tinged with just enough Russian-ness (for me) to be intriguing and surprising, but not so much as to make the characters' motivations incomprehensible. The overall effect is completely immersive. On top of this—particularly impressive for a non-fiction author edging tentatively into fiction—the writing is beautiful, with some absolutely cracking turns of phrase. Spufford mostly restrains himself from poetic flights of fancy, but the moments where he lets loose are particularly memorable: the life of an electron inside a computer, the life of a cell at risk of cancer.

The book ends with an extensive array of footnotes explaining the historical basis of his story, and picking apart documented events from his fictional interpolations. I'd love to see an annotated Red Plenty with the story and footnotes on alternate pages. I guess it might spoil the flow of the story, but it would let the reader fully appreciate the depth and rigour of research that has gone into this book.(less)

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Sep 10, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, nonfiction, russia, fiction

The first thing you need to know is that this is a very strange book. The second thing you need to know is that this is a very GOOD book.

Generally, it covers the Soviet economic system from the late 40s through the early 70s, a time in which the Soviet Union seemed ready to explode into an age of prosperity. This book talks about why it didn't. While this is non-fiction (sort of), it's also told through a fictional narrative (sort of). There is a vast array of perspectives in this book, from Nik...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Rene rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book defies category. It is a fictional book about a real period in Soviet history, but it is not "historical fiction" as we know it. The author writes in one part that he is constructing a story in the fashion of Russian "fairy tales", but it not quite a fairy tale either. Too grounded in fact to be science fiction and too much fiction to be a straight historical account....I just can't find a box to put it in.

I found the division of Parts and chapters and the way the stories were arrange...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Kriegslok rated it 5 of 5 stars

The post-war years in both east and west were a time of great hope for the future. Rebuilding a better world free of fascism and full of good things for everyone caught the imagination of scientists, writers, pokiticians and people hungry for a better future. Even my own childhood of the late 60's/70's was still full of images of an exciting future in which work would be done by machines and we would have so much leisure time we'd be at a loss as to what to do.

So it didn't quite happen as planne...more The post-war years in both east and west were a time of great hope for the future. Rebuilding a better world free of fascism and full of good things for everyone caught the imagination of scientists, writers, pokiticians and people hungry for a better future. Even my own childhood of the late 60's/70's was still full of images of an exciting future in which work would be done by machines and we would have so much leisure time we'd be at a loss as to what to do.

So it didn't quite happen as planned, here or there. Francis Spufford in his masterly work of faction has drawn on the real hope that began to briefly emerge in the Soviet Union as it tried to throw off the horrors of Stalinist industrialisation and terror. Using many real people as characters for his work Spufford traces the hopes championed by an enthusiastic Khrushchev for a bright Soviet future in which socialism would bury the west by means of state planned runaway growth. We are introduced to enthusiastic economists, biologists and computer nerds many convinced and carried away by the bright prospects for their fields and their potential to make a difference. At the same time we see the rot that has inevitably carried across from the Stalin era and is present at every level of Soviet society from petty corruption to outright criminality that bares very little resemblance to the official propaganda exhorting class unity and solidarity. Says Spufford the “moment was drawing irresistibly closer when the idealism would rot away by one more degree, and the Soviet Union would be governed by gangsters who were only pretending to be social scientists”. He quotes Khruschev's complaint to Castro “You'd think as first party secretary I could change anything in this country. The hell I can! No matter what changes I propose and carry out , everything stays the same.” Brezhnev, a “man who can get out of his depth in a puddle” was perhaps the empitomy of the pretend social scientists and his rise to power marked the official end of Khrushchev flights of fantasy and any hope of a brighter future for the Soviet Union which would go on to a post Soviet future where the gangsters didn't even pretend to be social scientists any more just mobsters under the patronage of a drunk loved by the west.

Spufford goes into some detail covering the brain bending nightmares created by economists trying to straighten out a planning system that just did not work and the attempts by theorists to make an imperfect world fit their perfect mathematical theories and thus deliver paradise, or something close to. He notes that it got to the point where the economy rather than creating value was actually destroying it. The book draws to a close as the Brezhnev security state suffocates what remaining hope exists and snuffs out the few vents for frustration left while the grey suits go about their apparatchik fraternal duties. We pretty much know the story from there.

“Paradise” said Khrushchev “is a place where people want to end up, not a place they run from. What kind of socialism is that? What kind of shit is that, when you have to keep people in chains? What kind of social order? What kind of paradise?”

Red Plenty is a novel and scholarly approach to a period of Soviet history that demands to be better understood.(less)

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Oct 14, 2012 Babak Fakhamzadeh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, eastern-europe

A superb collection of short stories set in the soviet union between the mid fifties and the early 1970s. This is the time when the soviet ruling class, and through them Soviet society, still truly believed in the coming of Utopia within their lifetime, simply by applying the state decreed socialist principles.

