Sashenka, Montefiore - B

                                           This is a grand sweeping novel of  Russia covering the beginnings of the Revolution, to the horrible times of Terror,  through the end of the USSR. It covers three generations of a family and is written by a noted historian.  Montefiore's grandparents fled Tsarist Russia for Britain, and he has been highly acclaimed for his histories of the Stalin era.  This novel was very well-reviewed and is deft at providing some quality background into the winter of 1916-17 and  Stalin's pre-war Terror carried out so capably at the Lubyanka. Although he is a much better historian than novelist, his narrative of the plight of children whose parents were swept up by Beria and his henchmen is quite compelling. This book is from a few years ago and he has just published a complementary novel involving the cousins of the principal characters  here,  I intend to follow up with that a bit later in the year.