The World I Left Behind: Pieces of a Past - Hardcover

Brezhnev, Luba

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679439110 ISBN 13: 9780679439110

Publisher: Random House, 1995

Synopsis

The family was the Brezhnevs, and the author is Luba Brezhneva, niece of the man who led the Soviet Union for eighteen years - but who, in the end, could not protect her.
These are the touching and terrifying revelations of a child of both privilege and persecution. The story is of her transformation from a provincial schoolgirl into an outspoken young woman who moved among, and then rebelled against, the elite of Moscow.

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

From Publishers Weekly:

Brezhneva romanticizes herself as an enfant terrible, but readers are likely to consider her merely a spoiled brat. Born in 1943 and raised by her mother and stepfather in the Ukraine, she's the daughter of Leonid Brezhnev's brother, Yakov, who brought her into nomenklatura circles when she became a student in Moscow in 1964. And it's the nomenklaturas' lifestyle that frames her memoirs, an expose of their boozing and womanizing. Brezhneva is also outraged about having been harassed by the KGB, especially after Khrushchev's ouster, which she claims was masterminded by her uncle and her father. As the author tells it, she lived in a spiritual wasteland: her father, corrupted by being "Brezhnev's Brother," became an alcoholic and influence peddler; her aunt Viktoriya, the general secretary's wife, was a materialistic intriguer, their son and daughter hedonists. Leonid, a "decent, caring man," frequently sheds tears over his family in these pages. If much of Brezhneva's story is familiar, it's not without interest as an insider's account. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0679439110
• ISBN 13: 9780679439110
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 392