U S S R--From an Original Idea by Karl Marx

by Marc Polonsky and Russell Taylor

Marx and Engels invented it; Lenin volunteered Russia for the honour of trying it; the Soviet people had to live with it.. This tongue-in-cheek travel guide is a cherishably witty insight into the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 057113842X
• ISBN13: 9780571138425
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

USSR: From an Original Idea by Karl Marx

This is a story of the USSR which is no longer there (except for its people who remain unchanged since 10 or 20 years ago). Today, you don't have to pay a doorman to get into a restaurant, and floors at Moscow metro are no longer "fit to eat off". However, old ladies in the street will still reproach you for wearing no hat in winter, and your new Russian friends will still make detailed inquiries about your salary and incomes of other "typical" people in the West.This informal guide to the USSR is very accurate and well-researched and the authors have remarkable attention to every breathtakingly ridiculous detail of life in the State of Workers and Peasants.If you have never been to the Soviet Union, you will think that some of the things described there are too grotesque to be true.If you know the Soviet Union well, you will be astonished by the depth of the authors' knowledge; then you will be laughing out loud as, page after page, you recognize one Soviet idiocy after another. In addition, the authors offer structured explanation of the things you knew only empirically: i.e., brotherly nations are those which embraced socialism; progressive nations are those which have not embraced socialism but are not capitalist either because they are still working their way through feudalism; hard currency is a currency of any nation which is neither brotherly or progressive.You will read this book in one evening, even if this means reading until 3 a.m. You will then regret that you got through it so quickly. This book is a rare combination of first-class writing talent, honesty, humour and a subject matter which ought to be handled only by a writer who is capable of not taking even the grimmest issues seriously.

If You Have Been To The Old or New USSR, You Must Read This!

This book is absolutely hilarious. If you have ever been to pre- or post-perestroika Russia, you simply must read it. Essentially, the book is a tour guide, but one designed to be read (at least to get the full impact of the humor) after you have been to Russia. I could not count the number of times I found myself saying, "That's exactly right!" or "It happened to me to!".The humor lies totally in the fact that the authors write in an very subtle, straightforward way that makes the "quirkyness" of many Russian customs and traditions seem side-splittingly funny. For example, you are provided with the step-by-step process for bribing your way past the doorman at a restaurant. Or the description of borshch, the beet soup whose "purple coloring will transfer itself readily to fingers, clothes and subsequent bowel movements." (Probably the only example of bathroom humor in the book). The authors are both British, and this is reflected in the understated style of humor in the book.Once again, do not miss this book!