What do you think?
Rate this book
Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia
Travels with NPR host David Greene along the Trans-Siberian Railroad capture an overlooked, idiosyncratic Russia in the age of Putin. Far away from the trendy cafés, designer boutiques, and political protests and crackdowns in Moscow, the real Russia exists. Midnight in Siberia chronicles David Greene’s journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway, a 6,000-mile cross-country trip from Moscow to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. In quadruple-bunked cabins and stopover towns sprinkled across the country’s snowy landscape, Greene speaks with ordinary Russians about how their lives have changed in the post-Soviet years. These travels offer a glimpse of the new Russia―a nation that boasts open elections and newfound prosperity but continues to endure oppression, corruption, a dwindling population, and stark inequality. We follow Greene as he finds opportunity and hardship embodied in his fellow train travelers and in conversations with residents of towns throughout Siberia. We meet Nadezhda, an entrepreneur who runs a small hotel in Ishim, fighting through corrupt layers of bureaucracy every day. Greene spends a joyous evening with a group of babushkas who made international headlines as runners-up at the Eurovision singing competition. They sing Beatles covers, alongside their traditional songs, finding that music and companionship can heal wounds from the past. In Novosibirsk, Greene has tea with Alexei, who runs the carpet company his mother began after the Soviet collapse and has mixed feelings about a government in which his family has done quite well. And in Chelyabinsk, a hunt for space debris after a meteorite landing leads Greene to a young man orphaned as a teenager, forced into military service, and now figuring out if any of his dreams are possible. Midnight in Siberia is a lively travel narrative filled with humor, adventure, and insight. It opens a window onto that country’s complicated relationship with democracy and offers a rare look into the soul of twenty-first-century Russia. map
354 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
160 people are currently reading
3601 people want to read
About the author
David Greene
85 books32 followersDavid Greene is co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition” and has reported on politics and events in Russia, the Baltic, and Libya. He lives in Washington, DC.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 378 reviews
November 8, 2014
Spoilt by the author's cultural arrogance. There is something 'off' in the tone of this whole book....but this sentence encapsulates it - 'I can't believe, looking backward twenty years, that I saw Russia as cold, oppressed, backward country, emerging from decades of terror amd on the cusp of enjoying the wisdom of America's way of life and system of government.'
The author may respect the Russians and value their culture in his own way, but his mind-set that the American way of life and government is so manifestly superior and the natural goal for any right-thinking person is just painful. The USA is not the centre of the universe, and all other cultures are not (thankfully!) destined to end up with an American style of democracy.
He is incredulous that the Russians aren't rioting in the streets demanding to be more 'democratic' and 'western', by which he always means American.
An intersting and somewhat informative book, but the overtone of cultural superiority and myopic view of culture and politics was a real disappointment.
The author may respect the Russians and value their culture in his own way, but his mind-set that the American way of life and government is so manifestly superior and the natural goal for any right-thinking person is just painful. The USA is not the centre of the universe, and all other cultures are not (thankfully!) destined to end up with an American style of democracy.
He is incredulous that the Russians aren't rioting in the streets demanding to be more 'democratic' and 'western', by which he always means American.
An intersting and somewhat informative book, but the overtone of cultural superiority and myopic view of culture and politics was a real disappointment.
May 21, 2016
You've watched American talk-shows, right? The author and narrator of this book is now host of NPR's Morning Edition. Before that he was NPR's Moscow bureau chief for 2.5 years. After concluding his post as bureau chief he took a second cross-country trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok, the basis for this book. He also throws in a few tidbits from his earlier travels. Tidbits, that is the word to be emphasized. The whole book reads as a talk-show program. Chatty, humorous, topics with general appeal, but lacking in depth. Musical elements are common in talk-shows. So of course in this book Greene spoke with the elderly but spirited Russian Babushkas who won the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. Greene speaks with passengers on the train. He traveled third class. He was going to talk with Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the ubiquitous AK47, but spoke only briefly with his son. He didn't speak really with all that many different ordinary people, and David Greene's Russian being as rudimentary as it was, he always talked through his translator, Sergei Sotnikov, also employed by NPR.
The end of the book, the portion in Vladivostok, is a total fizzle. It should have been rewritten or removed totally. Much of the book’s content is repetitive. What do we really learn from the Russians, the few he spoke with? Aren't we getting more the American correspondent's and his translator's views?
Here is what the book is saying in a nutshell:
-Russians don't and cannot be expected to comprehend what democracy is, all that it entails. At this point it is a concept utterly foreign to them.
-Russians want a leader that will put food on their plates. They want jobs. The moneyed and the elite can perhaps speculate about other issues such as environmental objectives. They want a leader of strength.
