Kremlin Wives: The Secret Lives of the Women Behind the Kremlin Walls―From Lenin to Gorbachev by Larissa Vasilieva (PDF)

Description

From behind the fortress walls of the Kremlin, the often shocking truth about the women close to communist power.For over seventy years the Kremlin was the bastion of the all-powerful Soviet rulers. A great deal is known about the men who held millions of fates in their iron grip, yet little is known about the women—the wives and mistresses—who shared their lives. They took part in the Revolution and its aftermath, bore children, and suffered abuse; some were arrested and sent to Siberia, driven to suicide, or even murdered. In 1991 the KGB granted the author access to its secret files, which, together with the author’s own research and interviews, provided the material for this book. Here for the first time the stark and sometimes scandalous truth about these women is revealed.Lenin’s wife worked passionately for the Revolution alongside her husband, from the time of Lenin’s exile until her death. His mistress was also a close friend of his wife. Stalin married Nadezhda Alliluyeva when she was only sixteen. Earlier, he had had a relationship with Nadezhda’s mother, and there is strong evidence that his wife may also have been his daughter. When she was found dead in a pool of blood, the official verdict was suicide, but many believe she was murdered. Secret Police Chief Lavrenti Beria, known as “The Butcher,” roamed the streets in Moscow in a curtain-drawn limousine, stalking young girls who would later be abducted by his agents. One was forced to marry Beria—his wife Nina Teimurazovna.Among the many other Kremlin “wives” portrayed here are: Alexandra Kollontai, feminist and supporter of “free love”; Larissa Reisner, Boris Pasternak’s muse; Olga Kameneva, Trotsky’s sister; Nina Khrushchev; Victoria Brezhnev; Galina Brezhneva; Tatyana Fillipovna Andropov, and Raisa Gorbachev—supposedly the only Soviet ruler’s wife to have married for love.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “A steamy, Kitty Kelley-ish look at the women behind the men who created and maintained communism.”—The New York Times About the Author Larissa Vasilieva, the daughter of the T-34 tank designer, is a well-known Russian journalist, writer, and poet and is a prominent feminist.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This collection of brief biographies of the wives of Kremlin leaders and associates from Lenin to Gorbachev (Malenkov’s wife is mysteriously missing, except for a short anecdote in the biography of another wife), was absolutely fascinating to me. I remember a number of them but I knew very little about their backgrounds; others I knew nothing about at all. The book is extremely readable and includes excerpts from the women’s own writings as well as the recollections of others and bits of interviews with the few still living at the time the book was written, and with their children. Definitely recommended reading for anyone with an interest in that period of history.

⭐I knew nothing about these women and found it a fascinating read. The was a feeling of being written from a male perspective. Strange?

⭐I chose this rating because the book was informative about the lives of the wives of Kremlin leaders. This information is not readily available.

⭐An inside view of the marriages of Kremlin leaders. Fascinating in detail. These women came from spare backgrounds, little education, and a culture of submissiveness. Startlingly different from the role of the Founding Women and Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts, these women were not encouraged to use the brains, their beauty, or their influence. It calls into question the kind of leadership in Russia over the past centure, full of martial and idealistic authority with little regard for those without power.

⭐I only knew about Raisa Gorbachev. Although many of their stories are similar and some are tragic they are compelling. The book gave me something to think about.

⭐I would have liked more photos of these women and their families, but perhaps they weren’t available. Dry reading at times, but overall you get a sense of who these women were.

⭐The book illuminates the domestic lives of Soviet leaders from Lenin through Gorbachev. The leaders’ wives were never secure, and several were sent to gulags. No Russian escaped the terrorism of Stalin.

⭐I was curious to read about the women of the Kremlin as so little of their stories are told. Although I enjoyed learning about them, I found the style of writing bumpy and disjointed.

⭐Gives a thorough glimpse into the lives of the Russian First Wives. I learned a lot about the inner-workings of the Russian government during the Communist era too.

⭐Kind of boring. Hard to keep all the names straight.

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