A review by very_deer_to_me
What's Cooking in the Kremlin: From Rasputin to Putin, How Russia Built an Empire with a Knife and Fork by Witold Szabłowski

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

What’s Cooking in the Kremlin was phenomenal. It’s heartbreakingly sad and devastatingly hopeful. Reading interviews of people who have survived famine, war, and nuclear disaster is intensely sad on one hand. One the other, it’s a privilege to listen to their stories and hear history from the people who have experienced it. I didn’t know a lot about the details of Russian conflicts before this. I didn’t know Russia had manufactured a famine in Ukraine. I didn’t know they sent unsuspecting women to cook for Chernobyl workers after the disaster. 

It’s a fascinating way to tell history through the pense of people who are often forgotten. It’s also a great way to show propaganda is everywhere and can be anything.