While this is a relatively short book, it did take me awhile to read because there is so much backstory to historical events of which I am well aware yet didn't know this full depth of detail. I had to look items up to see the faces of the people referred to by the author and learn even more details.
This is a fantastic book for anyone. I would especially buy it for teens as it gives a background to events from the Russian Revolution all to the end of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
This made me see that both our government and the Russian government are using cold war tactics to justify their current wars. Our government is using baby boomer era propaganda and the old fear of the spread of communism to justify sending money and weapons to Ukraine, the Russian gov't is using the old Ukrainian propaganda (as in they are withholding this and that, they never fit in, and they are to be "othered") from the Stalin era to justify their current actions. And in this day and age I am of many thoughts about all this 1. Feeling the US should not to be involved in the way they are doing 2. Feeling the Russians shouldn't be doing what they are doing 3. Knowing our government would be doing exactly as the Russians are if China took up military space in Mexico
This book will make you think in depth and ask a million questions. It would be a great book club book with others to discuss the whole premise.
The rest of this may contain spoilers and it contains many observances and some questions I have about the subject matter. And I am sure what I will say will be seen as ridiculous and silly by some who read it and I really don't care.
My son has been my history professor since he was a small child. Really. I like make-up and fashion and knew nothing about history except the very basics which we are taught in school- and even that was mostly all wrong. So, in the last 15 years or so, I have been shocked to find out various untruths we were taught and it all has changed my perspective on everything.
I have only a million questions and I probably need a whole book discussion relating to this. I can't just say, for example, that all the info contained within is the white pill- or because the regimes will eventually fall- which is what I feel was the implication (and I could be wrong on the overall message). Because for years and the whole entirety of some people's lives, they lived under regimes so oppressive and they never got out. Being on the other side of the fall of the USSR and the wall in Germany, I can say there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But for those people that were, say, 40 in 1962 or 40 when Stalin came to power**- they never saw the light or other side. And I can't even think of that because it's so bloody sad. At the time it was going on, I stressed over it and had to stop thinking about it because I could not bear to to think of it- I could only imagine what those living under these regimes must have felt. It's the same for me with NKorea today.
And this is why I feel governments must be stopped. And why I feel I should absolutely defy their orders/mandates whenever I can and deem necessary. I think the white pill is the individual in the midst of these oppressions defying their orders. The white pill is the Tiananmen Square tank man no matter what happened to him. He stood his ground. Would I be so brave? Probably not. And we don't know all of the individual stories of those who stood their ground within the regimes that never made it over the wall- but with this book I can imagine there are countless stories of little white pill defiances of orders and laws to retain some semblance of humanity in the midst of these little nasty kings and queens inflicting their terror on the masses.
I also wonder about the after effects of the people who lived through the West German (edit: East German) regime since this is so recent. These kinds of horrors make their way genetically and psychologically down through the descendants.
And I think of the people my own age- how did they deal with the current BS the governments inflicted under the guise of safety since 2020? Were there people like me who flipped the 1976 double birds at the government and did my own thing and went out every single day despite what we were told to do? I bet there were. Then I am sure there were those who went along to get along reserving the big fight for if things got really out of hand. But that's the crap part- they start small with their edicts and their orders and then the growth of oppression is exponential.
And we know in a very miniscule way- I cannot stress miniscule enough- from the last 3 years how easy it is to get people to become part of the Stasi. People want head patting, people need attention, people want to feel like they are included. So when the masked fat lady followed me around in Kroger pointing at me trying desperately to get the manager's attention so she could watch with satisfaction me getting a stern talking to, or worse, over not wearing their mask (never happened, poor thing)- I could see how a person could easily and willfully turn in their spouse or neighbor to the government for adulation and a feeling of self satisfaction.
So question- how did those involved with the Ministerium für Staatsicherheit go back to a regular way of life knowing they had reported upon their neighbors and family? When I think about that- it's not a white pill. And I see human nature as a whole as being weak and feebleminded. Maybe I am wrong and that's why I need discussion. I always imagine they all wanted to go over the wall. But that isn't so. Perhaps a vast amount of people were fine to go along and get what was handed to them.*** And this is where I want nothing to do with people and their need for governance - but maybe the rule followers actually need/want governments in whatever form it takes. And who am I to care about them? And this is where my thinking about it becomes paradoxical and I do need a whole discussion about the book with others with far more intelligence than I.
**my son told me these people would have seen the light at the end because they did indeed see the softening, reforms, and de-Stalinization, so maybe I just need my son to read the book and help me answer all the questions I have. He has certainly happily discussed whatever I have asked. But many died and didn't see the light and many had family taken away and nothing makes up for that.
***my son says I really need to consider what they were dealing with every single day and truthfully as a suburban dwelling American I have no clue how I would have behaved under such a regime.
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2023
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2023
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2023
The human lives lost through Stalin's purges, the Holodomor, the Soviet Death Camps in Siberia, the torture and murder by secret police across eastern Europe are all exposed for what they were; some of the most vile anti-human acts that have ever been perpetrated on people by their governments, their friends, and even their families. It shows how these totalitarian systems not only reduce people to a state of slavery it tears the very essence of what it means to be a human being from their bodies and often leaves entire societies as shriveled husks in a state of constant fear, paranoia, and violence.
Yet as dour as that sounds all is not lost. This work also shows how inherently unstable these systems are. How the constant fear and paranoia is not just a state of nature for the people living in these systems but for the rulers as well. It shows how small acts of kindness, of defiance, of humanity chip away at these vile systems and then when enough people find courage in themselves these systems collapse.
Sometimes with a bullet, sometimes with a vote, sometimes with one man simply refusing an order at the greatest risk to himself and his family. And that is why this book is a must read for all those who desire a world without tyrants. It shows you the darkest depths of the human condition but gives you proof that with enough brave souls willing to fight their way out of those depths there is always a path to liberty. There is always hope.
A gripping journey through the rise of communism through its ignominious fall.
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2023
Michael Malice uses his characteristically sharp wit to shine a light on the dark history of communism and totalitarianism from its revolutionary beginnings to its gradual, then sudden, collapse. Told through extremely well sourced primary sources Malice puts a human face on horrors that all too often are reduced to statistics.Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2023
The human lives lost through Stalin's purges, the Holodomor, the Soviet Death Camps in Siberia, the torture and murder by secret police across eastern Europe are all exposed for what they were; some of the most vile anti-human acts that have ever been perpetrated on people by their governments, their friends, and even their families. It shows how these totalitarian systems not only reduce people to a state of slavery it tears the very essence of what it means to be a human being from their bodies and often leaves entire societies as shriveled husks in a state of constant fear, paranoia, and violence.
Yet as dour as that sounds all is not lost. This work also shows how inherently unstable these systems are. How the constant fear and paranoia is not just a state of nature for the people living in these systems but for the rulers as well. It shows how small acts of kindness, of defiance, of humanity chip away at these vile systems and then when enough people find courage in themselves these systems collapse.
Sometimes with a bullet, sometimes with a vote, sometimes with one man simply refusing an order at the greatest risk to himself and his family. And that is why this book is a must read for all those who desire a world without tyrants. It shows you the darkest depths of the human condition but gives you proof that with enough brave souls willing to fight their way out of those depths there is always a path to liberty. There is always hope.
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Top reviews from other countries
Paul
A chilling account of the recent past and underlying hope for the future.
Reviewed in Canada on March 31, 2023
Manas Patil
Seminal work by Malice, a true lesson never taught.
Reviewed in India on April 17, 2024Itse Kukin
Love the book, dislike the sending
Reviewed in Spain on November 5, 2023
