47 books like Stalingrad Trilogy

I took up this gigantic novel on the recommendation of a friend who recommended Grey Bees. I was skeptical that I would read much of it because it is about Russia during the Second World War. However, once I got into the book, I was blown away.

Grossman is a bigger artist with words than any painter. He had a deep insight into humanity, every aspect of it. The chapters are short, but the book is over 800 pages long. I wanted to stop, but each chapter presented such insights that it was impossible not to be in awe at his writing. The story includes descriptions of the battle of Stalingrad from both sides, family life, the plight of Jews, and much, much more. 

After reading this book, I feel that I have lived another lifetime. There is a lot of sadness, some comedy, and lots of horror and… show more.

I love this book because it presents the story of a man in a very complex situation. He lives in the area of the Ukrainian Donbas region that is occupied by Russians who took over the area by force. So, his freedom is limited.

The time period in the book is just before the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is a beekeeper and lives a very simple life. I like that the book takes you into his mind as he makes his way through the period covered by the story. Things that first seem good, after thinking, may be bad, and vice versa.

I felt that his thinking accurately relates to the process of how people think. It is a very gentle story, but so compelling that I wanted to apportion reading the book so that I could digest, understand and most of all enjoy the story. 

I love this book because its author presents the story of the protagonist in such a flip, offhand way that it reminds me a bit of JD Saliger’s Catcher in the Rye. There is dark humor, sarcasm, and total disregard of any possible opposing perspective—yet the main character struggles as a sort of Everyman.

This book also reminds me of Kennedy’s Confederacy of Dunces, parts are laugh aloud funny. I couldn’t help but go along with the joke. Underneath it all, however, is a lot of deep thought (and knowledge) about Ukrainians, Jews, and Russians.

Lots of history, or should I say anti-history. As I plowed through this short novel, I kept wondering how Motyl would top each chapter, only to find that his rampant ingenuity has no bounds. This one stuck with me!

I love this book of poetry because there is no question that once you start reading it in Ukrainian or in English translation, you are aware that it is by a genius.

No person I know would have the knowledge of human relationships, national character, historical insight, and vocabulary to present such a forceful account of the Ukrainian culture, mind, and traditions. I felt that I learned much more about my own background than had I read libraries full of books, volumes of newspapers, or watched thousands of YouTube videos.

I had to stick with it many times, but the journey was well worth it. I felt that I was reading the Bible of Ukraine—but it explains the story of a people, pointing fingers where necessary. 

I enjoyed this book because it presents escapism, pure and simple. The story is much like the James Bond books and movies. Lots of violence and sex. Maybe it will someday be made into a movie.

I liked that the protagonist is a Ukrainian American woman. The author makes her very resourceful but somewhat jaded and sarcastic about everything. I found this to be a short, fun read.

The disasters of the revolution and civil war were experienced differently across the empire and by distinct social groups. For those of material means in European Russia who understood that their lives could never be the same, the priority was escape; most often, this was initially to a safe part of the former empire, and then, as the civil war and the prospect of Soviet rule encroached upon their safe enclave, into a life of exile abroad.

Nadezhda Teffi was an exceptionally popular writer and humorist at the time of the revolution, and her memoir (written a few years after departing Russia) is an account of how her world was turned upside down in 1917, and it documents the ways in which life had been similarly upended in each place she observed during her journey into exile.

The book is unusual in that it retains her light touch and humor,… show more.

While Russia had had a parliament for nearly a decade before the outbreak of World War One, its politics were extremely limited by the Tsarist government, which clung to the ideal of autocracy. The Revolution of 1917 produced an explosion of politics, with the Russian people either saturated in political speech and conflicting claims or otherwise desperate for information about what was going on in the capital and with the direction of the revolution.

Boris Kolonitskii is the foremost contemporary Russian historian of 1917. His book explores the chaotic and contradictory political culture of this moment by focusing on Alexander Kerensky, the central figure of the revolution in 1917. This is not a biography of Kerensky, although it does cover his activities over the course of much of 1917.

Instead, by describing Kerensky as both a central actor in the drama and as a symbolic figure and touchstone for so… show more.

The history of the revolution in Russia has changed both in terms of chronology and geography. Over the past 25 years, historians have documented the multifaceted ways in which the First World War set in motion the collapse of the Russian Empire.

At the same time, much recent research has explored how that collapse was experienced and how the revolution was processed across the expanse of the empire, in effect de-centering the narrative of the revolution in new and insightful ways.

Laura Engelstein’s book is an up-to-date narrative history of the revolution and civil war that manages the challenging trick of knitting all of those disparate threads together.

Serge was a supporter of the Bolshevik revolution, though he never lost sight of its flaws. 

This extraordinary novel centres on Petrograd at the height of the civil war, as economic collapse, hunger, the threat from the Whites, and the depredations of the Red Terror crush the city’s spirit and ultimately destroy the revolution, even if the Bolshevik regime it spawned survives.

This short novel is not set in the Soviet Union but in an unnamed post-Communist country that bears a striking resemblance to Bulgaria. The central character is the deposed Communist dictator, on trial for his crimes. The story is seen through his eyes, and he paints himself not as a villain but a misunderstood hero, a man who devoted his life to building socialism and a better life for his people. I know of no other book that is so good at getting into the head of a former dictator.