The Unquiet Ghost

Stude

Prof

History

14 December 2006

The Unquiet Ghost

The Western world is also known as the Free world . There is a reason for that . Looking at the last two hundred years , there is hardly any evidence of a tyrannical rule by a despot . The freedom of humanity was respected in the major part of the last two centuries . The same could not be attributed to many countries in the East who had had traumatic experiences with madmen , dictators , and whatever you call that person who thirst for absolute [banner_entry_middle]

control over a major population

An example of such nation is the former Union Soviet Socialist Republic . An example of such terrible tyrant is Josef Stalin . The book written by Adam Hochschild , The Unquiet Ghost , attempts to explain the reason behind the perpetuation of such regime . It also tackles the after effects when a strong man steps down or forces out of office . This work by Hochschild also endeavors to understand how people dealt with the harrowing experience , which is Stalin ‘s version of a Gestapo and his version of a concentration camp

The following is a basic review of Hochschild book . A review of related literature was also done to seek clarity to some of the issues raised in this book as well as finding a proper context to understand what the author meant when he wrote about Russia in the time of Stalin

The Soviets

It seemed like yesterday when the United States was still deep in the psychological and political battle of wills known also as the Cold War It was a time when the world was yet again brought to the brink of another World War

Now that the Cold War was over , the once proud Union Soviet Socialist Republic began to unravel . It was very quiet and subtle at first and then it came down with a mighty crash that was felt all over the world When the wall of secrecy was torn down together with the communist machinery that once built it , the former U .S .S .R . was stripped naked and what was left was the beaten form of Mother Russia

When Hochschild came to this land in the early 90s , gone were all the pretensions and what he saw was the bare truth . Communism did not work and at the same time a more shocking realization that the Communist regime who fought for the common man was in fact the commoner ‘s murderer

Haunted House

The opening chapters of the book tell it all . What makes it a more chilling account is the fact that Adam Hochschild was not merely an analyst viewing Moscow from a comfortable situation room thousands of miles away . He even brought his family with him and they shared in the discomfort of a Russia in the dead of winter and a Russia so poor that most facilities suffer subzero-freezing temperatures without heating systems

The following are a few of what the author saw

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