Among the Russians

by Colin Thubron

Release Date: 01 January, 2001

Edition: Paperback

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A trip through the Soviet Union

Written by someone who somehow managed to drive a clunker with UK plates through the Iron Curtain between West and East Germany and all the way to Moscow. Thubron then motors all the way to present day Azerbaijan and St.Petersburg. It is a snapshot not of present day Russia but of 1980 Soviet Union.

The faint glimmers of hope that these people held on to and their continual amazement at the fact the author would explain the West was afraid of them are an excellent historical reference. Told that we are the threat to the Soviet Union a lot of the people were both in awe and afraid of the author.

The amazing fact that he camped his way around a closed country is a great read of how they perceived us as much as a straight travelogue.

Well recommended

Flower in the Crannied Wall

Ride around with Thubron in the last years of the crumbling Soviet Union. He takes you into the apartment buildings to find some of the most interesting -- and heartening -- testaments to human color ever encountered in travel writing.

There are some truly jaw-dropping observations made by our driver as he stumbles upon people who are dealing with oppression in ways that "westerners" have never had to imagine.
Through the vodka, through the endlessly repeating housing blocs, Thubron takes us to a deeper, more personal understanding of life under the Soviets. On the way, he introduces us to individuals (yes, strong individuals) that are not easy to forget.