How It All Began: The Prison Novel

Description

Written while Bukharin was awaiting not merely execution but execution on false charges as a Nazi spy and terrorist, this semi-autobiographical novel of a Russian childhood and youth, superbly introduced by Stephen E Cohen, is an astonishing contribution to both literature and history." - ROBERT CONQUEST, author of The Great Terror: A Reassessment "As I read How It All Began, 1 could not stop chinking about the nightmarish conditions, oflife in a Stalin prison, under which the novel was written. I could not stop chinking about the enormous emotional courage it took-for a man who knew he was going to die, for a man who every moment feared for the safety of his wife and child, for a man who knew his every word would be read by the executioners of Stalin's terrorist policy- to write a book that pulses with the positive energy of an extraordinarily gifted boy/young man whose life was just beginning to unfold. The reader lives with the intensity of the raw pain of imminent death, and the reader lives with the intensity of the extraordinary thirst for life that propels this novel." - ELLEN CHANCES Contents Introduction: Bukharin's Fate by Stephen F. Cohen v11 Translator's Preface How It All Began Afterword Bukharin's Letter to Anna Larina Glossary