In her Nobel Prize-winning work, Svetlana Alexievich presents a monumental oral history of the collapse of the Soviet Union. She interviews hundreds of ordinary people, from party apparatchiks and soldiers to housewives and students, capturing their intimate stories of disillusionment, nostalgia, and hope. This polyphonic masterpiece delves into the psyche of 'Homo Sovieticus', exploring how individuals navigated the seismic shift from communism to a new, uncertain capitalist world. It is a profound and heart-wrenching chronicle of a lost empire and the enduring human spirit.