Ivan Petrov: Russia through a Shot Glass

by C.S. Walton

The story of Ivan Petrov is a true story. C.S. Walton met Ivan Petrov in a city in the West in 1996. Over the course of two years he told Walton his life story. It is the story of a man who, in the face of complete social collapse, chose to be a wandering drunk.

Genres: Nonfiction, Russia, Biography

241 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Margaret Killjoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty good. A soviet drunk wanders around and drinks a lot and hangs out with drunks and goes to jail and gets out and drinks. But it's a really interesting door into a world that I wouldn't have otherwise had a chance to see, and the philosophical and political ramblings in it are actually quite marvelous.

[Yuliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It is not true that people only work for money. If someone is paid to dig a hole every day and fill it in again, he might work for a while but in the end he will rebel; that is why seventy years of communism produced 200 million thieves and drunkards.”

Soviet Russia was worse than you think it was. So is current Russia.

[Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5/5)

Even if this thing didn't have a grain of truth to it, what's not to like about a first-person account of being a wanderer-drunk in the USSR? Such antics and actually beautiful prose at times from this one... thanks Margaret Killjoy for the rec!!

[James Oden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book in that it took me to a place I don't think I could ever go (and would not want to go if I could). On one hand there was a the dismal view of post WWII Russia with its corruption and the hopelessness, and on the other there was view of the life an alcoholic who slowly descended into a world of tramps and beggars. At times, when I forgot about his bouts with DT's, I would envy Ivan in that he had found a certain freedom in life, but then you realized that was just an illusion when the next arrest occurred. Occasionally, he would free himself from his bondage to alcohol, but then he was only one drink away from rekindling that old flame and cleaving deeply to her suffocating embraces.

Strangely as dark as this book can get, I was not left in a dark place after reading the book. Perhaps it was the honesty of Ivan in his reflections of his self destructive past, an honesty that was not sullied with cheap self pity, that made this story so compelling. It was for me a worthwhile book to read.

[Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book to read at a bar. I don't remember who gave me this book to read but it is entertaining, humorous and depressing. Worth picking up.