Hotel USSR: Memoirs of a Soviet 'Non-Artist' (full color edition)

by Oleg Atbashian (Author)

37 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1724003324

ISBN-10: 1724003321

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(With color illustrations). As a child, he was promised abundance and freedom in a communist paradise. In that bright future, he dreams of being an artist. But as he grows up, he discovers that his dream is based on a fraud and that his country is really a dictatorship governed by bullies, liars, and thieves. He and the girl he loves find themselves trapped in a labyrinth of a dysfunctional utopia they call "Hotel USSR." Every aspect of their lives is regulated by improbable rules that override human nature. To live their dream, they decide to break the law. This takes him on a series of tragicomical adventures that feel like acts in the theater of the absurd: a worker in Siberian oil fields, an army conscript, an inmate at a forensic psychiatry facility, a visual propaganda artist, a Soviet dissident, and an immigrant to America. And everywhere he goes he draws pictures…Richly illustrated with the author's original artwork, this book is based on his own life story.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Author

It's a story of а young man coming of age in a totalitarian state. He wants to be an artist but he isn't authorized to buy paints. He wants to see the world but the authorities brand him as politically unreliable. He wants to get married but the system separates him from his bride. He listens to Hotel California and wishes he had their problems: he himself is stuck in a real-life trap that he "can never leave," and he calls it Hotel USSR. To check out, he must break every rule in the book.

This young man is me and this is my real life story. People have often asked me what growing up in the USSR felt like. This book is my answer. It's illustrated with my own drawings and paintings, which I did in my twenties before I quit drawing. The reason for quitting is in there as well.In addition to it being humorous and entertaining, I hope this story can be an eye-opener for younger people who may naively believe in the false promise of socialism. Rather than debating Marxism directly, I demonstrate how it fails in practice and what absurdities ensue when the entire state lives in denial of its failures, forcing people not to trust their own eyes.

Please also check out my other book, Shakedown Socialism.

About the Author

Oleg Atbashian is an American writer and graphic artist. He was born in Cherkassy, Ukraine, which was then part of the USSR. His writings present a view of America and the world through the prism of his Soviet experience. He is the author of Hotel USSR and Shakedown Socialism, and the creator of a satirical website, ThePeoplesCube.com.

Product details

Publisher : Independently published (September 25, 2018)
Language : English
Paperback : 209 pages
ISBN-10 : 1724003321
ISBN-13 : 978-1724003324
Item Weight : 13.9 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,132,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #491 in Design (Books)
- #4,607 in Artist & Architect Biographies
- #11,662 in Arts & Photography Criticism

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A. Simon

Communists tried to kill an artist's soul. They failed.

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2020

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I ordered this book because I am acquainted with the author's wonderfully satirical website, The People's Cube. I read it in two sittings. The book is an autobiography and the author was compelled towards art since childhood in the USSR. However, his inability to get adequate tutoring plus his incurable satirical comments about the society that he lived in prevented him from advancing. Worse, since he did not officially qualify as an artist, he could not buy artist supplies from the State. Nonetheless, he continued to draw. At the same time, he and his friends became mesmerized by Western rock music that was smuggled in through tapes (the book’s title derives from the song Hotel California: “You can check anytime you want, but you can never leave). Later, he ends up as a teacher of English in a remote village, a worker in Siberia, and a mental patient, all the while drawing with whatever tools he can fashion. And making sarcastic comments.

2 people found this helpful

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PAGE TURNER

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2020

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I got this to go with the other book that Oleg wrote. I was fascinated with the peek into his personal life in the Soviet Union. He is about my same age and now lives in Florida, but he may well have come from Mars when viewed from my life. His writing style is very easy to follow. He draws us in to his personal life and personal hope for his future with his riveting story of his coming of age in the Soviet Union and escape from there. I have loaned this book to my wife, and mother-in-law with top reviews from them. I recommend this book for all who want to take a quick and easy--yet personal--peek into growing up in the 1970s Soviet Union.

2 people found this helpful

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Peter Griffiths

The harsh realities of growing up in the U.S.S.R.

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2018

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Oleg tells the grim story of daily life under the boot heel of the government, but he tells it with a light touch, with humor, and without any complaining.
He tells of love, disappointment, crazy rules, brown pills, the army, and the artist union.
He eventually makes it to America and sees things (supermarkets) previously beyond his imagination.
It's in the end a happy/funny story which pulls you from page to page. I read it in two sittings.
I also recommend his previous novel "Shakedown Socialism" a devastating take down of the socialist system.
He currently runs a satirical web site ThePeoplesCube.com which is well worth the time to visit.

