Reading group “Alpinistes de Staline” by Cédric Gras

Once a month, the reading group meets up to discuss a couple of books selected in advance (from classical to contemporary French literature) and discovers other members’ views on them. Meetings take place at the Institut français d’Écosse, usually on the last Tuesday of the month.

About the book :

The Abalakov brothers are among the most heroic Russian mountaineers of their generation. From the Caucasus to Central Asia, the two Siberian orphans embarked on numerous expeditions, eventually climbing the dizzying peaks of Stalin and Lenin in the 1930s in the name of power. Why did they subsequently fall victim to the Great Terror and Stalinist purges? From the KGB archives to Lenin Peak, Cédric Gras has investigated to reconstruct the exceptional and dramatic destiny of these two inseparable and then estranged brothers, who nevertheless lived through the Red Century dreaming of conquering Everest in the name of the USSR.