Memoirs of 1984

A former Soviet scientist and political prisoner now living in America, Yuri Tarnopolsky tells the story of his quest to understand Russia. In 1983 he was tried on charges of defaming the Soviet system: he had become a refusenik activist who defended the right to emigrate. He spent the Orwellian year of 1984 in a Siberian labor camp, and he compares Orwell's predictions with reality. As a scientist, Tarnopolsky is interested in broader facts and generalizations. He supports the view that Soviet communism was a natural continuation of Russian history. Tarnopolsky describes the pyramidal structure of Soviet society, its origin, and gives his own interpretation of the fall of the Soviet empire and the current Russian crossroads. Scenes of life in a labor camp alternate with memories of the past, essays on the totalitarian society, Russian mentality, modern Jewish problems, references to current American reality, psychology of isolation, ideology, moral choices, freedom, social and individual evolution, order and chaos, and complexity. This book is the first memoir of its kind ever to be written originally in English and addressed to the Western reader. Also being published by University Press of America, Unfinished Journey is Nancy Rosenfeld's personal story of her involvement with the campaign to free Yuri.