Ebook: What to do when the Russians come. A survivor’s guide.
- Year: 1984
- Publisher: Stein and Day
- City: New York
- Language: English
- pdf
Head for the hills cause the Russians are coming! …and we thought this book was a joke when we picked it up.
It’s not a joke.
It is though a fascinating cold-war era relic. It describes in great detail the doom of America after a full Russian invasion.
---------------------------------------
A reader's review from Amazon:
Unbelievable, Reagan-era propaganda, but fun!
ByA readeron December 1, 2005
This book was part of the huge multi-media effort in the mid-80s to scare the American public into paying for the Reagan defense buildup. (Others include Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War", the movie "Red Dawn", and the Milton Bradley game "Fortress America".) All have the same premise: the Soviets ARE COMING!!! All of them first terify you with visions of the massive Red War Machine marching down Main Street USA, then hold out the slender hope that IF (and only if) we spend the next 500 generations' worth of US tax income, we might just stop those Red Scum...maybe.
Given what we now know about the state of the Soviet military at the time, this was pure paranoid hype. The Soviets did have the capability to nuke Omaha, but not to occupy it with ground troops. However, this book and its comrades did succeed in terrifying Western audiences into plumping for that $5 trillion deficit to pay for scads of expensive weapons. As such, it is a terribly instructive historical learning tool. Yes, the book is complete garbage as a representation of any kind of true reality, but as a window into the ways that those in charge can manipulate people through fear, it is an excellent book. If you are a history teacher, I highly recommend using excerpts to instruct your students on cold war propaganda. Just don't be foolish enough to actually BELIEVE what Conquest and White are selling. One final note: it is quite honestly impossible to tell to what extent these commercial products were part of a coordinated administration/defense industry effort. Clearly, given what we know about the current government (and past governments) planting fake news, this is a possibility. On the other hand, so many millions of tax dollars were being spent scaring the American people in those days, that there was a ready-made market for this kind of fictional scare book. It may be that Conquest and White (as well as the others) were simply cashing in on a market already created in part by the US government. However, there is no doubt that whatever their intentions, they helped fuel the generally paranoid atmosphere of the times, and helped Ronnie run up that massive budget deficit that we are still paying for today. Enjoy!
------------------------------------------
From wikipedia:
What to Do When the Russians Come: a Survivor's Handbook (1984)
In 1984, Robert Conquest wrote, with Jon Manchip White, the fictional book What to Do When the Russians Come: a Survivor's Handbook which, however, was intended to be a real survival manual in case of Soviet invasion. This book, as many other works of the mid-80s in different media, like Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War", the movie "Red Dawn", and the Milton Bradley game "Fortress America", starts from the premise that a Soviet ground-invasion of USA could be imminent and Soviet Union was about to engulf the world.
"It is widely accepted that the United States now faces a real possibility of succumbing to the power of an alien regime unless the right policies are pursued. [This book's aim] is, first, to show the American citizen clearly and factually what the results of this possible Soviet domination could be and how it would affect him or her personally; and second, to give some serious advice on how to survive."
Conquest supported the Reagan defense buildup and asked for an increase of expenses on US defense budget, claiming that in the nuclear field NATO was only possibly matching USSR military power:
"We live in dangerous times. Such miscalculations are very possible. But they are not inevitable. The American people and their representatives have it in their power to prevent their country from undergoing the ordeal we have described. A democratic government, with all its distractions and disadvantages, [...] It is not infallible, it is slow to learn, and it is willing to grasp at comfortable illusions; but it may yet act decisively". "But why should we fear that such an ordeal may face us? The economic potential of the West in gross national product is far greater than that of the Soviet Union.[...]In fact, the Soviet Union is economically far behind the United States. American technology is always a generation ahead of theirs. They have to turn to the United States for wheat. The Soviet economy is at a dead end. The Communist system has failed to win support in any of the countries of Eastern Europe. The Soviet idea has no attractions. On any calculation—of economic power or social advance or intellectual progress there could be no question of the Russians imposing their will. But in terms of actual military power, the West's advantage does not seem to have been made use of. It is at least matched, and many would say overmatched, in the nuclear field; the Western forces in Europe have less than half the striking power of their opponents. It is no good our being more advanced than they are if this is not translated into power—both military power and political willpower."
In 1986, Conquest affirmed that "a science-fiction attitude is a great help in understanding the Soviet Union. It isn't so much whether they're good or bad, exactly; they're not bad or good as we'd be bad or good. It's far better to look at them as Martians than as people like us."
