Down the Volga: A Journey Through Mother Russia in a Time of Troubles

by Marq de Villiers

A travel writer who took the "Mother Volga" river and traveled two thosand miles through Russia presents a study of the heart of Russia, discussing the land, the concerns of its people, and such sites as the birthplace of Lenin

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Born in South Africa, Marq de Villiers is a veteran Canadian journalist and the author of thirteen books on exploration, history, politics, and travel, including Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource (winner of the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction). He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and through Eastern Europe and spent many years as editor and then publisher of Toronto Life magazine. More recently he was editorial director of WHERE Magazines International. He lives in Port Medway, Nova Scotia. [Penguin Canada]

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the longest I've ever gone from buying a book to reading it. I got this nine years ago at Twice Sold tales in Farmington, and I never got around to reading it. Turned out to be much better than it looked on my bookshelf. I thought it was only a travelogue of a trip down the Volga river, but he actually works in a lot of interesting anecdotes about Russia, Russian history, and the last days of the Soviet Union. The most interesting thing here is that he took his trip and wrote this about a year before the Soviet Union collapsed, so everyone knows that things are reaching a breaking point but no one knows what's going to happen. He talks to regular people at every opportunity, and all the different conversations and opinions are really fascinating. Highly recommended.

[Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The time of troubles in Russian history originally referred to the period between the last of the Rurik dynasty (1598) and the establishment of the Romanov dynasty in 1613. Russia has seen many times of troubles since. in 1990, as the Soviet Union was coming unraveled, a Canadian journalist took a boat trip down the Volga river into the heartland of European Russia to talk to the people "on the street". A wonderful read. I actually emailed the author to see if he would repeat the trip today and write a sequel but no.

[V.M. Karren · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had to choose one book that I point to that made me the Fly by Night that I became in my early twenties, it was De Villiers travel log and stories he tells of the people he met and the places he visited in Down the Volga. This books open up the heartland of Russia to the uninitiated and brings us up or down to the same level; human beings. Put aside the propaganda and dogma in the conflict of East vs. West and we are more alike than we are different.

[Marie Ash-Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Want to know more about one of the great rivers of Europe, the Volga and its people? This is the book published in English in 1992, it is not a recent book but very interesting. I think the audience may be small but I found it enjoyable and educational.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

authors journey down Volga - Moscow to Caspian Sea sort of
The journey was 1991 so much of the data has changed. He is a good writer tells interesting stories about his travel and includes political and economic history of each town visited.

[RYD · Rating 3 out of 5]

A travelogue in USSR as it came crashing down, this book dropped off a lot in its second half, though it still wasn't without its charms.