5 people found this helpful

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John Long

Great memoir about a way of life that made no sense

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2019

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Short and to the point. Lots of strong stories to back up the author's observations about Russian Communism. Anyone contemplating socialism should read this. Many years ago, I began looking for videos or books about life under Communism and was surprised at the lack. This will stay on my bookshelf.

3 people found this helpful

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Mary Ellen Holmen

THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT LIFE IN THE USSR.

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018

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I just finished "Hotel USSR" and was moved to tears over the things that happened to Oleg Atbashian while living in the Utopian communist paradise of the USSR. That he eventually triumphed and made his way to the United States is a tribute to his inexhaustible spirit, wry sense of humor, and his ability to penetrate the fog of BS that humans are regularly fed by their governments. His trenchant wit will help to keep you sane in the current political climate of our country. The examples of his art work are strangely compelling, emotional and powerful. Highly recommended reading!

--

3 people found this helpful

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Huge Parsons Fan

Everyone should read this book!

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2019

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I bought the full color edition of this book because I wanted to see the "non-artist's" work, along with reading the story. I truly believe that every American should read this book. As someone who appreciates our country, it made me appreciate our freedom and prosperity even more. But the people who REALLY need to read this book, are the young people, and anyone else currently espousing how Socialism is better than Capitalism. I believe reading this short book would give them a well-needed attitude adjustment! The story is compelling from the get-go, heartbreaking at times, funny at times, but an excellent read and I was glad to have the color pictures to look at as I was devouring the story. Thank you, Mr. Atbashian for bringing your true story to life and in a witty, concise, and thought-provoking way.

One person found this helpful

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Kevin in MN

Pulling back the Socialist curtain

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2018

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Great read. Answered many questions I had about how the old Soviet Union operated. Made me laugh and eyes water up a bit.

5 people found this helpful

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Gary W. Ritter

Cynical and Smart

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2019

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You've got to love ex-communists who "got it" through the deviancy of the state in which they lived. The author is one such who never fit in and was finally reward for his non-conformity. Several laugh out loud scenes because of the lunacy of an over-arching Big Brother.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Secret Agent Man

Poignant, heartbreaking, funny, and sobering

Reviewed in Australia on September 4, 2020

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This book is an autobiographical account of the author's life, beginning at his childhood in the Soviet Union, and ending with his eventual escape to the United States. The author writes in an easy, conversational style sprinkled with plenty of dry humor, even when dealing with a subject as terrible as life in the Soviet Union.

The book begins with the author's first encounter with the joys of socialism in third grade, when a teacher scolds him for drawing angels ("Religious propaganda is unworthy of future citizens of communism," she stated. "There will be consequences, for you and your parents.").

The author goes on to retell anecdote after anecdote of how, at every step, his dreams and desires were crushed under the hammer of Soviet socialism. He paints a stark picture of how, in a collectivist regime where your life belongs not to you but to the state in the name of the "greater good," every aspect of your life, from the smallest minutiae to major, life-altering choices, is controlled, and thereby ruined, by the State. He describes how, as a young artist, he was forbidden to buy paint because his paintings weren't socialist enough to earn the approval of the State ("art supplies are for union members only"). In another chapter, he recounts how he tries to check in to a hotel with his fiance, but isn't permitted to, and has his fiance insulted in the process. After wasting his childhood and youth sacrificing his every need and desire to the "greater good" and the bright communist future that was promised, he finally manages to escape to the United States, and highlights the contrast between the Workers' Paradise and the decadent capitalist state:
___

We've all heard the stories of how newly arrived Soviet immigrants would burst out crying on their first visit to an American supermarket. Those weren't the happy tears at the sight of abundance, but rather the tears of anguish at the discovery that everything they'd been taught about the world was a lie, that pain was not the norm of existence, and their sacrifice for the bright future turned out to be a cruel joke played on them by sadistic despots. All the shortages, waiting in lines, the bribes and kickbacks, the art of getting through the back door - none of it had been necessary. The rat race to obtain essentials, which had been their way of life for several generations - it wasn't normal. Abundance was possible without the five-year plans, quotas, rationing, propaganda, one-party rule, and fear of the all-powerful state.