It’s not a joke.
It is though a fascinating cold-war era relic. It describes in great detail the doom of America after a full Russian invasion.
---------------------------------------
A reader's review from Amazon:
Unbelievable, Reagan-era propaganda, but fun!
ByA readeron December 1, 2005
This book was part of the huge multi-media effort in the mid-80s to scare the American public into paying for the Reagan defense buildup. (Others include Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War", the movie "Red Dawn", and the Milton Bradley game "Fortress America".) All have the same premise: the Soviets ARE COMING!!! All of them first terify you with visions of the massive Red War Machine marching down Main Street USA, then hold out the slender hope that IF (and only if) we spend the next 500 generations' worth of US tax income, we might just stop those Red Scum...maybe.
Given what we now know about the state of the Soviet military at the time, this was pure paranoid hype. The Soviets did have the capability to nuke Omaha, but not to occupy it with ground troops. However, this book and its comrades did succeed in terrifying Western audiences into plumping for that $5 trillion deficit to pay for scads of expensive weapons. As such, it is a terribly instructive historical learning tool. Yes, the book is complete garbage as a representation of any kind of true reality, but as a window into the ways that those in charge can manipulate people through fear, it is an excellent book. If you are a history teacher, I highly recommend using excerpts to instruct your students on cold war propaganda. Just don't be foolish enough to actually BELIEVE what Conquest and White are selling. One final note: it is quite honestly impossible to tell to what extent these commercial products were part of a coordinated administration/defense industry effort. Clearly, given what we know about the current government (and past governments) planting fake news, this is a possibility. On the other hand, so many millions of tax dollars were being spent scaring the American people in those days, that there was a ready-made market for this kind of fictional scare book. It may be that Conquest and White (as well as the others) were simply cashing in on a market already created in part by the US government. However, there is no doubt that whatever their intentions, they helped fuel the generally paranoid atmosphere of the times, and helped Ronnie run up that massive budget deficit that we are still paying for today. Enjoy!
------------------------------------------
From wikipedia:
What to Do When the Russians Come: a Survivor's Handbook (1984)
In 1984, Robert Conquest wrote, with Jon Manchip White, the fictional book What to Do When the Russians Come: a Survivor's Handbook which, however, was intended to be a real survival manual in case of Soviet invasion. This book, as many other works of the mid-80s in different media, like Sir John Hackett's "The Third World War", the movie "Red Dawn", and the Milton Bradley game "Fortress America", starts from the premise that a Soviet ground-invasion of USA could be imminent and Soviet Union was about to engulf the world.
"It is widely accepted that the United States now faces a real possibility of succumbing to the power of an alien regime unless the right policies are pursued. [This book's aim] is, first, to show the American citizen clearly and factually what the results of this possible Soviet domination could be and how it would affect him or her personally; and second, to give some serious advice on how to survive."
Conquest supported the Reagan defense buildup and asked for an increase of expenses on US defense budget, claiming that in the nuclear field NATO was only possibly matching USSR military power:
"We live in dangerous times. Such miscalculations are very possible. But they are not inevitable. The American people and their representatives have it in their power to prevent their country from undergoing the ordeal we have described. A democratic government, with all its distractions and disadvantages, [...] It is not infallible, it is slow to learn, and it is willing to grasp at comfortable illusions; but it may yet act decisively". "But why should we fear that such an ordeal may face us? The economic potential of the West in gross national product is far greater than that of the Soviet Union.[...]In fact, the Soviet Union is economically far behind the United States. American technology is always a generation ahead of theirs. They have to turn to the United States for wheat. The Soviet economy is at a dead end. The Communist system has failed to win support in any of the countries of Eastern Europe. The Soviet idea has no attractions. On any calculation—of economic power or social advance or intellectual progress there could be no question of the Russians imposing their will. But in terms of actual military power, the West's advantage does not seem to have been made use of. It is at least matched, and many would say overmatched, in the nuclear field; the Western forces in Europe have less than half the striking power of their opponents. It is no good our being more advanced than they are if this is not translated into power—both military power and political willpower."
In 1986, Conquest affirmed that "a science-fiction attitude is a great help in understanding the Soviet Union. It isn't so much whether they're good or bad, exactly; they're not bad or good as we'd be bad or good. It's far better to look at them as Martians than as people like us."
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