-Russians have an innate love of their homeland, a given that cannot be disputed.
-Corruption is rampant, another given, but combating it comes after survival.
I do not dispute these views, but neither would I classify them as revolutionary ideas.
As a narrator, Greene expresses himself in a familiar and jovial manner. His message is not hard to comprehend, but he speaks as if in a race. Who can speak the most words in ten seconds?! Air time is limited.
The end of the book, the portion in Vladivostok, is a total fizzle. It should have been rewritten or removed totally. Much of the book’s content is repetitive. What do we really learn from the Russians, the few he spoke with? Aren't we getting more the American correspondent's and his translator's views?
Here is what the book is saying in a nutshell:
-Russians don't and cannot be expected to comprehend what democracy is, all that it entails. At this point it is a concept utterly foreign to them.
-Russians want a leader that will put food on their plates. They want jobs. The moneyed and the elite can perhaps speculate about other issues such as environmental objectives. They want a leader of strength.
-Russians have an innate love of their homeland, a given that cannot be disputed.
-Corruption is rampant, another given, but combating it comes after survival.
I do not dispute these views, but neither would I classify them as revolutionary ideas.
As a narrator, Greene expresses himself in a familiar and jovial manner. His message is not hard to comprehend, but he speaks as if in a race. Who can speak the most words in ten seconds?! Air time is limited.
December 1, 2014
I wanted to like this so much more than I did.
First, it surprises me that someone who is educated, well-traveled, and who has lived several years in Russia can start from so strong a basic premise that of course all Russians should want their country to be just like America. Throughout the narrative, Greene seems continuously surprised when every Russian he meets doesn't instinctively seem to feel that America is better than Russia, and American democracy is better than any alternative.
(I can understand that ethnocentric premise, but not when it's coming from someone who has lived any extended period of time in Russia, and not when it's never examined critically. Do you really believe that the US offers the end-all, be-all of government systems? Then tell me why. I'm not going to take that as a given.)
I lived for two years in Crimea (when it was still a very Russian region of Ukraine). I remember my shock when one of my favorite people--a highly educated, traveled, and intelligent woman that I worked with and greatly respected--told me she thought life was much better under the Communist regime, and that she was a Communist. And she told me why. Many of the reasons she mentioned come up in Greene's book: life was easier for many of the poor, and more secure. The government provided opportunities to some who no longer have them because they have no money. And Democracy did not make a favorable impression in the early years.
Russians have great pride in their cultural heritage and their country; they don't want to be America. They look at America and see some good things, but also bad things. They don't take us as an ideal, just a (flawed) example. (And let's not even discuss how the West is portrayed in Russian media.) My impression is that few Russians have found a change they believe in enough to fight for.
Anyway, setting aside that major issue I had with the book (and which would have been much less of an issue if Greene hadn't mentioned so frequently that he'd lived in Moscow for three years prior to this trip), my other disappointment was that this was so little about travel or the tran-siberian railway. It was more a cultural examination, which I suppose I understand. But I wanted more train!
First, it surprises me that someone who is educated, well-traveled, and who has lived several years in Russia can start from so strong a basic premise that of course all Russians should want their country to be just like America. Throughout the narrative, Greene seems continuously surprised when every Russian he meets doesn't instinctively seem to feel that America is better than Russia, and American democracy is better than any alternative.
(I can understand that ethnocentric premise, but not when it's coming from someone who has lived any extended period of time in Russia, and not when it's never examined critically. Do you really believe that the US offers the end-all, be-all of government systems? Then tell me why. I'm not going to take that as a given.)
I lived for two years in Crimea (when it was still a very Russian region of Ukraine). I remember my shock when one of my favorite people--a highly educated, traveled, and intelligent woman that I worked with and greatly respected--told me she thought life was much better under the Communist regime, and that she was a Communist. And she told me why. Many of the reasons she mentioned come up in Greene's book: life was easier for many of the poor, and more secure. The government provided opportunities to some who no longer have them because they have no money. And Democracy did not make a favorable impression in the early years.
Russians have great pride in their cultural heritage and their country; they don't want to be America. They look at America and see some good things, but also bad things. They don't take us as an ideal, just a (flawed) example. (And let's not even discuss how the West is portrayed in Russian media.) My impression is that few Russians have found a change they believe in enough to fight for.
Anyway, setting aside that major issue I had with the book (and which would have been much less of an issue if Greene hadn't mentioned so frequently that he'd lived in Moscow for three years prior to this trip), my other disappointment was that this was so little about travel or the tran-siberian railway. It was more a cultural examination, which I suppose I understand. But I wanted more train!
February 2, 2015
This book describes a train journey across Russia and the people met.
