Kremulator

Russia's story of the first half of the 20th century - participation in WWI, the revolution and civil war, followed by Stalin's reign of fear and violence - is told through the protagonist's life story. Of course Filipenko writes about the terrors of the Russian regime, its culture of interrogation and denunciations, leaving it up to the reader to draw direct comparisons to today's Russia. And for that reason I would have liked the book to be a bit more straight-forward, maybe leaning heavier on historical facts. Instead of making me question the narrator's reliability by structuring the story in interweaving segments of interrogation transcripts, diary entries, and official reports.