Judging by this extract from the Amis book, it's incredibly self-obsessed tripe.
I can gaurantee you that this book will be read in Russia by maybe 5 people, all of whom will know each other and write for Novaya Gazeta.
(Stalin is quite popular in Russia, BTW. HINT: He beat Hitler.)
>
>On Wed, 4 Sep 2002, Michael Pugliese wrote:
>
> > An extract from Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million
> > by Martin Amis
> > Tuesday September 3, 2002
> > The Guardian
> >
> > There has never been a regime quite like it, not anywhere in the
> > history of the universe. To have its subjects simultaneously quaking
> > with terror, with hypothermia, with hunger - and with laughter.
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