The author works for Public Radio in the U.S. and was stationed in Russia for a few years; he made two trips from Moscow to Vladivostok.
There are interesting interviews but overall I felt this book like an introduction 101 course to Russia.
- overall there was a lack of depth
- I became tired of the author’s constant refer-back to his own country – such as comparing the landscape to Denver, to Pittsburgh...
- also tiresome was him viewing Russia through the lens of wanting to attain and become a liberal democracy. Historically Russia has never been close to a democracy.
- was it necessary to tell us that his wife was opening a restaurant in Washington DC and compare this to the entrepreneurial spirit in Russia
- his paranoia of being followed by the FSB
- only one-third of the book is concerned with Siberia
What does come across is the coldness of the Russian people in public contrasted to the warmth and intimacy with which the author is received in their homes.
Far better and more penetrating is Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People.
The author works for Public Radio in the U.S. and was stationed in Russia for a few years; he made two trips from Moscow to Vladivostok.
There are interesting interviews but overall I felt this book like an introduction 101 course to Russia.
- overall there was a lack of depth
- I became tired of the author’s constant refer-back to his own country – such as comparing the landscape to Denver, to Pittsburgh...
- also tiresome was him viewing Russia through the lens of wanting to attain and become a liberal democracy. Historically Russia has never been close to a democracy.
- was it necessary to tell us that his wife was opening a restaurant in Washington DC and compare this to the entrepreneurial spirit in Russia
- his paranoia of being followed by the FSB
- only one-third of the book is concerned with Siberia
What does come across is the coldness of the Russian people in public contrasted to the warmth and intimacy with which the author is received in their homes.
Far better and more penetrating is Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People.
December 18, 2014
I was disappointed that there was relatively little travel narrative involved (perhaps 30%), with the rest portraits of "average" Russians he met along the way. That having been said, Greene does an excellent job in carrying out his intention of getting across how those encounters changed his perception of Russia and its likely future. Critics of his American-centric outlook fail to note that at the end he accepts that, unlike say post-war Japan, it's not a matter of installing a western-style democracy in "up-and-running" mode, but realizing that Russians aren't coming from the same place historically, so that after the czars, Stalin, etc. they see a "strong executive" (so to speak) as a plus, though many said privately that said individual needs to crack down on corruption ASAP.
Being an NPR correspondent, Greene does an excellent job with the narration, so much so that I had to force myself to accept there was an underlying text, rather than his thoughts as though this were a very long phone message. I will say, however, the tone is a bit ... earnest at times, so by the later parts, I could only listen to so much at a time.
Being an NPR correspondent, Greene does an excellent job with the narration, so much so that I had to force myself to accept there was an underlying text, rather than his thoughts as though this were a very long phone message. I will say, however, the tone is a bit ... earnest at times, so by the later parts, I could only listen to so much at a time.
December 30, 2015
Both the title—Midnight in Siberia—and subtitle—A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia—are misleading. This book is neither a travelogue nor a train story. Rather, it is a kaleidoscope of encounters with ordinary Russians. How a train journey along the Trans-Siberian Railway makes the narrative special is not clear at all: the author could have met the same group of characters in any park or café in Moscow where he worked as an NPR bureau chief. Siberia, so prominently featured on the cover, is regrettably not in the spotlight. Even geographically speaking, he doesn’t set foot in Siberia until the middle of the second half of the book.
Greene embarks on his journey with a fairly rigid set of ideas and impressions of Russia and its people, what’s more, the train ride only reinforces his existing beliefs. He seems to be prone to ‘myside’ bias, seeking information which will confirm it. Half of the people with whom he talks are not new: he had met them during his journalistic stint in Moscow. Some of his generalizations are nothing but laughable. E.g., describing a restaurant scene in the capital, he concludes, not for the last time in the book, that Russia has a long way to go before it sheds its Soviet legacy, because Russian wine drinkers “undervalue more obscure wines highly respected in the West.” Since when did the oenological preferences become a measure of a country’s progress?
Naturally, I expect a transformation, if not a revelation, from a journey as vast and diverse as this one. Yet, the story lacks development. I also feel it lacks wit at times: some pages are plainly bland. On the other hand, photographs selected for the book (taken by Greene, his travel companion and translator, and another NPR correspondent) are genuine and warm. They show that the author does have strong feelings for Mother Russia.
Greene embarks on his journey with a fairly rigid set of ideas and impressions of Russia and its people, what’s more, the train ride only reinforces his existing beliefs. He seems to be prone to ‘myside’ bias, seeking information which will confirm it. Half of the people with whom he talks are not new: he had met them during his journalistic stint in Moscow. Some of his generalizations are nothing but laughable. E.g., describing a restaurant scene in the capital, he concludes, not for the last time in the book, that Russia has a long way to go before it sheds its Soviet legacy, because Russian wine drinkers “undervalue more obscure wines highly respected in the West.” Since when did the oenological preferences become a measure of a country’s progress?
