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    Black Earth: A journey through Russia after the fall
    Unavailable
    Black Earth: A journey through Russia after the fall
    Unavailable
    Black Earth: A journey through Russia after the fall
    Ebook795 pages12 hours

    Black Earth: A journey through Russia after the fall

    By Andrew Meier

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Due to the level of detail, maps are best viewed on a tablet.

    Russia today is a world in a dark limbo. The body politic is diseased, the state in collapse. Yet for all the signs of encroaching doom, Russians do not fear the future. They fear the past. Russians have long known theirs is not a land that develops and progresses. It careens, heaves, and all too often sinks.

    Once again, Russia stands at a crossroads getting by on little but faith, vodka and a blithe indifference to the moral and financial bankruptcy looming from all sides.

    Andrew Meier’s stunning debut explains a state in collapse; how millions of Russians have been displaced by the death of an ideology. It seeks to explain how the Russian government can increase defence spending by 50% whilst the poverty line cuts through a third of its households, and the people face epidemics of AIDS, TB, alcoholism and suicide.

    Russia’s story is told through the voices of Russians who live at the five corners of the nation. It is a dramatic portrait of Russia at a time when the old regime has given way, but the new has yet to take hold. Meier has travelled to the extremes – north to Norilsk above the Arctic Circle; east to Sakhalin, south to Vladikavkaz and west to St. Petersburg. And to Moscow.

    His writing is classic, poised, poignantly observant and richly human. No one has yet captured the historical, cultural and political disintegration of Russia as well as Andrew Meier.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJan 30, 2014
    ISBN9780007404612
    Unavailable
    Black Earth: A journey through Russia after the fall

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    Reviews for Black Earth

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Although the book is dated (copyrighted in 2003) I learned a lot about the people of Russia during that time. What was it like to survive the gulag? What was it like to survive Communism? Stalinsism? What was it like to live through the Oligarch's raping of Russian resources? Answers to these questions are found in the book. Meier shares answers from the common people. The books is interestingly written and I recommend it. (I bought my copy at a half-price book store.)
    • 5/5
      A very readable account of post-Soviet life written by a journalist with deep experience in living in in the country before and during perestroika as well as after 1991. The tone of the book is pretty pessimistic, but this is not surprising under the circumstances. The author has visited Moscow, St Petersburg, Chechnya, Norilsk in the far North and Sakhalin in the Far East. He captures the range and the warp and weft of Russian life much better than would an account solely based on experiences of life in the two main cities. A remarkable read and in places, esp. the section on Chechnya, quite horrific.
    • 4/5
      Nonfiction account of Moscow and the former Soviet Union after the fall of the empire. Interesting journalistic account.
    • 4/5
      Meier travels the lengths of Russia describing events, conditions, and the history of places that make up the character of the new (and old) Russia.