'"In this unique and fascinating collection of essays, Lewis Siegelbaum and his kollektiv of authors explore the private spaces in socialist society. From cars and pets to apartments and peasant gardens, friendship circles to hooligans, they sketch a canvas that locates where the Soviet heart was and who Soviet man's best friend was. Soviet people found their own outlets for expression of what was most meaningful to them, and privacy survived in a world where the state, often ineffectively, hovered above the individual."
- Ronald Grigor Suny, Professor of History, The University of Michigan
"This is a wonderfully conceived, extraordinarily cohesive, and highly accessible volume. Each of the authors rejects a rigid
distinction between public and private, and argues that under Soviet socialism, the distinction is especially fluid. A fascinating reassessment of the 'lived experience' of socialism, in which the Soviet Union's particular characteristics are understood as part of the much broader modern experience of public and private life." - Diane P. Koenker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
'This lively and innovative volume, offering a fascinating selection of the newest scholarship on Soviet society in the Stalin and Khrushchev periods, will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered about the private lives of Soviet citizens and how they negotiated the boundaries between the private and the public.'
- Sheila Fitzpatrick, University of Chicago
