Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire is a bestselling work by David Remnick. Often cited as an example of New Journalism, it won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1994.
The book is equal parts history and eyewitness account, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union. Opening with the excavation of the corpses of Poles killed in the Katyn massacre, Lenin's Tomb begins by describing the structural flaws present from the country's early days, and then uses individual accounts from a wide variety of contemporary individuals to display the modern consequences of these historical errors and cruelties.
Within the book, Remnick draws heavily on his past work as Moscow correspondent with The Washington Post. In addition to officials and public figures, current and former — one chapter in part recounts Remnick's attempts to interview Lazar Kaganovich, of Joseph Stalin's inner circle — he takes advantage of a wide variety of "everyman"-type sources. These individuals, while not themselves notable, help add richness and texture to Remnick's depiction of the world around them.
In 1997, Remnick published a follow-up work, Resurrection, dealing with the creation of a new Russian state.
Famous quotes containing the words lenin, days, soviet and/or empire:
“If Socialism can only be realized when the intellectual development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five hundred years.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 9:25-26.
“They were right. The Soviet régime is not the embodiment of evil as you think in the West. They have laws and I broke them. I hate tea and they love tea. Who is wrong?”
—Alexander Zinoviev (b. 1922)
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.””
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)