GULAG BOSS A Soviet Memoir

Feodor Vasillievich Mochulsky, a Soviet railroad construction engineer, recalls his existence working for Stalin in the 1940s. Beyond the depressing details about the gulags—work camps—lie pearls of information about contemporary life in northern Russia as Socialism became Communism. Despite the millions of victims affected by the USSR’s murderous tactics to collectivize workers, a paradoxically small number of personal histories exist, and rarer yet is one by a government official. Narrator Chris Patton reads the engineer’s words in his normal voice and switches to faux Slavic accents for secondary characters. His efforts with those unpronounceable Russian names will probably fool those who are not from that part of the world. The translation from the original Slavic sounds choppy but aids in the charade that we’re hearing the voice of a Russian. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2010]