{"product_id":"under-the-sickle-and-the-sledgehammer-one-womans-private-diary-from-1930s-soviet-russia-9781803996691","title":"Under the Sickle and the Sledgehammer: One Woman's Private Diary from 1930s Soviet Russia","description":"\u003cp\u003eUnder the Sickle and the Sledgehammer was originally published in 1942, as war still raged between Finland and Soviet Union. Its writer was a Finnish woman who emigrated to Russia in the 1930s, convinced the new egalitarian state and workers' paradise would be a better life for her and her young son, hopeful once settled she could send for him. What followed was very different to what was promised: a life in constant fear, under intense government scrutiny, of purges and Great Wraths, good people imprisoned and shot; and state-run propaganda that spun a web of lies around its people. Kirsti \/ Kaarina eventually escaped, defying the odds when so many of her friends and loved ones did not, and recorded her memories under a pseudonym in what became the second most censored book from Finnish libraries after the war. This is the first English translation of this important memoir. Its original preface states: 'I simply want to provide an honest account of what my friends and I had to live through under the \"Stalinist sun\".'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e History Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/22\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781803996691\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224","brand":"Anna Hyrske, Kirsti Huurre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45131000414389,"sku":"9781803996691","price":30.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_f9f9f53c-803d-49f4-877a-5061bfce53fa.jpg?v=1740460243","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/under-the-sickle-and-the-sledgehammer-one-womans-private-diary-from-1930s-soviet-russia-9781803996691","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}