

- Fiction, History, Fiction, historical, general, Soviet union, history, revolution, 1917-1921, fiction
This book is about a young woman named Kira Argounova who is trying to live during the Soviet takeover of Russia. Kira wants to be an engineer, but the lack of freedom in Soviet Russia oppresses her. She becomes involved in a love triangle with Comrade Taganov and the mysterious Leo. The book is a philosophical exposition of the crushing nature of the collectivist philosophy, which oppresses the producers. “Can you sacrifice a few? When those few are the best? Deny the best its right to the top--and you have no best left. What are your masses but millions of dull, shriveled, stagnant souls that have no thoughts of their own, no dreams of their own, no will of their own, who eat and sleep and chew helplessly the words others put into their brains? And for those you would sacrifice the few who know life, who are life? I loathe your ideals because I know no worse injustice than the giving of the undeserved. Because men are not equal in ability and one can't trust them as if they were.”
Log it
Sign in to log this.
Character
Earnest, grave, resolved and classical in form.
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- resolvedopen-ended
- classical in formformally daring
- contemplativerelentless
Who loves it, who doesn't
No profiled raters yet.
Ask the title
A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
Reviews
No reviews yet.
About the book
- Author
- Ayn Rand
- First published
- 1936
- Pages
- 446
- Publisher
- Blackstone Audiobooks, Blackstone Audio, Inc., Cassell
- Editions
- 38
- Language
- heb, English
- ISBN
- 9780451234247
Where to read
Libraries first: a card gets you most books for nothing. Each opens that service’s page for this title.
On Open Library, 16 have read it and 59 want to.
“Petrograd smelt of carbolic acid.”
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;[a] February 2, [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (/aɪn/), was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. She wrote a play that opened on Broadway in 1935. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her
Similar in taste
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Tastebuds Other media included when they land close.
The Happiest Man on Earth 202077% alikeBoth earnest, grave, resolved.
The choice 190077% alikeBoth earnest, grave, resolved.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz 201875% alikeBoth earnest, grave, classical in form.
Black like me 196075% alikeBoth earnest, grave, classical in form.- A river in darkness 201774% alikeBoth earnest, grave, classical in form.
Between Shades of Gray 199974% alikeBoth earnest, grave, resolved.
The librarian of Auschwitz 201774% alikeBoth earnest, grave, classical in form.
Both earnest, grave, classical in form.
Paradise Road 199785% alikeFilm · Both earnest, grave, classical in form.
Firebird 202181% alikeFilm · Both earnest, grave, classical in form.