Books from or about Eastern-central Europe you have read?

I think if we want to improve our knowledge about countries of our region there is no other better option to achieve this goal but reading books. My record is not impressive at all. Of course I don't list lectures about my own country that I have read.

Translated from Polish titles might be not correct.
"War and Peace" Lev Tolstoy
"Stalin's people" Roj Medviediev
"Legends from Vilnius" Wladyslaw Zahorski
I liked all, first is interesting story from the time of Napoleonic campaign in Russia. Second presents short biographies of leading Soviet politicians around Stalin, like Kaganovich, Molotov or Mikoyan to name few. Third about liker title state clearly about old legends connected with this city, from Lithuanian pagan era via Catholic period of Commonwealth to Russian occupation before WWI.

Yesterday I bought two more:

"Betreyed hero. Janos Esterhazy (1901-1957)" Imre Molnar

Controversial person considered differently in different central European countries, pre-WWII leader of Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia.

"EUSSR: The Soviet Roots of European Integration" Vladimir Bukovsky

Author researched Soviet archives and providing information about contacts between diplomats of Soviet Union and dimlomats from the EU old member states.

Rzeczpospolita, guess what we had to read in school when I was in secondary: Kertész Imre: Sorstalanság - Imre Kertész: Faithlessness
Another Jewish story about WWII . Poles helped him in the work-camp though. By the way at a page he wrote that he was taken to a barrack where everybody spoke Slavic languages, everyone someone different and when they asked where he was from and he answered Hungary, everybody was laughing. That part was interesting...
Why are we ridicilious for you guys?

You mean that this is story about Hungarian Jew right? I think this was good situational humor, Hungarian language is very hard to learn for Slavic people . The same situation with Polish which is the most difficult Slavic language and non-Slavic foreigners find it funny when we ask them to repeat some complicated sentence. While we find it funny how they absolutely fail to do this correctly.

Quiet Don - M.Szołochow

Great book. I was smiling when main charachter was talking about his victories over Poles in 1920r. He decapited enemys like Kmicic or Podpipięta - polish litaterature heros . similar mentality.

There was one scene on the end which remind me some from my childhood (in this scene is everything -feel of passing the time, love, the beauty of nature, the peak of summer on countryside) it moved me very much. I would give nobel prize even only for this few sentences. Of course main chracter was very impressive, stubborn, tought, passionat - just Grigorij.

I recomend this book.

I want also read soon R.Kapuściński book -Imperium.
It about falling down USSr but from average people point of view.
To see how this process was looking like from inside by outsider.
Kapuścinki do not give marks, his goal was always to see and describe reality around us -
I didn't read anything from him but crtics say so

I just read "Imperium" book and it is quite a piece of docummntary.
Kapuscinski quoted some Russian intelectuals and one of them said sth like that - impercommies were replaced by imperdemocrats. Nowdays Russia must choose or to be russian Russia or Big Russia with many natiolities in it.
Kapuscinski also mentioned about National Temple in moscow which hhad been building for 43 years, and which was destroyed becouse of Stalin order in few months. I have never heard about it.

"EUSSR: The Soviet Roots of European Integration" Vladimir Bukovsky


I have read the book and find really interesting. Even readers who would disagree with Bukovsky interpretations have unique opportunity to put the head behind the lines of diplomacy, to read what politicians saying meeting each other outside of usual press conferences. I have already bough another much longer position of Bukovsky also based on Soviet archives. "Moscow Trial" (Moskiewski Proces)

The most interesting part of the book was when the French president at that time F. Mitterrand advised Gorbachev to NOT dissolve the USSR! He wanted USSR to be just reformed, in other words "socialism with human face" should replace Soviet communism.

Quote :

Interest of France is to have central power in Eastern Europe. If a collapse happens, if we will return to the times of yours Peter the Great then this will be historical catastrophe and this is not in agreement with the interest of France.

History taught us this that for France this is needed to have an ally on the east of Europe to guarantee "equal forces". Every dissolution of unity in the East brings instability. This is why we don't want and wont support separatist ambitions.

[...]

I belong to those who want to have you as a strong partner - the new Union? Otherwise what - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, more of some countries? In the result in Poland situation would become even more instable. the same one could say about Czechoslovakia, Hungary.

Personally, certainly I'm very touched that in this particular moment he cared about Poland so much.