Hello! I’m looking for books that focus on the following topics:
History of the soviet economy and economic policy, and how that shaped daily life (I’m not that interested in the internal dynamics of soviet policymaking - more how that policy shaped people’s lives, for better or worse).
Daily life in the Soviet Union, preferably with personal, firsthand account(s)
In terms of period, I’m mostly interested in post-Stalin, but books that cover Lenin and Stalin’s reigns are also welcome.
I’d also like to find books that cover the same but focussing on the DDR, and Tito’s Yugoslavia.
I’m an academic myself (political science), so I’m not averse to academic books, but for the second ‘genre’ I’d prefer it to be much more generalist and accessible in tone. These books are for personal consumption, so aren’t needed for any academic research or the likes.
I want to avoid the sort of books that are typically popular in western literature on the Cold War: “soviet bad, west good; the eastern bloc was a disaster.” Basically, no propaganda!
Thanks in advance!
Well based on your last paragraph in particular I suppose you don't want Anne Applebaum's The Crushing of Eastern Europe, although it's worth mentioning at least as it's a pretty major work on the DDR, Poland and Hungary in the late 1940s-early 1950s.
If you're looking for daily life in the USSR, especially post Stalin, then you probably want Svetlana Alexievich, whose histories are largely oral histories from interviews she did. A lot of what she writes are direct quotes from interviewees. Secondhand Time is about the late Soviet period in general, but she also published Boys in Zinc about the Afghan War and Voices from Chernobyl about the Chernobyl disaster. Alexei Yurchak's Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More is a deep dive into the daily cultural life of the late Soviet period, but he is an anthropologist so this work can get much more "academic" than Alexeviech.
You might want to check out Sheila Fitzpatrick's Everyday Stalinism or Stephen Kotkin's Magnetic Mountain. These are both specifically analyzing the 1930s, but they are both pretty important milestones in the writing of social and cultural history of the USSR.
I've got perhaps an oddball suggestion that I enjoyed reading a few years ago: Sex In The USSR Stern, Mikhail (with August Stern). Its by a physician who specialized in sex disorders, often treating the Soviet elite, but who defected and has a pretty fascinating perspective. He was naturally unable to keep meaningful notes on such a politically and personally sensitive subject, much less conduct rigorous research, but essentially transcribed the book from the one he had written in his head on arrival. It might not work great as the only book you read if you are only looking for one, but it comes by most of its weaknesses honestly.