Walton Caroline, Petrov Ivan. Smashed in the USSR: Fear, Loathing and Vodka on the Steppes

Old Street Publishing Limited, 2013. BiographyIvan Petrov was born in 1934 in the industrial town of Chapaevsk. His father was shot by Stalin as an 'enemy of the people', and Ivan was brought up by his mother and violent stepfather - both alcoholics, along with most of the rest of the town. By his early 20s, Ivan had also succumbed to the lure of the bottle. 'Smashed in the USSR' is his eye-opening, frequently eye-watering story.