Download or read book Iron Curtain written by Anne Applebaum and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 803 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of Iron Curtain.

Download or read book Iron Curtain written by Anne Applebaum and published by Signal. This book was released on 2013-08-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long-awaited National Book Award--shortlisted follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize--winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Central Europe after WW II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway. At the end of WW II, the Soviet Union, to its surprise and delight, found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Central Europe. It set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to a completely new political and moral system: Communism. Iron Curtain describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created, and what daily life was like once they were completed. Applebaum draws on newly opened European archives and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief, rendered worthless their every qualification, and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality and strange aethestics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of this book.

Download or read book The Genius Under the Table written by Eugene Yelchin and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Honor Winner With a masterful mix of comic timing and disarming poignancy, Newbery Honoree Eugene Yelchin offers a memoir of growing up in Cold War Russia. Drama, family secrets, and a KGB spy in his own kitchen! How will Yevgeny ever fulfill his parents’ dream that he become a national hero when he doesn’t even have his own room? He’s not a star athlete or a legendary ballet dancer. In the tiny apartment he shares with his Baryshnikov-obsessed mother, poetry-loving father, continually outraged grandmother, and safely talented brother, all Yevgeny has is his little pencil, the underside of a massive table, and the doodles that could change everything. With equal amounts charm and solemnity, award-winning author and artist Eugene Yelchin recounts in hilarious detail his childhood in Cold War Russia as a young boy desperate to understand his place in his family.

Download or read book Iron Curtain Memoirs written by Irene Kucholick and published by . This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 732 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story about what it was like to grow up in a Germany, dominated by Adolf Hitler and feared Nazis; of what civilian life was like during the war that Hitler thrust upon us with a destructive fury; what life was like in our section of my native land--East Germany--when, after the war, we were released from the hand of the Nazis only to be seized at once by the equally strangling bonds of Communism. This complete set contains all three of Irene's memoirs from before WWII to her escape as well as additional photos, maps, and a historical timeline not available in previous releases.

Download or read book Gaming the Iron Curtain written by Jaroslav Svelch and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.

Download or read book Iron Curtain A Love Story written by Vesna Goldsworthy and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2023-02-14 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: East and West collide in a “timely” and “bittersweet tale of loyalty, love, and the siren call of freedom” (Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times). Milena Urbanska is a red princess living in a Soviet satellite state in the 1980s. She enjoys limitless luxury and limited freedom; the end of the Cold War seems unimaginable. When she meets Jason, a confident but politically naive British poet, they fall into bed together. Before long, Milena is planning her escape. She follows Jason to London, where she’s shocked to find herself living in bohemian poverty. The rented apartment is dingy, the food disgusting, and Jason’s family withholding, but at least there are no hidden cameras recording her every move. As she adjusts to her new life, however, Milena discovers the dark side of Jason’s idea of freedom. With cool wit and tender precision, Vesna Goldsworthy delivers a razor-sharp vision of two worlds on the brink of change, amidst the failures of family and state. Iron Curtain is a sly, elegant comedy of manners that challenges the myths we tell ourselves.

Download or read book Picnic at the Iron Curtain written by Susan Viets and published by Delfryn Publishing and Consulting Incorporated. This book was released on 2012 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on diaries, reporting notebooks, letters and memory, the author, a student turned journalist, tells of her adventures in Europe within a ten-year period (1988 to 1998) which included major historical and political change in countries such as Budapest, Bishkek, Chornobyl and Chechnya. She finishes her stories with an eyewitness account of Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004.

