It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway

This book offers a compelling analysis of Russia's failure to come to terms with the trauma of Soviet Communism, resulting in a moral and spiritual crisis. The author, a former Moscow correspondent and expert on the Soviet Union, argues that the root of this crisis lies in the government's devaluation of individual citizens in favor of state objectives. Exploring attitudes toward the living and the dead, the past and the present, and the state and the individual, this book provides a thought-provoking new interpretation of Russian history.