Cursed Days

Set against the backdrop of Moscow and Odessa in 1918 and 1919 these are the great anti-Bolshevik diaries of Ivan Bunin, the first Russian to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Originally published in 1936 but banned during the Soviet period, these diaries are now translated into English for the first time by the distinguished Professor of Russian History at the University of Notre Dame, Thomas Gaiton Marullo. Bunin despised the Bolsheviks, whom he believed were ruining his beloved country. In these diaries he recreates the time of revolution and civil war with graphic and gripping immediacy. His uncompromising truths are jolting. His pain and suffering in watching the overthrow of his country by 'thugs' and the chaos of civil war, and his fears for the devastation of 'patriarchal' Russian culture, consumed his days and receive vivid expression in his diaries. An original and important contribution to our understanding of this tumultuous period by a master of prose and a perceptive social critic.