Download or read book Velvet Meets the Iron Curtain written by Jiri Sebastian Voborsky and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-08-04 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Velvet Meets the Iron Curtain is a true story of an unexpected revolution of the heart. This autobiography tells a story of a man born behind the Iron Curtain of Communist Czechoslovakia, a nation known for its cultural and historical heritage and for its prevailing atheistic view on life. Jiri Sebastian Voborsky tells his story of growing up under the heavy fist of the totalitarian regime. In a moving and captivating way, he writes of his experience of the 1989 Velvet Revolution and passionately recounts his own revolt against the voice of spiritual depravity when met by his Savior, Jesus Christ. This narrative paints a picture of the profound truth that God, in His wisdom, carefully orchestrates the events of our lives, allowing us to arrive at the very moment where the exchange between man and God takes place. As a high school student, Jiri was privileged to be one out of ten million Czechs who was given the opportunity to personally encounter Jesus Christ. As a professional ballet dancer, Jiri's path of life then brought him to America where he blossomed into a world-renowned choreographer and became a passionate artist pointing thousands to that same Messiah, both here in the United States and around the world. Jiri's desire for his story is to bring hope and inspiration to the readers' lives as they perceive to learn of their own special place in the heart of God.

Download or read book Iron Curtain Memoirs written by Irene Kucholick and published by . This book was released on 2013-09-27 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story about what it was like to grow up in a Germany, dominated by Adolf Hitler and feared Nazis; of what civilian life was like during the war that Hitler thrust upon us with a destructive fury; what life was like in our section of my native land--East Germany--when, after the war, we were released from the hand of the Nazis only to be seized at once by the equally strangling bonds of Communism. This complete set contains all three of Irene's memoirs from before WWII to her escape as well as additional photos, maps, and a historical timeline not available in previous releases.

Download or read book Hot Books in the Cold War written by Alfread A. Reisch and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study reveals the hidden story of the secret book distribution program to Eastern Europe financed by the CIA during the Cold War. At its height between 1957 and 1970, the book program was one of the least known but most effective methods of penetrating the Iron Curtain, reaching thousands of intellectuals and professionals in the Soviet Bloc. Reisch conducted thorough research on the key personalities involved in the book program, especially the two key figures: S. S. Walker, who initiated the idea of a ?mailing project,? and G. C. Minden, who developed it into one of the most effective political and psychological tools of the Cold War. The book includes excellent chapters on the vagaries of censorship and interception of books by communist authorities based on personal letters and accounts from recipients of Western material. It will stand as a testimony in honor of the handful of imaginative, determined, and hard-working individuals who helped to free half of Europe from mental bondage and planted many of the seeds that germinated when communism collapsed and the Soviet bloc disintegrated.

Download or read book The Biggest Hole in the Iron Curtain written by Levente Batizy and published by Outskirts Press. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Batizy family was Eastern European nobility during the thirteenth to twentieth centuries and continued to lead comfortable lives even as the importance of aristocracy faded. Then, the unimaginable happened. These centuries of happy, committed citizenship would all seemingly fade away in an instant as communism took over. Driven from their home after the 1956 Hungarian revolution against communist rule failed, the Batizys found themselves starting over, seeking and creating a new dream: the American dream. "The Biggest Hole in the Iron Curtain: The Batizy Story" is Levente Batizy's sweeping yet intimate immigration story. Starting with the story of the Batizy patriarch, the architect of the family's great escape, and following the sacrifices that the Batizy's mother and stepmother made during the resettlement. "The Biggest Hole in the Iron Curtain" also includes recollections from Batizy and his thirteen siblings following the fiftieth anniversary of the revolt.

Download or read book New Beginnings written by Antonina Duridanova and published by Fulton Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-06-03 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Burning with desire to share the value of freedom, Antonina takes you from her plight in communist Bulgaria to the free shores of America. Following unfortunate events of life in a totalitarian regime in Bulgaria, Antonina bids goodbye to her homeland and flees to the Western world. She provides true experiences and observations of what life is in a communist society-her family's lands and cattle being confiscated by the agricultural labor cooperatives; the censorship of the press and any literal, artistic, and scientific works from the West; religion being prohibited; and any deviation from the norm leading to detention in a labor camp. Her last crossing of the Bulgarian-Yugoslavian border almost costs Antonina her life and makes up her mind to never go back. She describes her life as an immigrant at the refugee camp in Traiskirchen, Austria, while waiting for an American visa. Antonina is ecstatic when the plane cruises over the Statue of Liberty and lands in the most amazing city in the world-New York. She describes how she could taste, smell, feel, and touch freedom as she gets off the plane, ready to embark on new adventures. Antonina gets educated and becomes a good specialist in taxation, working for the United States Treasury Department. Ultimately, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, she is invited to go back to Bulgaria and fix a broken tax system as a representative of the United States government. Her work in the newly democratic society of Bulgaria paved the way for the country to become a member of NATO, escaping Soviet influence, and later being accepted in the family of the European Union. 20

