Rachel Polonsky

Harvard Book Store is delighted to welcome journalist RACHEL POLONSKY as she discusses her new exploration of Russian cultural history, Molotov′s Magic Lantern: Travels in Russian History.

When Rachel Polonsky moved to Moscow, she discovered an apartment on Romanov Street that was once home to the Soviet elite. One of the most infamous neighbors was the ruthless apparatchik, Stalin’s henchman, Vyacheslav Molotov, who was a participant in the collectivizations and the Great Purge—and also an ardent bibliophile. In what was formerly his apartment, Polonsky uncovers an extensive library and an old magic lantern—two things that lead her on an extraordinary journey throughout Russia and ultimately renew her vision of the country and its people.

In Molotov’s Magic Lantern, Polonsky visits the haunted cities and vivid landscapes of the books from Molotov’s library: works by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Akhmatova, and others, some of whom were sent to the Gulag by the very man who collected their books. Polonsky writes about the longings and aspirations of these Russian writers and others in the course of her travels from the Arctic to Siberia and from the forests around Moscow to the vast steppes.

“The result is an eccentric work, daring in conception, peculiar in construction, that incorporates all Polonsky’s teeming scholarly knowledge of Russia and the Russian people.... In the course of her travels, Polonsky visits monasteries, dachas, sanatoriums and bath houses. Her chapter on Siberia in particular offers a meticulous reportage tinged with poetry, in which almost every page radiates gem-like images and an impressive literary craft.... A magnificent achievement, in which Russia emerges as less a nation than a marvellous region of the mind.” —The Irish Times