Russia's Sputnik Generation Soviet Baby Boomers Talk about Their Lives [Paperback]

Russias Sputnik Generation presents the life stories of eight 1967 graduates of School No. 42 in the Russian city of Saratov. Born in 1949/50, these four men and four women belong to the first generation conceived during the Soviet Unions return to normality following World War II. Well educated, articulate, and loosely networked even today, they were first-graders the year the USSR launched Sputnik, and grew up in a country that increasingly distanced itself from the excesses of Stalinism. Reaching middle age during the Gorbachev Revolution, they negotiated the transition to a Russian-style market economy and remain active, productive members of society in Russia and the diaspora.

In candid interviews with Donald J. Raleigh, these Soviet baby boomers talk about the historical times in which they grew up, but also about their everyday experiencestheir family backgrounds; childhood pastimes; favorite books, movies, and music; and influential people in their lives. These personal testimonies shed valuable light on Soviet childhood and adolescence, on the reasons and course of perestroika, and on the wrenching transition that has taken place since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

. . . this is an extremely informative book. It is also highly readable,partly because of its novelistic qualities: the characters of both Raleigh and hisinformants shine through the text. The introduction to each interview includesa lively account of the interviewees behaviour during the event as well as anarrative of Raleighs various adventures, such as getting lost on the way, inthe labyrinth of Moscow University, or being jumped on by an unannouncedpet rat. The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs of the informants,for example, at May Day parades, on the beach, or dressed for graduationball. At the very end, hiding beyond the Index, are photographs of Raleighhimself in 1967 and 2005. A valuable feature of the book is its sparing but deftdrawing of lcÀ