One Who Survived: The Life Story of a Russian Under the Soviets

by Alexander Barmine

This is a new release of the original 1945 edition.

Genres: Soviet Union

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

Reviews

[Jamie Smith]

This book deserves to be much better known. It is an excellent account of life in the first decades of the Soviet Union. Having been just barely too young for the First World War, Barmine joined the nascent Red Army at the age of eighteen and fought throughout the Civil War. Afterwards he was selected for the Army staff college, and then rose through the ranks of state commercial activities and the diplomatic service. He saw first hand the efforts to transform society and create a socialist state, and while he was a true believer in Marxism-Leninism, he was not blind to how badly most people’s lives had become. Even in his privileged position there were shortages of food, fuel, and clothing, and he recognized that most people’s lives were much, much worse than his.

For a time after Lenin’s death there was a possibility that reformers would be able to soften some of the tenets of Marxist ideology and introduce a form of socialism that might have evolved into something similar to has emerged in some Western democracies. Alas, it was not to be. The rise of Stalin and his rigid interpretations of Communist doctrine ended all hope of finding a workable socialist solution.

The most memorable part of the book describes the purges in the mid 30s. Barmine watched in horror as comrades he had known for years, dedicated men and women who had given their lives to building Communism, were denounced, arrested, tortured, and executed. Dozens of times he mentions friends and colleagues, people who through intelligence and hard work had risen to senior positions in the military, diplomatic, and commercial spheres, and who were absolutely loyal to the state, who suddenly vanished, some to be put on display at the show trials, and others simply arrested and murdered. Stalin, having been responsible for failed industrial policies and facing growing discontent from some parts of the Party, decided to eliminate everyone who might possibly challenge him, and their friends, family members, and co-workers as well, to ensure that no dissent would ever be possible.

Barmine’s survival through all this was equal parts daring and luck. He was serving as deputy consul general in Athens when caught up in Stalin’s purges. Diplomats in foreign countries were being summoned home to Russia, to death, and when he was facing recall he bluffed his way out of the embassy with the old my-hand-in-my-pocket-means-I-might-have-a-gun-so-stay-back, and fled to Paris. The French gave him refuge but the Soviets were not done with him; as with others who had seen the handwriting on the wall and fled rather than return to the Soviet Union, he was targeted for assassination. Fortunately, his pursuers were clumsy and incompetent, and the French government was willing to help him, and he eventually made it to the United States where he was able to start a new life.

The book is well written and holds the reader’s attention throughout. It does a fine job of making sense of what it was like to live in those troubled times, and is highly recommended.

[John Geddes]

"A young and attractive Soviet dignitary, who had made a fast career in the military and diplomatic service of his country, left the Reds in 1937. Though he had a much greater opportunity than most Soviet citizens to learn about the outside world, he knew woefully little about “capitalism.” His autobiography and confessional remains a revealing document, not only because of the intimate inside information it contains, but also because it tells, rather fascinatingly, about the pressures and temptations that cajole and seduce a young Russian to comply obediently with the demands of the regime. Though it appeared many years before the term “brainwashing” was coined, One Who Survived presents in a nutshell the fundamental techniques the Communists have developed in their successful bid for totalitarian control over man’s mind."

American Opinion, Volume 2, No. 1 January 1959, p.5
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