Can anyone recommend a good Soviet book?

[desantnik]

Not WWII, but Soviet -- The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan by Gregory Feifer.

[GabrielMk3]

Roscoe: Mistakes can happen to anyone!

desantnik; Ohh! "The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan" seems like a very interesting book. But I think it would be too much facts (more than the criteria)?
But, I've been looking for a good Afghan-war book for ages! I'll really get this one after the book project! Thanks!

[travel-north]

I'm currently reading "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar" and I would strongly recommend it. It's very well researched and goes deep.
I know that V. Suvorov is a controversial author, but I highly recommend his book "the Liberators". It's fun to read. After reading a few pages you won't be able to stop. And in my opinion he tells a lot of truth in that book about the dirty side of the Soviet armed forces and Soviet way of thinking.

[deValcourt]

Straight up fiction (or so he said to the NKVD): Mikhail Bulgakov. Closest to your criteria would be The White Guard though it is more about a family in Kiev during the Russian Civil War. In comparison, one of the best fictional novels in any language is IMHO The Master and Margarita and takes place in Moscow at the beginnings of the Stalin purges. It is an incredible example of 20th century experimental fiction as it has two parallel stories with different plots running consecutively. The character of the author or "Master" wrote a novel about the last days of Jesus of Nazareth (non-religiously) with a special focus on how Pontius Pilot caught a really bad rap. The intertextuality of both stories and the plight of the author character during one of the most frightening periods for artists (or anyone) in Soviet history. The best translated edition is heavily annotated so jokes, literary and historical references are not lost on the reader.

If you need something faster, Bulgakov wrote several short stories usually compiled under the title of his most famous - "Heart of a Dog."

Good luck,
Phillip