Behind the Red Veil

An American Inside Gorbachev's Russia

Frank Thoms

• Publisher: SparkPress
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781684630561
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Frank Thoms went to the Soviet Union not to judge but to learn. As a result, he gained the trust and confidence of the people he befriended—and discovered much about himself. Behind the Red Veil recounts Frank’s quest to understand the Russian people. He spent his initial twenty-five years as a teacher, during which time he pursued his understanding of Marxism, Russian history, and Soviet Communism. His first venture to the Soviet Union occurred in October 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev’s first year as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In his following six trips, Frank served twice as a US–Soviet exchange teacher of English in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), and on his own taught English in schools in Moscow and Alma-Ata (Almaty), Kazakhstan. His final journey, which was to the new Russia in 1994, three years after Gorbachev’s resignation, took him to Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Through it all, Frank sought the love and respect of the Russians he came into contact with. Behind the Red Veil is the story of how they opened their hearts to him—and, in doing so, opened his.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. Away from the Tour Bus
• II. A Mini-Mythic Superhero Writ Large
• III. A Fraught Return
• IV. Anguish and Satisfaction
• V. Teachers as Mothers of the State
• VI. The Cult of Lenin
• VII. Like in a Mousetrap
• VIII. Look through the Fingers
• IX. Podskazka, Shparlgaka, and Lying
• X. International Pioneer Camp
• XI. Invoking the Personal
• Postscript: Not for the Money but for the Soul
• Coda
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author