A new book by Rachel Polonsky called Molotov's Magic Lantern recounts the accidental discovery of a library belonging to a leading figure during the Stalinist era of Russian Soviet history.Whilst renting an apartment in a building known as "The Fifth House of the Soviets", during the late 1990s, Polonsky discovers from an American banker and fellow tenant that Molotov's books and furniture are upstairs.
Amongst this library is Winston Churchill's History of the Second World War, in which Molotov is described as a "human being who perfectly resembles the modern description of a robot".
Polonsky herself describes Molotov as a "bureaucratic monster". He was author of the notorious death lists between 1937-8.
However, Molotov, like Stalin himself, was undoubtedly a literary man steeped in the "approved classics" and their "sufferings of little men".
This image of "The Rat Swallower" is taken from the contemporary Laterna Magica Galante (Magic Lantern Show)Show. Timothy Garten Ashe's account of the 1989 revolutions across central and eastern Europe which brought about the collapse of the former Soviet Block is also called "The Magic Lantern".
