Donald J. Raleigh is Jay Richard Judson Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is author, editor, or translator of numerous books, most recently Experiencing Russia's Civil War: Politics, Society, and Revolutionary Culture in Saratov, 1917–1922.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. "Sasha the Muscovite": Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Konstantinov2. "Back then I really wanted to join the party": Natalia Valentinovna Altukhova (maiden name Pronina)3. "We grew up in a normal time": Natalia P.4. "Our entire generation . . . welcomed perestroika": Arkadii Olegovich Darchenko5. "I saw the life of my country, and thereby my own, from a variety of perspectives": Natalia Aleksandrovna Belovolova (maiden name Ianichkina)6. "It's very hard to be a woman in our country": Olga Vladimirovna Kamaiurova7. "I came to understand things, but only gradually": Aleksandr Vladimirovich Trubnikov8. "People have lost a great deal in terms of their confidence in tomorrow": Gennadii Viktorovich IvanovSelected BibliographyIndex

". . . this is an extremely informative book. It is also highly readable, partly because of its novelistic qualities: the characters of both Raleigh and his informants shine through the text. The introduction to each interview includes a lively account of the interviewee's behaviour during the event as well as a narrative of Raleigh's various adventures, such as getting lost on the way, in the labyrinth of Moscow University, or being jumped on by an unannounced pet rat. The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs of the informants, for example, at May Day parades, on the beach, or dressed for graduation ball. At the very end, hiding beyond the Index, are photographs of Raleigh himself in 1967 and 2005. A valuable feature of the book is its sparing but deft drawing of parallels between Russians and Americans of the same generation, leading the reader to reflect on how far the book tells a specifically Russian story or, conversely, one more universal.Volume 86, number 4, October 2008"—Anne White, Department of European Studies and Modern Languages University of Bath