Download or read book A Memoir in Letters written by Hadwig Gofferje and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2005-06 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Memoir in Letters: My Life on Both Sides of the Iron Curtain is the touching autobiography that first chronicles the young life of German-born Hadwig Gofferje, born during World War II, then living under communist rule. She describes her journey to freedom, complete with an American university education, and a new life in the United States. During her war-torn childhood in Germany, Hadwig lived in her own world, where she occupied herself for hours with drawing and playing with her dolls and imaginary friends. But at night, she endured many terrifying bombing raids by the Allied Forces in her family's basement bomb shelter. In 1945, after packing one carefully-chosen favorite toy in her suitcase, Hadwig and her family fled the approaching Russian Red Army and immigrated to a small village in Thuringia. Hadwig describes not a peaceful beginning to her life, but a life in which actions and choices were incredibly influenced by World War II and the division of Germany. Eventually moving, without her parents, to West Germany and later to the United States, Hadwig receives the university education that changes her life forever. In this remarkable personal narrative, Hadwig Gofferje describes how she was able to escape oppression and seek freedom, ultimately achieving personal peace, inner-strength, and a greater understanding of the world around her.

Download or read book Through the Iron Curtain written by Eva Wonka and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-18 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who wants to come on a trip behind the Iron Curtain...The Global Adventures Series bring exciting, dangerous, and true stories about men and women who served God faithfully and lived a life for His glory.Smuggling the Bible into former communist countries...Traveling to foreign places without knowing the language...Teaching the Bible secretly among Christians in Romania...Experiencing the dangers of the Secret Police...Learning to trust the Lord to do the impossible...In this edition, hear the riveting stories about Tom, David, Margareta and Jozef.Who wants to come with me on a trip behind the Iron Curtain?

Download or read book Blown for Good written by Marc Headley and published by BFG Books Inc.. This book was released on 2010-03-31 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marc Headley started working for the Scientology organization in 1989. After leaving in 2005, Marc posted bits and pieces of what went on at the Scientology headquarters (known from inside as the International Base). Marc posted anonymously under the screen name of Blownforgood aka BFG. In September 2008 Marc was invited to speak to an international conference of European government representatives regarding the Scientology organization and their abuses. It was at this time that Marc revealed his identity as Blownforgood. By 2009, the internet posts Marc had written over the years had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, but still there were people who questioned their validity. Stories of grown men being thrown into dirty lakes and pools as punishment? Physical abuse never reported to authorities? How could this happen in modern day America? Two years after Marc wrote about these things and posted them on the internet, a Pulitzer Prize winning U.S. newspaper printed accounts from former staff member who worked at the Int Base that matched and confirmed what Marc had written about. Not only that, Scientology officials admitted that these things had taken place! Find out what they did not talk about in Blown for Good.

Download or read book The Lawyer in Communism written by Lajos Kálmán and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Student s Cold War Memoirs written by Abdul H. Akida and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2021-01-15 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of World War II in Europe (1939-1945), the three victorious allies, namely the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union signed the Potsdam Agreement (Polish: Traktat Posdamski – German: Potsdamer Abkommen) in the month of August 1945. This followed the defeat and surrender of the German Army. 1 - The Agreement, amongst other things, dealt mainly with the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its demilitarization, reparations, its borders, as well as setting borders of other neighbouring countries involved in the war, including the borders of People’s Republic of Poland, USSR and Germany itself. On top of that the Agreement also dealt with the prosecution of war criminals. The treaty was signed by President Harry S. Truman, Prime Minister Clement Attlee and General Secretary Joseph V. Stalin. 2 - The three powers also jointly agreed to invite France and People’s Republic of China to participate in the Council of Foreign Ministers established and assigned with the task to oversee the Agreement.