Lenin's Private War

In 1922, Vladimir Lenin personally drew up a list of some 160 undesirable intellectuals--mostly philosophers, academics, scientists, and journalists--to be deported from the new Soviet State. We're going to cleanse Russia once and for all he wrote to Stalin, whose job it was to oversee the deportation. Two ships sailed from Petrograd that autumn, taking Old Russia's eminent men and their families away to what would become permanent exile in Berlin, Prague, and Paris. Through journals, letters, memoirs, and personal accounts, Lesley Chamberlain creates a rich portrait of these banished thinkers and their families. She describes the world they left behind, the émigré communities they were forced to join, and the enduring power of the works they produced in exile.

Author: Lesley Chamberlain
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Published: 06/24/2008
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780312427948

Review Citation(s):
New York Review of Books 06/12/2008 pg. 50
New York Times Book Review 08/17/2008 pg. 24

About the Author

LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN is the author of many books, including Communist Mirror, Nietzsche in Turin, and Motherland: A Philosophical History of Russia. She lives in London.

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