It's Only a Joke, Comrade!

'A stunningly original study of Stalinist society... Essential reading for anyone interested in how human beings navigate a path through times of extraordinary upheaval, privation and danger'  - Daniel Beer In the shadow of the Gulag, Soviet citizens were still cracking jokes. They had to. Drawing on diaries, interviews, memoirs and hundreds of previously secret documents, It's Only a Joke, Comrade! uncovers how they joked, coped, and struggled to adapt in Stalin's brave new world