Exit Stalin
The Soviet Union as a Civilization, 1953-1991
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Publishing:28th Jan '27
£16.99
This title is due to be published on 28th January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£40.00(9780241400852)
'Superb... Immensely important... This is a tragic story, and Smith tells it magnificently' The Telegraph
One of the most anticipated books of 2026 according to Financial Times and New Statesman
An extraordinarily atmospheric and powerful history of the world's largest state and its decline and fall
With Stalin's death, the Soviet Union remained a repressive, harsh and belligerent place, but one which became more predictable for its citizens and one which made a genuine attempt to create the egalitarian, progressive country that the Russian Revolution had once promised. That this attempt would fail was not clear until the 1980s.
Mark B. Smith's remarkable book recreates the day-to-day life of this vast state, the largest ever to exist. What was life like in a country which made such absolute claims for the future, which claimed to be on its way to creating a people's utopia and which, like the USA, owned enough atomic weapons to end human life on Earth?
Exit Stalin is filled with extraordinary stories about those who lived in the USSR and the distinctive and functioning civilization that they built. Many of them embraced its values, understood its goals and could not imagine life outside such a vastly ambitious and progressive project. The shortages, coercion and incompetence that underlay the USSR - and which by the late 1980s would doom it - has to be understood alongside the acceptance it always had from many of its citizens. And this in turn is a crucial issue for understanding Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union in the 21st century.
Accessible and comprehensive … Smith's authentic account of Soviet life is enlivened by biographical sketches and his deep understanding of Russian culture and society * Irish Times *
Deeply informed … A significant book for anybody who seeks to understand modern Russia * The Sunday Times *
Smoothly readable … A fascinating chronicle of the Soviet Union … Exit Stalin offers a superb history of the rise and fall of a utopian state and its dangerously deluded ideology * Observer *
Superb... Immensely important... This is a tragic story, and Smith tells it magnificently * The Telegraph *
Richly detailed... Mark Smith’s impressive history gives readers a powerful sense of what it was like to live under communism in the four decades between Stalin’s death and the country’s disintegration at the end of the cold war * Financial Times *
Exit Stalin asks a timely question: what is life in a non-democratic modern society actually like? Smith builds up a picture of an entire culture, a way of life, a vivid sense of an entire disappeared world and forces the question: would you accept the price? -- Owen Hatherley * New Statesman *
Vivid ... Excellent ... An essential and accessible addition to the library of Soviet and post-Soviet studies * Kirkus Reviews *
Despite the vast complexities and scope of Exit Stalin, Smith manages to fully immerse the reader throughout ... What is clear, even within the first few pages, is that this is a landmark work on Russian history, one like no other, and a gold mine filled with emotional power and unknown stories -- Caroline Eden * Engelsberg Ideas *
Meticulously researched ... For anyone interested in a dispassionate overview of the late Soviet period, it makes for fascinating reading' * The Tablet *
A sweeping social history of Soviet life in the decades between Stalin’s death and the union’s collapse … Smith’s great achievement is to have written this civilization from the inside out — in the food queues and the bookshops, in the guitar songs and the blat networks, in the millions of new apartments with their own kitchen tables -- Jan Burzlaff * Public Books *
ISBN: 9780141990941
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 34mm
Weight: 399g
576 pages