Lost and found in Russia : encounters in the deep heartland

by Susan Richards

Paper Book, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

947/.40861092B

Publication

London ; New York : I.B. Tauris, 2009.

Description

Biography & Autobiography. History. Travel. Nonfiction. HTML: After the fall of communism, Russia was in a state of shock. The sudden and dramatic change left many people adrift and uncertain--but also full of a tentative but tenacious hope. Returning again and again to the provincial hinterlands of this rapidly evolving country from 1992 to 2008, Susan Richards struck up some extraordinary friendships with people in the middle of this historical drama. Anna, a questing journalist, struggles to express her passionate spirituality within the rules of the new society. Natasha, a restless spirit, has relocated from Siberia in a bid to escape the demands of her upper-class family and her own mysterious demons. Tatiana and Misha, whose business empire has blossomed from the ashes of the Soviet Union, seem, despite their luxury, uneasy in this new world. Richards watches them grow and change, their fortunes rise and fall, their hopes soar and crash. Through their stories and her own experiences, Susan Richards demonstrates how in Russia, the past and the present cannot be separated. She meets scientists convinced of the existence of UFOs and mind-control warfare. She visits a cult based on working the land and a tiny civilization founded on the practices of traditional Russian Orthodoxy. Gangsters, dreamers, artists, healers, all are wondering in their own ways, "Who are we now if we're not communist? What does it mean to be Russian?" This remarkable history of contemporary Russia holds a mirror up to a forgotten people. Lost and Found in Russia is a magical and unforgettable portrait of a society in transition..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member khiemstra631
Author Susan Richards, who is obviously fluent in Russian and comfortable in Russia, spent around sixteen years after the fall Communism journeying around in Russia. She visited the same town repeatedly and became good friends with several of the residents. The book follows the fortunes of these
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people and also the political climate of Russia in those years. It is obvious that the degree of freedom has decreased since those heady early days of post-Communism. Also, the fortunes of her friends rose and fell, sometimes repeatedly. The book goes through 2008, and it doesn't really have an ending, rather it comes to an end. The people are still living their lives and waging their struggle. Some, after a rise to the middle class, ended up in abject poverty. It's an interesting read about what happened in an amazing country. May it never happen here.
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LibraryThing member Clara53
This book describes the author's travels to Russia right after the fall of communism in 1992 up to 2008 - the time of enormous, almost day-to-day changes in the country. What impressed me about this author is that she writes not as a superior condescending westerner (at a time in Russia when it was
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so easy to do just that) but as a person who is herself vulnerable and eager to understand the mystery that is post-soviet Russia. At first, she writes, "The frightened little person who sits inside every Russian was starting to shrink ". But through the numerous trips to Russia during this period, Susan Richards understood that nothing is that simple in that country: "Again and again I had come against things I could not describe, because I didn't understand them. Doing so made me despair, for what kind of a writer was I if I couldn't lasso the reality around me into words?" Yet she did it brilliantly. We come away with a vivid picture of the events and people.
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Awards

Language

Original publication date

2009

Physical description

323 p.; 23 inches

ISBN

1848850239 / 9781848850231

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