| Across the Moscow River |
|
ACROSS THE MOSCOW RIVER: THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
NA RUSSKOM
This is an eye-witness account of the last years of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev is the central figure, but other major politicians and many ordinary Russians also play their full part.
But it is more than a memoir. It places the remarkable events of 1988-1992 in the broader perspective of Russian history, and carries the story forward to Putin’s Russia in the year 2001.
It argues that Russia is not necessarily trapped in its authoritarian and imperial past, as many Western observers still maintain. Much that is happening in Russia today has never happened in the past: the openness of the country, the availability of information, the slowly increasing wealth at all levels of society despite the glaring injustices and disparities of income. The process of change is bound to be protracted, and there are bound to be setbacks. What is certain is Russia in fifty or seventy years time, however prosperous or liberal it may become, will have worked out its own destiny, taking what it wants from the experience of its European neighbours, but still very recognisably itself.
"Across the Moscow River” also attempts to explain the enduring fascination which Russia exerts on so many foreigners, including the present author.
REVIEWS
John Reed’s Ten Days That Shook The World became a classic account of the 1917 revolution. … Rodric Braithwaite's Across the Moscow River deserves to become the successor classic about the final undoing, in 1988 92, of Russia's 80 year experiment. ...It is an absolute must for scholars and will be a source of delight and insight for non scholars. (Brian Lapping)
Several British envoys to St Petersburg have felt impelled … to write their memoirs … but not all of Rodric Braithwaite's predecessors have approached their subject with such verve and general good sense, humour and learning, curiosity and caution. … He gives you just the texture and feel of what it was like to live though the ossification and death rattle of the Soviet regime - and to come out blinking on the other side. (Asquith, Spectator, 24 August 2002)
Braithwaite … is a man of brusque, elegant opinions and prose, with a quick, self-deprecating sense of humor. … [His] insights into the Cold War's endgame, particularly German reunification, are very useful. Best in the memoir, however, are his portraits of the Soviet officials with whom he dealt, the revealing, often amusing descriptions of his travels in the country, and the running account of his encounters amid the dizzying events of these years. (Legvold, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2002)
This was a wonderful book! Fresh, fast-paced, fascinating and immensely funny. The author was Maggie Thatcher's man in Moscow, he has an intimate knowledge of the Russian people and a great deal of experience in-country. His English humor (humour?) makes this book not just a chronicle of events, but a real gem. (Amazon.com reader’s review)
|