Naturally, I expect a transformation, if not a revelation, from a journey as vast and diverse as this one. Yet, the story lacks development. I also feel it lacks wit at times: some pages are plainly bland. On the other hand, photographs selected for the book (taken by Greene, his travel companion and translator, and another NPR correspondent) are genuine and warm. They show that the author does have strong feelings for Mother Russia.
December 10, 2014
Unless you have an inordinate desire to read everything you can about Siberia, you probably don't want to read this book. All too obvious is the fact that this is the author's first book. While he heaps thanks to his editor for all of her help and guidance (to find a voice, for instance), I kept wondering what the first draft looked like if this was the much improved version. The voice David Greene found is naive, judgmental, and superficial. The structure of the book--each named after a person he meets along his way on the Trans-Siberian Railway--is formulaic. The dialogue s insipid, description generic (except when he is describing people's clothing), and the pace is tedious. The cliches are particularly annoying.
As a long-time teacher of college writing, I had many students who could write circles around Greene. Granted, Norton Publishers came to him after Greene did an NPR series on a previous Trans-Siberian train trip and pitched the book to him. However, they could have found a much more interesting person and writer to pen this book. David Suchet's observations and intelligence while riding the Orient Express is a case in point. He would have given us a much more interesting ride.
As a long-time teacher of college writing, I had many students who could write circles around Greene. Granted, Norton Publishers came to him after Greene did an NPR series on a previous Trans-Siberian train trip and pitched the book to him. However, they could have found a much more interesting person and writer to pen this book. David Suchet's observations and intelligence while riding the Orient Express is a case in point. He would have given us a much more interesting ride.
December 5, 2017
I was a bit disappointed by this book. One of my goals is to take the Trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow to either Vladivostok or Beijing. Despite the title, only 40% of the book takes place in Siberia -- and only about 10% or less on the train. Most of Midnight in Siberia consists of interviews with Russians about the fate of their country. David Greene does creditable job making the interviews interesting, but it wasn't what I was looking for.
January 22, 2016
I was disappointed by Midnight in Siberia. Having been to Russia, but only visited its two major cities Moscow and St Petersburg, I was keen to read about change in the rest of the country. David Greene is an American journalist for NPR* who had been working in its Moscow Bureau, so I expected him to be not only knowledgeable about the country, but also to be able to access people and places unavailable to mere tourists such as myself. What I was not expecting was for him to use his book to sneer at so much of Russian life in a way that was eerily reminiscent of Cold War tabloid journalism. While we all know that Russia is in the news at the moment for all the wrong reasons, he harps on about the deficiencies of their political system and standard of living compared to America’s ad nauseam. All travel memoirs are necessarily selective about their impressions, but I felt as if I were reading propaganda, not a travel memoir…
It’s not my intention here to belittle America but some of his most trenchant criticisms might well apply to Greene’s own country. To give just one example, he is critical of Russian oligarchs as if his own country doesn’t have its share of obscenely rich people while the underclass go hungry and homeless. I am not proud to say that here in Australia we do too. Obscenely rich people are a global phenomenon and so are their spawn, the hungry and the homeless. Highly visible begging used to be a third-world phenomenon but it arrived in the West with Thatcherism and Reaganomics, and it hasn’t gone away. I share Greene’s distaste for Russia’s oligarchs, but what I’m interested in is an analysis of what went wrong and how it could have been prevented: how should a country make the transition from a communist state with a managed economy to democracy and a market economy? It’s easy to be snide after the event, but the West was cheering from the sidelines when the USSR collapsed and there was little talk of slowing the pace of change to ensure that the carve-up was fair.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/01/03/mi...
It’s not my intention here to belittle America but some of his most trenchant criticisms might well apply to Greene’s own country. To give just one example, he is critical of Russian oligarchs as if his own country doesn’t have its share of obscenely rich people while the underclass go hungry and homeless. I am not proud to say that here in Australia we do too. Obscenely rich people are a global phenomenon and so are their spawn, the hungry and the homeless. Highly visible begging used to be a third-world phenomenon but it arrived in the West with Thatcherism and Reaganomics, and it hasn’t gone away. I share Greene’s distaste for Russia’s oligarchs, but what I’m interested in is an analysis of what went wrong and how it could have been prevented: how should a country make the transition from a communist state with a managed economy to democracy and a market economy? It’s easy to be snide after the event, but the West was cheering from the sidelines when the USSR collapsed and there was little talk of slowing the pace of change to ensure that the carve-up was fair.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2015/01/03/mi...
