Soviet Histories. Part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture

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Nobel prize winner Svetlana Alexeivich has collected oral histories of Russian people. Stephen Kotkin is publishing a three-volume history of Stalin. Rana Mitter talks to them about top down/bottom up histories and also hears from Juliane Fürst about Soviet hipsters and hippies who challenged the system in ways that required no words. Svetlana Alexeivich's books include The Unwomanly Face of War, Boys in Zinc and Chernobyl Prayer. Stalin, Vol 2: Waiting for Hitler, 1928-1941 by Steven Kotkin has just been published. Stalin Paradoxes of Power 1878-1928 is now in paperback. Steven Kotkin is Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University. Juliane Fürst, Reader in Modern History at Bristol, is the co-producer of the documentary Soviet hippies (dir. Terje Toomistu) and the author of Stalin's Last Generation: Soviet Post-War Youth and the Emergence of Mature Socialism. Part of Radio 3's Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture Producer: Jacqueline Smith.