Bukharin’s Fate

The history of Nikolai Bukharin’s novel is almost certainly unique—even in the dismal twentieth century with its mountain of literature written by people doomed by politics. Normally we would be deeply moved by the tragic fate of the book and its author, but they are products of the Soviet experience, about which most of us have little if any such sentiment. Imagine, therefore, the history of How It All Began apart from its geography and politics.