June 13, 2015
Poorly written, naive and patronising attempt to summarise people quickly and with little research. Observations of people are fine - but the author is attempting to force his observations, through his own, oddly uninformed lens, into representing the largest country in the world.
Main issues:
Irritating phonetic spelling of Russian throughout; overuse of quotes from the author's non-Russian, cynical and witless wife as though she were a voice of authority; questionable interview tactics; odd choice of subjects; repetitiveness suggesting a very poor editing job; and continual self congratulation throughout.
I truly hope this book isn't seen by readers as giving an authentic view of Russia. Throughout, I was faced with visions of the author patting all the Russians and Uzbeks etc. he met on the head from his oh-so-high place. He has a shameful lack of self awareness. I would love to hear the other side of the story - what the Russians he met actually thought of him.
Main issues:
Irritating phonetic spelling of Russian throughout; overuse of quotes from the author's non-Russian, cynical and witless wife as though she were a voice of authority; questionable interview tactics; odd choice of subjects; repetitiveness suggesting a very poor editing job; and continual self congratulation throughout.
I truly hope this book isn't seen by readers as giving an authentic view of Russia. Throughout, I was faced with visions of the author patting all the Russians and Uzbeks etc. he met on the head from his oh-so-high place. He has a shameful lack of self awareness. I would love to hear the other side of the story - what the Russians he met actually thought of him.
March 28, 2015
This book inspired me to know more about Russia, its history and its people..it felt like a great bridge in between the things that I already knew, and the things I would love to know more about.
"Midnight Train to Siberia" is a window to the life of people in Russia from an American point of view, a portrait of a country that is struggling to find its identity. Most of the people that David Greene encounters share the difficulties of being born in a time of change, their mixed feelings about Putin, their weird melancholy for that sense of order that somehow Stalin had established ( but definitely not for his cruelty and tyranny).
The past of a country shapes its culture and its people, and Russia definitely had a very tough one, which is why the present looks so uncertain, although there's high hope for the future.
If you are interested in a very readable book about modern Russia and would like to travel through it, I recommend this book. You'll embark in a very interesting and pleasant journey through a country that seems so cold, but that reveals incredible pockets of warmth
"Midnight Train to Siberia" is a window to the life of people in Russia from an American point of view, a portrait of a country that is struggling to find its identity. Most of the people that David Greene encounters share the difficulties of being born in a time of change, their mixed feelings about Putin, their weird melancholy for that sense of order that somehow Stalin had established ( but definitely not for his cruelty and tyranny).
The past of a country shapes its culture and its people, and Russia definitely had a very tough one, which is why the present looks so uncertain, although there's high hope for the future.
If you are interested in a very readable book about modern Russia and would like to travel through it, I recommend this book. You'll embark in a very interesting and pleasant journey through a country that seems so cold, but that reveals incredible pockets of warmth
May 5, 2015
I had high hopes for Midnight in Siberia, as I have read and enjoyed several travelogues that take place on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The premise was sound, and the people he met along the way that he uses to tell the story were interesting and deserved far more attention than they received. The writing was mediocre, and when combined with cringeworthy naivete and obsequious obeisance to the "We Are the World" dogma of political correctness (the author works for NPR, enough said), was enough to render a promising narrative sterile.
May 29, 2023
This was an interesting look at Russian cultural identity in the age of Putin - before the most recent wars. David Greene took a trip on the Trans-Siberian railroad and made many stops along the way to interview Russians of various backgrounds. I found the stories interesting and they definitely gave a sense of how the average people in Russia felt about their country and their lives. I thought Greene was a solid writer that kept the narrative flowing.
January 15, 2015
I hoped for much from this book as I enjoy listening to NPR and David Greene. I was disappointed. Having read Ian Frazier's "Travels in Siberia" probably ruined me as it was far superior in style, tone and information gathered from the reading. This book seemed like Mr. Greene's well kept travel diary, like the ones I keep on trips with one exception. He was inordinately fixated on Vladimir Putin. Granted, Putin is not a likable guy, in fact likely very dangerous. But does it seem slanted to hear Greene ask nearly everyone he encountered what they think of Putin? We can surmise. Yet, again and again the agenda seemed to be "What do you think of Putin….." with lots of subsequent text giving Greene's opinion and interpretation of modern day Russia and how it has been diminished under the rule of this egocentric, cartoonish thug who has a fist grip on the country as if it were his own piggybank and social club. We got it already. I wanted to hear more about the trip itself, the history of the railway, the life in the small villages, maybe the gulags along the way. Not much of that here. So, I have finally turned my attention to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago," a book that has sat on my shelf for decades as I am intimated by its length. My interest in this aspect of Russia is driven by the loss of my 3 uncles, who were German soldiers that never returned from the German campaign in Russia, WW2. Not only did they not return, there was never any word of their fate. I simply want to have a sense of what they may have seen, even though I am fairly certain they saw either a quick death outside Lenigrad or a slow one in Siberia.
