Koba the Dread
Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million is a 2002 non-fiction book by British writer Martin Amis.
Summary
The book is a study of the depredations of the regime of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s.
The title alludes to Stalin's nickname "Koba", and the estimated 20 million deaths in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule owing to starvation, torture, gulags, and the purges and confessions of Stalin's Great Terror. The estimate of deaths under Stalin comes from Robert Conquest's work, a key source for Amis.
Reception
The book received a mixed reception. According to
Controversy
The book occasioned a public schism between Amis and fellow writer and close friend
See also
- The Great Terror
- The Gulag Archipelago
- Robert Conquest
References
- Newspapers. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
- ^ Kakutani, Michiko, "Recounting the Suffering of Russia Under Stalin," The New York Times, 26 June 2002.
- ^ "Koba The Dread," Publishers Weekly, May, 2002.
- ^ "Martin Amis swings at Stalin and hits his own best friend instead". 13 August 2002.
- ^ Shteyngart, Gary, "Gallows Humor," The Washington Post, 21 July 2002.
- ^ Berman, Paul, "A Million Deaths is Not Just a Statistic," The New York Times, 28 July 2002.
- ^ "A shocking lack of decorum".
- ^ Hitchens, Christopher, "Lightness at Midnight," The Atlantic, September, 2002.
- ^ Amis, Martin, "Amis On Hitchens," The Observer, 24 April 2011.
External links
- Christopher Hitchens on Koba the Dread
- Anne Applebaum writing for Slate on Amis and Hitchens: The Gulag Argumento
- The Sunday Times: Amis and Hitchens (paywalled)
- Michiko Kakutani on Koba the Dread