Looking East Leftwards: Former "State Socialist" World

by David Mandel

A critical perspective on the changes occurring in the "post-Communist" world today.

250 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[1.1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeing as I have never read about post-USSR, reconstruction-era Russian history, especially of the nineties, this book held my interest. It didn't read very smoothly, and Mandel's piece is sort of confusing because he is constantly referring to "Mitya" or "Volkhastov" or someone without any introduction for the reader. After a while you note them down as minor union functionaries or he describes what they do, but it was disconcerting at first. Otherwise it was an interesting look into a crazy time, with a strong emphasis on unionization matters, the disintegration of society and industry, and general rampant insanity in a post-collapse (read: collapsing) superpower.

The rest of the pieces are good, especially if you, like me, have been slacking on your recent-history/sociology/policy reading.