This book, a quick read, is perhaps a starting point for those interested in Russia, but if your interest is deep, look beyond.
This book, a quick read, is perhaps a starting point for those interested in Russia, but if your interest is deep, look beyond.
December 26, 2014
I knew I was in trouble with this book on the first page of the Prologue. The second sentence used the wrong word: "at" instead of "as." This was not the only error, as I found tons. I began writing them down thinking that I was going to contact the author/publisher. It seemed as if the publication of this book was rushed. It's badly in need of a proofreader.
Between bad spelling, missing words, incorrect usage and the fact that it's not really a train story, it was a disappointment.
Between bad spelling, missing words, incorrect usage and the fact that it's not really a train story, it was a disappointment.
April 16, 2020
Somehow this book made me want to go to Russia, despite...being very clear about the coldness of the climate and the people, the difficulty of the journey and the way of life. An immersive and interesting piece of travel writing--and as someone who loves to travel but kiiiiind of hates reading most travel writing, that is high praise!
June 20, 2025
The world according to David Greene, or rather, "Russia according to how David Greene thinks it ought to be". This book is filled with David Greene mansplaining what Russians need to do to change things there.
The "train journey" is not featured as much as you would think, because in reality, much of the scenery on the way out to Siberia is bleak and stark. Most of the time is spent with David speaking to friends in their kitchens or at restaraunts and bars as they tell David their stories.
From the Decemberists to Putin, Russia's growth is detailed. The great poets and writers are alluded to.
After graduating from Harvard University (where he was an editor of the Harvard Crimson). In 2005, Greene joined NPR . From 2010 to 2012, he was a foreign correspondent for NPR based in Moscow, and from 2012 to 2020 helped host Morning Edition.
The "train journey" is not featured as much as you would think, because in reality, much of the scenery on the way out to Siberia is bleak and stark. Most of the time is spent with David speaking to friends in their kitchens or at restaraunts and bars as they tell David their stories.
From the Decemberists to Putin, Russia's growth is detailed. The great poets and writers are alluded to.
After graduating from Harvard University (where he was an editor of the Harvard Crimson). In 2005, Greene joined NPR . From 2010 to 2012, he was a foreign correspondent for NPR based in Moscow, and from 2012 to 2020 helped host Morning Edition.
March 18, 2023
Pretty interesting listen via audiobook. I've always been fascinated by Russia. I would like to take the same trek someday. The ending was quite abrupt but I still enjoyed the ride.
January 23, 2021
I was looking forward to reading Midnight in Siberia because I enjoy Greene’s segment on NPR (and his lovely voice), but this was ultimately very disappointing.
While he provides some cool insight on the Trans-Siberian Railway experience, I found myself constantly cringing at his arrogance and patronizing tone during the interviews with locals. Greene can’t seem to comprehend that people willingly live outside of the United States.
Honestly, this deserves two stars, but the Buranovskiye Babushki chapter alone warrants a third. They are a lovely bunch.
While he provides some cool insight on the Trans-Siberian Railway experience, I found myself constantly cringing at his arrogance and patronizing tone during the interviews with locals. Greene can’t seem to comprehend that people willingly live outside of the United States.
Honestly, this deserves two stars, but the Buranovskiye Babushki chapter alone warrants a third. They are a lovely bunch.
February 25, 2015
"They are in effect still trapped in a history which they do not understand and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it." - James Baldwin (A little out-of-context, but trust me it applies here.)
I have read quite a few books written by or about Russians. My introduction to Russian literature was Notes from Underground, which I only read because of its links to my favorite novel Invisible Man. Despite the incidental connection, I became fascinated with Dostoevsky and his literary peers, but not so much the country. It is the same with liking Shakespeare, Donne, and Dickens without becoming an extreme Anglophile. This book marks one of the few, if not first, non-fiction books I have read about Russia.
David Greene's trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway is not unique in itself (there is an entire industry devoted to it), but his probing into contemporary, and by extension not so contemporary, Russian history and culture is amazing. To be honest, I was born a year before the Soviet Union collapsed and really had no opinion or thoughts on Russia whatsoever growing up. My primary school still had maps and globes from the Cold War that showed USSR and Yugoslavia and such, but beyond causing minor, mild confusion (remember no more Soviet Union and Balkan Wars on the news everyday) no one cared.
