Small Fires: Letters from the Soviet People to Ogonyok Magazine, 1987-1990
- ISBN-10
- 0671728768
- ISBN-13
- 9780671728762
- Pages
- 303
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1990
- Publisher
- Summit Books
- Authors
- Christopher Cerf, Marina Albee, L. N. Gushchin
Description
"In Russian, ogonyok means "small fire." It is also the name of a popular magazine which, in 1987, became the first publication in the USSR to introduce regular Letters to the Editor column. Almost immediately, the Letters page became a national forum of opinion as hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens rushed to test the limits of glasnost. The letters create a vivid picture of the people, from politicians to farm workers, from scholars to homeless, from soldiers to pensioners. They wrote on a wide range of subjects--from mundane concerns like the protracted anguish of trying to buy a new car or get a leaky rook fixed, the petty pilfering in factories, the shortages of certain foods, and time wasted standing in endless lines to such politically charged issues as corruption in the government, socialism versus capitalism, the truth about Lenin and Stalin, and the looming challenge of regionalism. Alternately provocative, hilarious and moving, Small Fires reveals, as nothing else could, the day-today experiences, hopes fears, frustrations, pain, anger, ideas and dreams of the Soviet people. Most of the letters included here were published in Ogonyok; some, deemed to controversial or inflammatory, appear now for the first time." -- Publisher's description
