90 Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort Food - From a Polish Country House Kitchen

Clearly presents the facts that were extant in Eastern Europe and how thoroughly Stalin and his henchman controlled the Eastern European populations beginning from the last few months of WW2. Illuminating.

The book is fascinating with lots of information. It is very easy to read. I have enjoyed it immensely. Every bit of information in the book checks out. It gives a very fresh insight of how Russia really crushed Eastern Europe after it was devastated by World War II. At the same time one can see that Stalin and the Soviets had everything planned to the last detail.
Alirio Escalona

I strongly recommend this book to those all who, as myself, know this time from one’s own experience and even more to those, who want to know, what is a background of some differences - existed between so called “Western Europeans” and the generation of people born during II World War and maturing shortly after the war in Central and Eastern Europe. At least Polish case is depicted exemplary. Great book, great reading in my humble opinion!

The crimes of communism are seldom mentioned in my country (Sweden). The fascinating story of Iron Curtain is how the communists could take charge and how they undermined and destroyed a civil society. This is a masterpiece!

Detailed information on the lives destroyed by the war and the evil forces that moved into the vacuum created by war. Let them all rot in hell. I am also listening to it on CD so can hear the names pronounced properly. I lived in Berlin during the Ulbricht years and know the people hated him for the most part

good prose, interesting look into a neglected topic that helps understand both WWII and modern European history. very easy to follow even though the protagonists are somewhat obscure to western readers

Very informative on the Soviet tactics used to subdue Eastern Europe. Also very informative on local involvement supporting and opposing these efforts. It was a lot more subtle and complicated than most people realize.

Anne Applembaum is an excellent writer. I chose this book because I had previously read Gulag, one of her earlier books.
She provides a good narrative about the very negative effects the Soviet Union had on Eastern Block countries in the later part of WWII and until the early 1950's - people, culture, institutions.

Excellent look at how the dedicated Eastern European communists rushed into the power vacuum left in the wake of the Red Army's sweep to the west in the later stages of WW II. Well-written, insightful, moves easily from the human scale to the international. Highly recommend for well-read history lovers.

The book addresses the activities of the Soviet Union with respect to the countries that the Soviets took over after the end of World war II. Ms. Applebaum includes discussions of parts of World War II but she does not provide a broad analysis of the relationships between the various groups fighting in the war. This is especially true when she discusses the Polish underground; there was no discussion of the relationship between the Polish underground and the Jewish underground. The Kielce pogrom is covered in about 1.5 pages. The end of the book becomes somewhat verbose.

As a child born in 1946 behind the Iron Courtain, I cannot find words to describe the historical and intellectual gravitas of this book. The book is even more relevent now, when we see Islamofascist regimes taking control of Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, even Turkey. They use the same methods, do not kid yourself. Thank you Ann!!Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956

Personal interviews with people who actually experienced the dramatic events of this era. I wanted to have a more in depth knowledge of the events of this significant page in history and was not disappointed.

Excellent picture of the Soviet machinery and detailed description of the system that crashed people and society. One must read this book in order to understand today's Russia, possible consequences and its predicament.

For those who remember complaining that their high school and/or college history or civics instructors never quite got past (or even up to) the Second World War, Anne Applebaum starts to fill that gap. I write 'starts', because we are still at the early stages of understanding how the end of the Cold War changes things in unpredictable and unintended ways. Many Americans have still not come to grips with how WWII changed America going into the Cold War and what the rest of the world was like and was doing at the time. Start here.

While the horrors of Nazism have been under the lupe since the end of the war, the Soviet experience has not. The end of the Cold War opens an important door to better understanding how Soviet Communism, in particular Stalinism, moved methodically and brutally into the breach. With absolutely no attempt at moral equivocation among systems and atrocities - remember also Nanjing in 1937 - the fact remains that there was not then and is not now a monopoly on being killed merely for being who one is. This should be studied in all its facets and manifestations.

I find the that most of the recipes are relatively simple and they express the old world version of Polish eastern european cooking. I was interested in the venison recipes as I'm a hunter thought these are worth try.

The author gives an in depth and grizzly overview how civil society was eliminated in Eastern Europe by the Soviets after World War II. Whether it is about political parties, boy scouts, cultural societies or churches, each aspect gets a well researched article.

Book is full of information for interested or researcher. Places Soviet Union regime in spotlight with informative hitherto unknown or unrealized information. Interesting that some "leaders" can lead others into intolerable circumstances.

The writing grows on the reader, chapter by chapter. About from the middle, one gets an appreciation for how day-to-day life was manipulated and how human beings coped. Captures the atmosphere like no other non-fiction work. All documented.

Anne Applebaum covers all the details and aspects of life in eastern Europe following the Soviet occupation after WWII. The book was captivating from the first fige of the introduction, and I could hardly put it down after that.

Always a period I never understood well, Applebaum's analysis of the end of WWII and the start of the Eastern Bloc is well researched and written in a narrative style that is informative and entertaining. Worth the read

I grew up Polish-American in a small, rural, Polish-dominated town. I have become a farmers-market-shopping fresh-food-only foodie and wanted to make some of the dishes that I remember so fondly from my childhood - but in a way that fits how I cook and eat today. This cookbook answered the call. When I first got it, I actually sat down and read it cover-to-cover. (A first for a cookbook!) In the two years since I got it, I have made more than half of the recipes and - like another reviewer - plan to eventually make all of them. If only I could stop repeating some of my favorites (the boozy beet soup, duck w/ pear sauce, and potato and truffle pierogi to name just a few), I might get it done a little sooner. Oh well.

An interesting book about the history of Eastern Europe from 1945. The author, however, seems to assume that everyone who lived through that period, in Europe and elsewhere, and from 1945 to the 1990s, saw capitalism as the only possible, inevitable, way of life. As someone who lived through the 80s and 90s, I remember quite clearly that many east European dissidents and ordinary people in eastern Europe wanted freedom, but not necessarily western-style capitalism. It's interesting to compare this book with Tony Judt's Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945.