Of course, Russia in recent years has been doing everything possible to make the world care again, with the War in Ukraine being the latest issue. This book serves as a look to what ordinary Russians, from Moscow to Vladivostok, think about the current situation (2012) of their country since the end of the Soviet Union through the 1990s Oligarchy until the current-era of Putin. No one knows how the future will end, most long for the Soviet past, and no one is satisfied with the present, but feel it their duty to endure.
I do not know what one thing to seize upon in this book because it tackles so much, but I will take the political science angle. Russia confirms, once again that you cannot take it for granted that democracy is the state in its "final form" (sorry Mr. Francis Fukuyama, but you are zero for how many now?), but that old-fashioned autocracy in 21st century has its limits. You observe a slow build to democracy, but you also learn the dangers of trying to leap haphazardly from autocracy to democracy without properly transitioning (the danger is you get Yeltsin and Putin).
Contemporary Russia, through Greene's eyes, is contradiction at its best. Whatever assumptions you have about Russia, just throw it out the window when you read this book. The media does a half-ass job at assessing this country (and I mean Russian media as much as I mean western media). I better understood the complex nature of Soviet-nostalgia and I see more that a sense of not having "togetherness" or "not having each other's back" as the main driver of most of the unsavoriness and anxiety that comes out of Russia these days (this is my hypothesis, one among many). Looking back on this book, the power of nostalgia is incredible and frightening in the same way.
I feel now that I get "it" a little better, when it comes to modern Russia. I understand Dostoevsky a little better and I need to make a note to pick up a book on The Decembrist Revolt.
I have read quite a few books written by or about Russians. My introduction to Russian literature was Notes from Underground, which I only read because of its links to my favorite novel Invisible Man. Despite the incidental connection, I became fascinated with Dostoevsky and his literary peers, but not so much the country. It is the same with liking Shakespeare, Donne, and Dickens without becoming an extreme Anglophile. This book marks one of the few, if not first, non-fiction books I have read about Russia.
David Greene's trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway is not unique in itself (there is an entire industry devoted to it), but his probing into contemporary, and by extension not so contemporary, Russian history and culture is amazing. To be honest, I was born a year before the Soviet Union collapsed and really had no opinion or thoughts on Russia whatsoever growing up. My primary school still had maps and globes from the Cold War that showed USSR and Yugoslavia and such, but beyond causing minor, mild confusion (remember no more Soviet Union and Balkan Wars on the news everyday) no one cared.
Of course, Russia in recent years has been doing everything possible to make the world care again, with the War in Ukraine being the latest issue. This book serves as a look to what ordinary Russians, from Moscow to Vladivostok, think about the current situation (2012) of their country since the end of the Soviet Union through the 1990s Oligarchy until the current-era of Putin. No one knows how the future will end, most long for the Soviet past, and no one is satisfied with the present, but feel it their duty to endure.
I do not know what one thing to seize upon in this book because it tackles so much, but I will take the political science angle. Russia confirms, once again that you cannot take it for granted that democracy is the state in its "final form" (sorry Mr. Francis Fukuyama, but you are zero for how many now?), but that old-fashioned autocracy in 21st century has its limits. You observe a slow build to democracy, but you also learn the dangers of trying to leap haphazardly from autocracy to democracy without properly transitioning (the danger is you get Yeltsin and Putin).
Contemporary Russia, through Greene's eyes, is contradiction at its best. Whatever assumptions you have about Russia, just throw it out the window when you read this book. The media does a half-ass job at assessing this country (and I mean Russian media as much as I mean western media). I better understood the complex nature of Soviet-nostalgia and I see more that a sense of not having "togetherness" or "not having each other's back" as the main driver of most of the unsavoriness and anxiety that comes out of Russia these days (this is my hypothesis, one among many). Looking back on this book, the power of nostalgia is incredible and frightening in the same way.
I feel now that I get "it" a little better, when it comes to modern Russia. I understand Dostoevsky a little better and I need to make a note to pick up a book on The Decembrist Revolt.
December 22, 2014
a bit of traveling on the siberian express, and a bit about the railroad itself, and a bit about history of the railroad and history of russia/ussr/russia. but lots about individual russians today (2011-2013) with fairly interesting interviews and analysis by author. and interesting reporting on using translators and being a not-very-good russian speaker/reporter in russia.
some takeaways: 2011 street protests and rallies for a differnt leadership than the same old putin regime author greene says was mostly driven by the new middleclass in russia. folks who have some free time, some real experiences with world outside russia, and who are sick of the dysfunction, corruption, violence and danger, and bullshit of putin idea of russia. he contrasts that with many many peoples, the populist russia, nostalgia for ussr and how things were stable, health, education, jobs, housing were stable, and strong leader kept things stable., and contrasts that with the very rich, who like the way things are going right now just fine.
