Russian Voices

by Tony Parker

Presents interviews with Russian citizens, including scientists, academicians, doctors, schoolchildren, and the elderly

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1991

About the author

Tony Parker (25 June 1923 – 3 October 1996) was an oral historian whose work was dedicated to giving a voice to British and American society's most marginalised figures, from single mothers to lighthouse keepers to criminals, including murderers.

Born in Stockport, Cheshire, Parker was a conscientious objector during World War II, and directed to work in a coal mine. He moved to London and worked as a publisher's representative at Odhams Press. He campaigned against capital punishment and became very interested in prisons and their occupants, eventually focussing on the experiences of prisoners after release.

Tony Parker died in Westleton, Suffolk, having just completed his study of his American counterpart Studs Terkel.

Reviews

[Simon Hollway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, authentic, (possibly coerced) voices. Twice as long as it needed to be.

[Sarah England · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Real eye-opener. Beautifully compiled and sympathetically presented. Chernobyl section is particularly gruelling.

[Varvara Alderman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight of the life of ordinary (and not so much) people in the late USSR.

[Llinos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is terrific if you like to read first-person accounts of interesting times - it's a collection of interviews done in Moscow in 1990, a time of new openness for Russia. The interviews are with people from all walks of life, from the nurse who matter-of-factly recalls the time she threw herself into the middle of a firefight to save a wounded soldier, to the children who giggle because they thought the English interviewer would look like Mr Pickwick. It deals very much with everyday lives and opinions, so it's short on facts and information, but a fascinating read.