GOOD STALIN

The novel Good Stalin is inspired by Erofeev s experience growing up amidst the Soviet political hierarchy. His father, a staunch Stalinist who has dedicated his life and soul to the party, begins as Stalin s personal interpreter, and rises rapidly to the top of the political ladder and into the leader s inner circle. The book reflects the family s prestigious - and yet precarious - position as members of the nomenklatura. In one memorable scene, the main character Victor recalls how he would walk past the Kremlin as a child and comment to friends, that s where my father works - he and Comrade Stalin . However, unquestioning devotion to the Communist Party does not come to young Viktor so easily as it had for his father