Some Soviet Book Direction

[historyguy]

I'd appreciate some guidance on books about the Soviet Union. Feel free to comment on whichever point(s) you prefer. Or, if you know of other important/useful books on the Soviet Union, please let us know.

1) Has anybody read Lenin's Legacy: A Concise History and Guide to Soviet Collectibles by Martin J. Goodman? Is it worth the price/worth having?

2) What's available for Soviet badges besides Avers 8? Anything useful that's a little easier to find?

3) Anyone here familiar with Soviet Life (c. 1956 - 1991) magazine? I know it was published by the Soviet government, so I was wondering how accuarate/useful it is.

4) Anyone know of books (in English) describing daily life in the Soviet Union c. 1950s - 1970s? memoirs, monographs, etc. Not specifically about prisoners like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (an excellent book, BTW), but something that illustrates the daily life of an average citizen.

[Mathomhaus]

Unless you can find it at a very substantial discount, Lenin's Legacy is pretty useless from a collecting standpoint. As basic history, however, the text is quite informative and well worth a read, but the prices in the captions bore no relationship to reality (at least in the NE US) when the book was first released and are completely useless today. I think its prime virtue now would be in making you aware of the Soviet collectables that once were quite frequently available at gun shows and flea markets "back in the day."

In my opinion, the only point in tracking down copies of Soviet Life right now is to locate photos that show interesting uniforms, badges or medals being worn. The best book on life in the Soviet Union is probably an obscure 1950 book entitled If You Were Born In Russia by Arthur Goodfriend. Everything is broken down into over a hundred different categories and, besides some interesting text, the book is filled with inormative B/W photos. (Farrar, Straus, a respectable American publishing house, printed it, so even if "Goodfriend" sounds like an alias, it is worth locating.)

People may quibble about the prices in Avers 8, but - again in my opinion - it is the most complete book on Soviet badges to have ever been printed. If you collect Soviet material and own a copy of it, you will probably find yourself referring to it on a weekly basis. I don't mean to sound harsh, but collecting Soviet badges w/o owning a copy of Avers 8 is like collecting IIIR but refusing to buy any book printed after 1945...
Regards

[chen]

I assume you have got this book if you are interested in Orders/ Medals too .

[Ralph P]

Mathomhaus - I found what you wrote in your post very informative, thanks.

Unless you can find it at a very substantial discount, Lenin's Legacy is pretty useless from a collecting standpoint. As basic history, however, the text is quite informative and well worth a read, but the prices in the captions bore no relationship to reality (at least in the NE US) when the book was first released and are completely useless today. I think its prime virtue now would be in making you aware of the Soviet collectables that once were quite frequently available at gun shows and flea markets "back in the day."

In my opinion, the only point in tracking down copies of Soviet Life right now is to locate photos that show interesting uniforms, badges or medals being worn. The best book on life in the Soviet Union is probably an obscure 1950 book entitled If You Were Born In Russia by Arthur Goodfriend. Everything is broken down into over a hundred different categories and, besides some interesting text, the book is filled with inormative B/W photos. (Farrar, Straus, a respectable American publishing house, printed it, so even if "Goodfriend" sounds like an alias, it is worth locating.)

People may quibble about the prices in Avers 8, but - again in my opinion - it is the most complete book on Soviet badges to have ever been printed. If you collect Soviet material and own a copy of it, you will probably find yourself referring to it on a weekly basis. I don't mean to sound harsh, but collecting Soviet badges w/o owning a copy of Avers 8 is like collecting IIIR but refusing to buy any book printed after 1945...
Regards

[Eric Gaumann]

People may quibble about the prices in Avers 8, but - again in my opinion - it is the most complete book on Soviet badges to have ever been printed. If you collect Soviet material and own a copy of it, you will probably find yourself referring to it on a weekly basis.

Agreed. I use my digital copy all the time. Those should still be easy to find.

[Mathomhaus]

Thank for your comments.

The Goodfriend book about life in the USSR is interesting because, while people reading it in the US in 1950 would have assumed that the photos were current, the fact is that in order to be able to illustrate all the chapters, the author used wartime & 1930s pictures as well as ones from the postwar era. The book has to have been produced with help from the Soviet authorities- I cannot imagine that an American could have meandered around post-war Russia gathering information and pictures without becoming a person of interest to the NKVD. I've often wondered what happened to Goodfriend once McCarthy got rolling a few years later.

Regards

[historyguy]

Thanks for the comments. If You Were Born In Russia sounds like a useful book and is an inexpensive; it has been added to my want list...

I've often wondered what happened to Goodfriend once McCarthy got rolling a few years later.

He did fine in America. He was arrested in Russia, though, for taking unauthorized photos at a May Day celebration. They thought he was a spy. Thankfully for his sake he forgot to take the lense cap off his camera, so they could not prove he actually took any pictures and they released him.