A review by jacobinreads
Second-hand time: the last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexiévich

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.75

It is often said that to better understand a people, to read their fiction and their poetry, to read their history and culture through their own eyes and words. Frankly, there could be no better time to read this book than now, to understand the character of the tragedy which has been unfolding for the last three decades in the world's largest country.

This is a multifaceted and deeply empathetic look at the ravages of the brutal transitions and rapacious systems of the 'new' Russia, the nostalgia of generations of people, and the penury the everyday Russian is forced into by a new era of police brutality, robber-baron oligarchs, criminality, and the greedy ambitions of the "democratic" Russian state. However, this book also chronicles amazing and beautiful strength and character in the face of these tragedies, and adds a vivid dimension to the average citizen's thoughts, feelings, and way of life.

Reading this book, I really felt a strange parallel to the great Russian literature of the past, it reflected deeply on the soul, in a sort of ethnographic way. I highly recommend it. 
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