I would have just added a comment under the current weeks general thread. If it weren't for the fact that I really like the book and REALLY think you should read it.

Strong writes in a way that is easy to read. And, as she has done before, she writes about the successes of the Soviet Union and Socialism. My liberal brain-worms were writhing, chapter by chapter they could not accept what was written, too good to be true, propaganda! Though I must have gotten very happy reading about these success, because I at one point got teary-eyed.

quote from where it boiled over.

When a winter childbirth in a distant Arctic station developed complications, the neighbors got the Dixon Island surgeon on the radio and for more than three hours he directed over the air every detail while the whole of a much-worried Arctic listened in. When the child and mother were safe, congratulations poured in from thousands of miles of icebound waterfront.

 

Please read it, not because I made an epub (although yea, also that), but because I think it's a great book.

Download my EPUB version: https://comlib.encryptionin.space (or https://archive.org/details/this-soviet-world-anna-louise-strong)

  • tripartitegraph [comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    yooooo I love this book! So much so I scanned it as a PDF and uploaded it to libgen hahaha. Having an EPUB is sick too!
    But yeah, this book made me feel so many different emotions, I had to put it down nearly every chapter. So much joy, awe, and inspiration, contrasted with so much anger and sadness that we (the west) destroyed this beautiful project. Strong is such an approachable writer and I appreciate her perspective a lot. This book really opened my eyes.
    One of her other books (although it's not that long) The Stalin Era is also really good, and interesting as a historical perspective. She wrote it in the aftermath of the Secret Report Speech, and while most of that is debunked now, it's interesting to see how pro-Soviet and pro-Stalin people dealt with the "revelations" at the time. Hahahah I could go on and on and on, but again, thank you for doing this and spreading the word of this book. It's absolutely one of my favorites!

    • GarbageShoot [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      the Secret Report, and while most of that is debunked now

      What's the Secret Report and what debunked it? Is this like a translation thing with what in English is usually called Khrushchev's "Secret Speech"?

      • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes it's the "secret speech". It has been debunked by several people but my favorite is Domenico Losurdo's "stalin the history and critique of a black legend". It is a very unique book, it only uses anti-communists sources to contradict the narratives lol.

      • tripartitegraph [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        lmao it's less a translation thing and more of an "exams week has me exhausted" thing. Thanks for the catch!

    • ∞🏳️‍⚧️Edie [it/its]@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      1 year ago

      Thanks! This is also hard work. I crammed... I guesstimated 1 hour per chap. yesterday, so somewhere along ~16 hours in these three last days.

      It's great because I also get to read these things. I have some difficulty with sitting down and reading stuff (I have only read 3 of the 5 in crits beginner list + what's on my website... yea, in ~7-8 months.), so this helps.

      Welp, on to the next book! (whatever that's gonna be, not sure, if you want something you might just get it.) I'll start on it, then [ADD] on it for a month or two before cramming it in a few days, just as I have done the last three books.

        • ∞🏳️‍⚧️Edie [it/its]@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          1 year ago

          Calibre. You can actually download this book and add it to calibre, then click edit book to see what I've done with it.

          If you already know how to do HTML+CSS, you are going to have an easier time.

          But it goes something like: Find book, search for it on annas-archive to find the best/cleanest copy I can, run that through OCR (I use OCRMyPDF, just because it's easy, but it doesn't have to be it, just anything that will output a TXT file), create a new book in calibre and add an empty EPUB, open that EPUB and add the "ComLib standard [CSS] imports" (see This Soviet World), then just copy from OCR into EPUB, read through it (with the PDF open on another screen) while adding HTML+CSS and re-writing anything that isn't quite correct.

          If you need help with anything, do ping me! If you finish one, do send it over to me so I can upload it on ComLib!

          • MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            1 year ago

            Awesome, ty! I won't promise I'll pick it up just yet, but if I do, I will definitely send you any of my conversions. Have been listening to your EPUB using text-to-speech while reading along and it's much easier to stay engaged. Enjoying the book so far!

            • ∞🏳️‍⚧️Edie [it/its]@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              Awesome.

              Two things I think could be helpfull: Adding a new book in calibre is done in the drop down (small arrow) next to Add Books, you can also add an empty epub there.

              EPUBs are XHTML, so HTML 4 and ... CSS 2? Essentally keep any HTML and CSS simple. I tried to use grid once, that worked in calibre, but once I opened it in koreader, it was borked.