Among the Russians
by Colin Thubron
Overview
From the Publisher
Here is a fresh perspective on the last tumultuous years of the Soviet Union and an exquisitely poetic travelogue. With a keen grasp of Russia's history, a deep appreciation for its architecture and iconography, and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for its people and its culture, Colin Thubron is the perfect guide to a country most of us will never get to know firsthand. Here, we can walk down western Russia's country roads, rest in its villages, and explore some of the most engaging cities in the world. Beautifully written and infinitely insightful, Among the Russians is vivid, compelling travel writing that will also appeal to readers of history and current events—and to anyone captivated by the shape and texture of one of the world's most enigmatic culture.
My thoughts
Well, it is certainly an interesting book, no doubt about that. I would have told you that it didn't have much of an impact on me, except I found myself making comparisons to current events on a daily basis as I read the book!
I grew up in the era where we feared the Russians. They were the bad guys, and anytime we played games, if you wanted to be on the wrong side, you were the Russian. I grew up in the era of missile silos -- there was one just a few miles from my house. It seems so foreign to me now.
Sometimes we complain that there's too much Big Brother in the US, but can you imagine living under the conditions of the Russian people in those days, afraid to speak your mind, afraid to say anything that might upset people who are listening. And yes, they were listening. I think the most powerful part of the book to me was to read how the Russian people dealt with their daily lives -- by turning to meditation to completely escape reality, by turning to vodka as pain relief, by spouting the party line into the known bugs in the apartment. I really can't imagine a life like that.
The other thing that caught me off guard was the way history is distorted in the minds of Russian people. The excerpt below demonstrates that point. I wonder how you ever overcome something like that? How do you retrain? Teach people that everything they thought was true is not?
We live in a funny world. If you want to read a book that has plenty of possibilities for discussion and controversy, this is the book for you.
Favorite Passage
I stared at my fellow-tourists. They were absorbed, devout. They whispered together. Only the girls looked rather bored.
The rooms unfolded before us like a liturgy. The god to whom they were dedicated was the one who wrenched his country into the industrial twentieth century and hurled back the Nazi invader. For the rest, the shrine was a sightless lie. There was no hint of the horrors which beset enforced collectivization; no mention of the cynical pact signed with Hitler in August 1939, nor of the partition of Eastern Europe; no suggestion that Stalin ever had a daughter -- she who defected to the West. Above all, those who died in the years-long reign of terror by torture, firing-squad, famine or sheer despair in labour camps -- the flower of Lenin's old collaborators, the cream of the Party, of the armed forces, the sciences, the arts, the secret police themselves, together with innocents whose numbers run into numbing millions -- all these (and the tens of thousands who killed them) were utterly suppressed. They screamed in silence.
