BOOKS
147
truly postmodern (a term that, incidentally, has been debated end–
lessly), they might be setting a course for new fiction.
wnLIAM PHILLIPS
THE END OF IDEOLOGY
UTOPIA IN POWER: THE HISTORY OF THE SOVIET UNION
FROM
1917
TO THE PRESENT.
By
Mikhail
HeUer and Aleksandr
Nekrich. Summit Books. $24.95.
It is difficult to imagine two historians better qualified or
equipped to write a history of the Soviet Union than Mikhail Heller
and Aleksandr Nekrich. Born and educated in the Soviet Union,
they belong to a generation that survived colle<;:tivization, forced in–
dustrialization and the purges, fought in the Second World War,
witnessed the decay of Stalin's dictatorship, and participated in the
struggles of the post-Stalin period. As professional historians they
had access to Soviet archives - an extreme privilege accorded only to
a tiny group of Soviet scholars affiliated with reputable institutions.
Perhaps even more important proved to be the historical knowledge
they obtained by talking to their elder friends and colleagues, and
other direct participants in the earlier historical events.
Nekrich's name became famous in 1965, when he published his
book
June
22, 1941 and demolished the myth of Stalin as a military
genius, stressing instead Stalin's personal responsibility for the Soviet
unpreparedness for war. Later, during Brezhnev's re-Stalinization
the book was banned and destroyed, together with its author's pro–
fessional career. Nekrich became a virtual nonperson, but still man–
aged to collect important materials on the fate of Soviet "deported
nationalities" accused by the Stalinist leadership of collective trea-
son.
Heller, meanwhile, spent the 1960s in Poland, whose love-hate
atmosphere
vis-a-vis
Russia and yet vibrant interest in Russian
literature helped him grow into a leading specialist in the history of
Soviet culture. Eventually, both authors emigrated or were forced to
emigrate to the West.
In writing
Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from
1917 to the Present,
Heller and Nekrich draw on an extremely wide