The author took a number of real historical characters and wove stories around them describing how life could have been, often featuring other historical characters as well as true histori...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Fitchburg Public Library rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating, humanizing, lyrical, and haunting. This creative volume recounts the history of the Soviet planned economy in the style of an epic novel. It reads almost like speculative fiction, evoking a Soviet Union wracked with growing pains: torn between a history of poverty and serfdom and an enlightened future of scientific plenty that proves maddeningly elusive. Spufford balances a large cast of characters beautifully, with each new perspective illuminating a different angle of a very big s...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Margaret Sankey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bizarre, brilliant and fascinating novel about the economics (and economists) of the Soviet 50s-60s--fictionalized real people and an ensemble group of characters personalize the policies and ideas of the would-be west-burying Soviet boom economy, as seen in their Science Cities, maternity wards (I had no idea Lamaze was imported to France from Soviet hospital practice), small town peasant bootlegging, the viscose plant, the sideways protests of a disillusioned "safe" celebrity singer, on trams,...more

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Jan 11, 2011 Gareth Evans rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you had to write a book on Soviet Ecconomics in the 1950s and 1960s would you choose to write work of non-fiction? And attract a very small audience to a yawn-festival. Would you write a novel? And, if so, how would you comment on the theory and provide the reader with sufficient background? Fancis Spruford's solution is to do both. Short explanatory introductions to sections provide the theory and a series of very loosely linked dramatic chapters illustrate the effect of the theory. He overc...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Tom Stoddart rated it 5 of 5 stars

A history of the Soviet Union from the revolution to perestroika told as a collection of short stories. These are mostly based on historical characters and events with some artistic licence for the sake of storytelling. The fiction Spufford introduces is careful and well-researched, however, and at the end of each chapter, Spufford gives thorough notes and references for what goes before, where necessary justifying the additions he made to historical events.

I found it fantastically enjoyable. Th...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Tom rated it 3 of 5 stars

Think Ayn Rand.

That sounds worse than it is. Like Rand, Spufford has written a novel that is really a parable about the problems of socialism. Take away the silly "Objectivist" philosophy, the shallow understanding of human nature, the lack of imaginative empathy, the poor grasp of economics, the painfully bad writing ... in short, take away everything crappy about Ayn Rand, and you might have something similar to Red Plenty.

The heroes of the book, to the extent it has them, are the people stru...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed, fiction, russian-history, this-year-s-best

Francis Spufford's Red Plenty may be the most fascinating book I've read in a long, long time. It's the rare book where you think about the subject and have a hard time believing you are so involved with it.

On the surface, Red Plenty is, for lack of a better term, a literary history of the central planning of the Soviet Union's economy in the 1960s. The U.S.S.R.'s goal was to "overtake and surpass" capitalist economies and produce a horn of plenty. While economic planning seems a dry and boring...more Francis Spufford's Red Plenty may be the most fascinating book I've read in a long, long time. It's the rare book where you think about the subject and have a hard time believing you are so involved with it.

On the surface, Red Plenty is, for lack of a better term, a literary history of the central planning of the Soviet Union's economy in the 1960s. The U.S.S.R.'s goal was to "overtake and surpass" capitalist economies and produce a horn of plenty. While economic planning seems a dry and boring topic, Spufford totally blurs the line between fiction and history. The book relates the history of this period through the eyes of more than a dozen real and fictional politicians, economists, technocrats and even a "fixer" with fact-based fiction. How often do you read a novel with some 50 pages of endnotes and a 13-page bibliography?

Red Plenty goes beyond typical historical fiction or creative nonfiction. Spufford, in fact, calls it a Russian fairytale. With what he terms "inter-chapters" printed in italics that break up the book, we get essays that summarize the actual history and interplay of theory, politics and economics. Each chapter is told by a different character and shows us the local and personal reality of the politics and the process. This approach makes entirely readable a topic that might otherwise glaze the eyes of all but Sovietoligists and economists.

Red Plenty isn't for everybody. It helps if you have at least some interest in the Soviet Union or the Cold War. The book also can occasionally get too theoretical or sometimes forces the reader to refer back to the cast of characters to see if we've met a particular narrator or character earlier in the book. But that does not keep it from being a success.

As a side note, a huge tip of the hat should go to Graywolf Press for bringing the book, first published in the U.K. in 2010, to the U.S. Over the last few years the St. Paul-based publisher has excelled at publishing exceptional American and foreign fiction.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)(less)

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May 29, 2013 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a pretty amazing work of history/fiction. I can't quite bring myself to classify it as historical fiction because it really is in a league of its own. The author provides a full bibliography, and each chapter has endnotes to clarify what is fact, what is fiction, and why he has chosen to fictionalize things in a certain way. As for the topic: it explores the efforts under Khrushchev to reform the Soviet economy so that it would produce goods that would make a better, more comfortable lif...more

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About Francis Spufford

Spufford specializes in works of non-fiction. Among his books are I May Be Some Time, The Child That Books Built, and Backroom Boys. He has also edited two volumes of polar literature. His first book I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination won literary prizes including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Writers Guild Award for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and the So...more

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Quotes from Red Plenty

“Seen from that future time, when every commodity the human mind could imagine would flow from the industrial horn of plenty in dizzy abundance, this would seem a scanty, shoddy, cramped moment indeed, choked with shadows, redeemed only by what it caused to be created.

Seen from plenty, now would be hard to imagine. It would seem not quite real, an absurd time when, for no apparent reason, human beings went without things easily within the power of humanity to supply and lives did not flower as it was obvious they could.” — 1 person liked it

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