{"product_id":"dancing-on-thin-ice-9780998777030","title":"Dancing on Thin Ice","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this memoir, replete with Jewish humor and sardonic Russian irony, exiled Russian journalist and human rights advocate Arkady Polishchuk (b. 1930) colorfully narrates his evolution as a dissenter and his work on behalf of persecuted Christians in 1970s Soviet Russia.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Told primarily through dialog, this thrilling account puts the reader in the middle of a critical time in history, when thousands of people who had been denied emigration drew international attention while suffering human rights abuses, staged show trials, forced labor, and constant surveillance. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom 1950-1973, Polishchuk worked as a journalist for Russian state-run media and at \u003ci\u003eAsia and Africa Today,\u003c\/i\u003e where all of the foreign correspondents were KGB operatives using their cover jobs to meddle in international affairs. His close understanding of Russian propaganda, the use of kompromat against enemies and his knowledge of pripiski (defined as positive distortions of achieved results and \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe author has a tenacious eye, magnificent sense of humor, and deep understanding of the realities of Russian life under the rule of both Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. Even for me, who was an active participant in the dissident and Zionist movements in the USSR of those years, many of the events described here by the author were novelties. \u003ci\u003eDancing on Thin Ice\u003c\/i\u003e is exciting and mentally stimulating reading.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e– Eduard Kuznetsov\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003ePrison Diaries\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[He writes] with literary skill worthy of an I. J. Singer. [...] No dry facts or a brief review of his books could ever capture Arkady’s luminous nature. \u003cbr\u003e—Juliana Geron Pilon, \u003ci\u003eIsrael Journal of Foreign Affairs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSkillfully written and a page-turner, Arkady Polishchuk's memoir is about making a free man out of a slave and about the price an individual is prepared to pay for his freedom in today's tumultuous world. It helps to understand the processes taking place in modern Russia and its internal and external policies, including the aggressive attempts being made to revive Russia as a superpower. As an elite Russian journalist, Arkady Polishchuk rebelled and, despite facing formidable forces of the state secret police, found himself fighting the brutal regime. Among unique factors of his life were working with Soviet spies, attending anti-Semitic trials and at the same time collecting information on the persecution of Russian Evangelicals. Polishchuk's is a unique story, a Russian Jew dedicating his life to help his Russian Evangelical friends, and even working for a time with an American Evangelical mission.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e– Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky\u003c\/b\u003e, candidate for the Russian Presidency, 2008, and author of \u003ci\u003eTo Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePolishchuk describes much of his life with a chuckle. He says that the book is, in part, meant to convey the absurdity of the Soviet experience. But he acknowledges the deadly serious stakes dissidents and religious groups — like the evangelical Christian community he came to sympathize with — faced under the Communist Party. [...] Polischuk became a vocal advocate for evangelical Christians in Russia through his career as a journalist and lecturer working with Radio Free Europe and Amnesty International.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e– \u003ci\u003eWashington Jewish Week\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow did a Soviet Jewish dissident, raised an atheist communist, come to be a powerful voice on behalf of Russian evangelical Christians? […] It’s a true story of Cold War bravery and danger.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e– Howard Lovy, \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDancing on Thin Ice is a book by a dissident about dissidents. Arkady Polishchuk helped to break the silence of Western politicians and recognize the plight of persecuted Evangelicals in the Soviet Union. The memoir tells us about past events, about the KGB use of media outlets, but its subject certainly does not belong to history. It remains relevant today, while dissidents in different countries continue their struggle for human rights and liberty, their own and ours.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e– Dr. Yuri Yarim-Agaev\u003c\/b\u003e, Scientist and human rights activist; Member, Moscow Helsinki Group; President, Center for Democracy in the USSR\u003cbr\u003eArkady Polishchuk’s memoir of life as a Russian dissident uses an icepick forged of sardonic wit and personal experience to pierce deep into the hide of the Soviet system. [...] The book takes a sharp look at the dysfunction of the [U.S.S.R.], offering details that no one in the West could imagine. [...] An important memoir by a fearless man.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e– Susan Waggoner, \u003ci\u003eForeword Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe books that really stimulated thinking and kept me up at night countless times are those I take personally. [...] I recognize the settings, I commiserate with people, I know how horrible it is to feel stuck there. I could not sleep after \u003ci\u003eThe Russians\u003c\/i\u003e by Hedrick Smith; \u003ci\u003ePutin’s Russia \u003c\/i\u003e by Anna Politkovskaya; and \u003ci\u003eDancing On Thin Ice\u003c\/i\u003e by Arkady Polishchuk [...] The depressing surroundings of Polishchuk’s life might be hard to believe for a Western person—but it is re-counted with such journalistic vision and style that reading the book is both enlightening and entertaining.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e– Fiona Citkin, \u003ci\u003eThrive Global\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrologue: A Prison for Hedonists \t\t  11\u003cbr\u003e  The Cliff Edge Where It All Began   \t\t  36\u003cbr\u003e  The Life of the Blind \t\t\t\t  46\u003cbr\u003e  How to Become an Expert on Africa \t\t  67\u003cbr\u003e  What to Do If You Know Many Russian Spies \t  81\u003cbr\u003e  My Good Friends in the KGB \t\t\t  89\u003cbr\u003e  The Struggle for Purity in the Party Ranks\t  98\u003cbr\u003e  On the Horns of a Dilemma \t\t\t108\u003cbr\u003e  The Unpredictable World of Dissent \t\t118\u003cbr\u003e  The First Trial, December 1974    \t\t134\u003cbr\u003e  Different Courts Without a Difference   \t\t164\u003cbr\u003e  The Sweet Taste of Freedom\t\t\t173\u003cbr\u003e  More Dangerous Than Jews\t\t\t\t194\u003cbr\u003e  A Jewish Invasion of the Communist Sanctum\t\t204\u003cbr\u003e  How to Catch an American Spy\t\t\t\t214\u003cbr\u003e  The Assault on the American Embassy\t\t\t222\u003cbr\u003e  In the Cultist’s Lair\t\t\t\t\t232\u003cbr\u003e  Send-offs of Various Kinds\t\t\t\t262\u003cbr\u003e  New Life, Old Stars\t\t\t\t\t270\u003cbr\u003e  Russian Jews, a Russian Tiger,  and Some Other Russians  \t281    \u003cbr\u003e       Phantoms of the Past in the Shadow of Skyscrapers\t289\u003cbr\u003e  A Jew Who Spoke in Tongues\t\t\t\t306\u003cbr\u003e  My Russian Habitat in California\t\t\t\t317\u003cbr\u003e  Photographs and Documents\t\t\t\t329\u003cbr\u003e  Index \t\t\t\t\t\t\t343\u003cbr\u003e  Acknowledgments \t\t\t\t\t351","brand":"DoppelHouse Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49528728125783,"sku":"9780998777030","price":20.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780998777030.jpg?v=1731872754","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/dancing-on-thin-ice-9780998777030","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}