As I Was Burying Comrade Stalin

<p> Arkady Polishchuk came of age in Stalin's Russia in the turbulent times before during and after World War II. His love for the Soviet dictator persisted for years until Polishchuk a 19-year-old Jew was not admitted to the university. In 1952 he learned about the preparations for mass deportation of Jews to Siberia.</p><p> He celebrated Stalin's death in 1953--but state oppression dominated his life as before. As a young reporter for the Kostroma regional newspaper he met with destitute plowmen teenage milkmaids and former prisoners turned woodcutters and wrote about them. When his satirical flair outraged a Communist Party secretary the KGB initiated a political case against him and he fled to avoid persecution.</p><p> His memoir describes his painstaking journey toward mental and spiritual liberation.</p>