Books: December 2024
Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union — Vladislav M. Zubok
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Collapse is a history of the final days of the Soviet Union, from Gorbachev’s ascent to the hammer and sickle over the Kremlin being replaced by the Russian flag.
The central argument is that the conventional wisdom in the West about why the Soviet Union collapsed is wrong. That conventional wisdom says collapse was inevitable: the command economy, political authoritarianism, etc., had to break eventually and Gorbachev’s reforms cracked the fissures.
Zubok is emphatic: things didn’t have to turn out this way. Reform was needed, but slower. Gorbachev’s reforms were too fast and incoherent. The political reforms that devolved economic power to cooperatives and political power to the republics set the ground for economic collapse and for the constituent republics to want to go their separate ways.
Zubok hates Gorbachev. A great passage from the book:
It is hard to find a case or a metaphor that captures what the Gorbachev leadership did during 1989. One thinks of the captain of a huge ship who suddenly decides to sail towards a distant Promised Land. He does so against the mood and instincts of his crew… As the voyage becomes more and more difficult, the captain decides that his crew are unreliable saboteurs. So he turns to inexperienced passengers keen to take part in the voyage and lets them deliberate among themselves on the best ways to reach the Promised Land.
I learned a lot. I had never really thought about the fact that the Soviet Union was a union of republics (literally in the name) and that the collapse was in many ways a function of the republics wanting to go their own way. That it is ultimately Russia under Yeltsin’s leadership that wants to “break off” was mind-blowing. The Bush administration’s position is fascinating: half wanting to encourage breakup, the other half fearing a Yugoslavia with nuclear weapons.
I’m not fully convinced by Zubok’s main thesis: at the point Gorbachev takes over, things seem really bad, in ways that seem a direct consequence of the command economy and over-reliance on oil exports. The counterfactual Zubok has in mind is maybe China: liberalize the economy a lot, liberalize politics only a smidge, and keep going. Maybe the Soviet Union would still be around then. It’s possible.
Nights at the Circus — Angela Carter
⭐⭐⭐ Nights at the Circus follows a reporter, Jack Walser, as he covers an acrobat named “Fevvers” who is famous for being part woman, part bird. The book is structured in three parts: London where they first meet; St. Petersburg where they join a circus; and Siberia where they are stranded after their circus train derails.
On paper, this book is not “my thing.” It has elements of magical realism that feel fanciful in ways I mostly find annoying. But I was really impressed by parts 2 and especially 3. Carter spins out an impressive array of characters, great scenes (loved the Buffo the clown content), and she’s playing with the genre in ways that feel fresh. Fevvers gets a lot of screen time but doesn’t get stale; Carter wrings out depth as the book advances.
I can’t say I know what this book is trying to “say.” Carter is clearly preoccupied with gender, women’s roles in society, the kind of power and curse allotted to women as a function of being seen and desired. Fevvers has power, can maneuver and manipulate men effectively. But she is also dependent on Walser, being seen by him:
And surely he was here; one of the wooden houses must shelter the young American. And she would see, once again, the wonder in the eyes of the beloved and become whole. Already she felt more blonde.
There’s also something about the turn of the 20th century and an unfulfilled expectation that it will bring about liberation.