I know that feeling of shock because I had the same experience, although not in the supermarket.

Walking around Manhattan, I once stumbled across a gigantic art supplies store on Canal Street. The sign said, "Pearl Paint: World's largest art and graphic discount center." I walked in with a sinking heart. Rows upon rows of shelves brimmed with products that catered to every artistic need. No gatekeeper was checking permissions, and no Artists Union card was required to make a purchase. I roamed through the aisles, recognizing a few familiar things and wondering about the purpose of tools and materials I hadn't encountered before. This might as well be an alien planet. I saw younger shoppers picking up those mysterious objects and dropping them into their baskets and carts; they obviously knew how to use them. After the first floor I went to the second, and then to the third. And then I imagined how different my life could have been and broke down in tears.

Ludwig

Hotel USSR: Where not you choose the rules of stay, but the (Soviet) rules choose where you stay

Reviewed in Germany on October 4, 2018

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To begin with: Interested in the topic or not, it's a nice read - Oleg A. has a way to write smoothly flowing, sparkling prose. And it brims with humor - gallows humor, that is, of Soviet variety.

And if interested in "how was life in the SU, that Communistan of yore, in post-Khrushchev era", or even broader in "how was the 'look-and-feel' of that Eastern bloc, generally", the Hotel USSR is a most worthy read.

The leitmotif - like a skeleton of a being: not visible, yet always there - of the story is: You live in a country hellbent on - declaratively, that is - making its peoples, at last (deadline: 1980!, says teacher) all equall and happy "according to anyone's needs", and then... as maturing teen's mind opens - look - THIS is what you get. The ossified USSR, the crumbling USSR, the collapsed USSR.

And the live flesh of the story - said invisible skeleton ever present - is the author's peregrinations (spawn point: Ukraine) in that vast archipelago of absurdity, the USSR (de facto cut off the outer world) and post-USSR (at first cut off the rule of law). Not conforming the "system", lacking connections to or support from the "system" caste, the author starts his post-high school life, more often than not pushed (or pulled) by the "system's" rules - such as they were, give or take.

From college (Foreign Languages), and some travels across Russia in between, to a school deep in the backcountry, then jump to West Siberia - kinda Brezhnev-era Party-operated Klondike. From road repair, to hospital, to draftee for Brezhnev's Afghanistan adventure, to hospital, to visual agitprop "designee" (Brezhnev era!), to hospital again, to draftee for Afghanistan again, to "Sgt. Hartman" (but Soviet-style), to hospital - nay, "psikhushka" this time, and back to Ukraine, and then back to Siberia. Wherefrom - and USSR about to pulverize - back to Ukraine. All that to and fro accompanied by the pull and push of faceless "rules".

And all the time drawing and painting - the author's passion since childhood, through schooldays, and later. Until his last return to Siberia, (author's words): [vacation in Ukraine, in his parents' apartment] I didn't want to look at my pictures again and stuffed them into my bedroom closet. Then I returned to Siberia.

Fast-forward, (author's words): In the summer of 2016 I visited Ukraine after a 22-year absence. My elderly parents now lived in my old two-bedroom apartment ...
And there was that closet, and all the paintings and drawings stashed there once upon a time. Now computerized, they form the live frame carrying the Hotel USSR book.

Hotel USSR: From kindergarten in the mid 60s to - three decades later - leaving Russia (not USSR anymore) for a new world: America.

At which point you learn (author's words): And then I imagined how different my life could have been and broke down in tears.
And you also learn (author's words): The pursuit of happiness cannot be delegated. No one can pursue your happiness for you.

A heartfelt, honest five stars for this book.

APPENDIX.
(author's words): I didn't understand many things about America then. I saw contradictions but couldn't explain them ...
(author's words): Years later, when I discovered the source of America's contradictions, I wrote and published my first book.

That first book is Shakedown Socialism (Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shakedown-Socialism-Pitchforks-Collective-Redistributive-ebook/dp/B004M8T110/ref=sr_1_1) and for general references/opinions just google "Atbashian Shakedown Socialism".

Fans of Atbashian-style humor (plus all solvers and non-solvers of the Rubik Cube) may - should! - take a gander at The People's Cube
(newbie? google it!).

More of Atbashian's drawings and paintings at his virtual art gallery - google "Atbashian Oleg's Art Gallery".

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Hotel USSR: Memoirs of a Soviet 'Non-Artist' (full color edition)

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