Overview

In 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries came to power in the war-torn Russian Empire in a way that defied all predictions. Scarcely a lifespan later, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed as accidentally as it arose. The decades between witnessed drama on an epic scale--the chaos and hope of revolution, famines and purges, hard-won victory in history's most destructive war, and worldwide geopolitical conflict, all entwined around the dream of building a better society. This book is a lively and authoritative distillation of this complex history, told with vivid details, a grand sweep, and wry wit. Acclaimed historian Sheila Fitzpatrick chronicles the Soviet Age--its rise, reign, and unexpected fall, as well as its afterlife in today's Russia. She underscores the many ironies of the Soviet experience: An ideology that claimed to offer humanity the reins of history wrangled with contingency. An avowedly internationalist and anti-imperialist state birthed an array of nationalisms. And a vision of transcending economic and social inequality and injustice gave rise to a country that was, in its way, surprisingly normal. Moving seamlessly from Lenin to Stalin to Gorbachev to Putin, The Shortest History of the Soviet Union provides an indispensable guide to one of the twentieth century's great powers and the enduring fascination it still exerts.

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"Sheila Fitzpatrick is Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of Russian History at the University of Chicago, honorary professor at the University of Sydney, and a professor in the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Catholic University. Her many books include Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s (1999), The Russian Revolution (third edition, 2007), and On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics (2015), and she is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books. Robin Siegerman trained as an actor in NYC and Toronto, Canada. She trained as an audiobook narrator with coaches Sean Pratt, Joel Froomkin, and Dawn Harvey. In 2018 she was nominated for Best International Voiceover at the One Voice Awards in London, England, for the documentary voice-over in HarrysStory.ca. In 2019 she won Best Corporate Training Voice Over Artist by CV Magazine. In 2021 she won an Earphones Award from AudioFile magazine for A Son at the Front, by Edith Wharton, and was again nominated for a One Voice Award for the audiobook Rosedale in Love, by Lev Raphael, a retelling of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. Robin grew up in Montreal speaking English and French, so she developed an ear for language and accents at an early age. She enjoys bringing this to her audiobook narration and enhancing the stories. With an additional background as an internationally award-winning interior designer, author of Renovation Bootcamp: Kitchen, and conference speaker, she loves to ""make movies for the ears."" In her spare time, you can find her surrounded by a bevvy of senior rescue dogs, singing with her a capella ensemble in Toronto, or playing board games with friends and family."

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