The story that has been told in the West of the repressive 'totalitarian' state that was the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, is an oversimplification. The Soviet state was not sustained by policing and force alone.
Repression, control, manipulation and elimination of enemies may have assisted in the establishment of the USSR, and helped maintain its power, but these did not, in the end, prevent its collapse in 1991.
No amount of revisionist history can erase the reality of millions controlled, imprisoned and killed, but there was much more to the USSR's one-party state than this. Whittock provides a more complex and compelling account, from 1917 onwards, of the combination of cruelty, co-operation and compromise required to build and run a one-party state.
Much of this, of course, is the story of the role played by the secret police in creating and sustaining such a form of government, but the Soviet state was also made possible by an appeal to hearts and minds which led millions of people to feel that they really had benefited from the system and had a stake in the new society.
Praise for Martyn Whittock's work:
'A terrific, detailed introduction of these wonderful stories and the pantheon of characters in them . . . their writing is vivid and lively . . . a great addition to any library'
San Francisco Book Review, on Norse Myths & Legends (written with Hannah Whittock)
'Whittock displays a fine eye for detail'
Wall Street Journal, on Mayflower Lives