a good read about russia, if not that nuanced (though he does seem to take a lot of knowledge from figes, which is a good thing , though not this particular title i don't think, but figes is figes yo Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A History ) and a bit pedantic about his views of ussr/russia circa 1991 and now 2013 (he had always thought, and could not understand why, russia would automatically change over to a neoliberal democracy, poor poor greene, brainwashed by the neo's)
some takeaways: 2011 street protests and rallies for a differnt leadership than the same old putin regime author greene says was mostly driven by the new middleclass in russia. folks who have some free time, some real experiences with world outside russia, and who are sick of the dysfunction, corruption, violence and danger, and bullshit of putin idea of russia. he contrasts that with many many peoples, the populist russia, nostalgia for ussr and how things were stable, health, education, jobs, housing were stable, and strong leader kept things stable., and contrasts that with the very rich, who like the way things are going right now just fine.
a good read about russia, if not that nuanced (though he does seem to take a lot of knowledge from figes, which is a good thing , though not this particular title i don't think, but figes is figes yo Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A History ) and a bit pedantic about his views of ussr/russia circa 1991 and now 2013 (he had always thought, and could not understand why, russia would automatically change over to a neoliberal democracy, poor poor greene, brainwashed by the neo's)
September 7, 2016
David Greene is host of NPR's Morning Edition. He spent over two years in Russia as NPR's Moscow Bureau chief. While there he traveled the Trans-Siberian Railway in order to interview people from all walks of life in big towns and small.
This is exactly my sort of book. It is simply about normal people, what is going on in their lives and what they think. He met young and old, yet there were definite things they all had in common.
Outside in public, they were all impersonal in a Bradbury-esque dystopian way. No one smiles or makes eye contact. The author saw two girls get hit by a car, but no one stopped hurrying by.
Yet, the author found that inside their houses they were the epitome of hospitality, welcoming you like a family member, loading food on you, drinking lots of alcohol (that the author felt obligated to join) and talking hours into the night.
He also encountered horrible bureaucracy for the simplest of things. Getting a train ticket or checking into a hotel required mountains of paperwork. He also noticed that he was followed everywhere.
Life is very, very hard in Russia. There is grinding poverty, although some people have huge wealth. Almost every woman Greene met was a single mom because she either kicked out her drunken husband or she was widowed because he drank himself to death. Depressing.
Also depressing is how corrupt the police force is and even more depressing is how every Russian he talked to decided that democracy didn't work and they needed another Stalin.
This is exactly my sort of book. It is simply about normal people, what is going on in their lives and what they think. He met young and old, yet there were definite things they all had in common.
Outside in public, they were all impersonal in a Bradbury-esque dystopian way. No one smiles or makes eye contact. The author saw two girls get hit by a car, but no one stopped hurrying by.
Yet, the author found that inside their houses they were the epitome of hospitality, welcoming you like a family member, loading food on you, drinking lots of alcohol (that the author felt obligated to join) and talking hours into the night.
He also encountered horrible bureaucracy for the simplest of things. Getting a train ticket or checking into a hotel required mountains of paperwork. He also noticed that he was followed everywhere.
Life is very, very hard in Russia. There is grinding poverty, although some people have huge wealth. Almost every woman Greene met was a single mom because she either kicked out her drunken husband or she was widowed because he drank himself to death. Depressing.
Also depressing is how corrupt the police force is and even more depressing is how every Russian he talked to decided that democracy didn't work and they needed another Stalin.
October 14, 2021
Very interesting. I listened to this as an audiobook. The book was written before Trump became President, even before his campaign started. David Greene often wonders why the Russians don't try harder, or don't seem to want it more, to become like the US, to be "free" and democratic. Ironically, in his words, the words of the people he interviews, Putin's words and ideas, you hear Trump. Or Bannon. It's easy to recognize the philosophy behind certain ideas and motives. Russia is not moving towards America's model of society, the US is moving towards Russia's authoritarian system.
August 18, 2015
a.) Author visits home of ex-cop who was wrongfully accused of abducting a girl, who became paralyzed when he escaped authorities who were torturing him during an interrogation:
"'I do my best for my son,' Lyudmila says, almost apologetically. She points to the wheelchair in the corner of the room. 'He can't walk. The doorways in our flat are too narrow for the wheelchair. It doesn't fit in the bathroom, so I lift him up and put him on the toilet. It's not easy.' She's smiling. 'He's a big guy!'" (p. 112).
b.) "For fifteen years, mother and son [wrongfully-accused paralyzed cop] have been largely shunned in the community. It is as if they were responsible for causing some dust-up with the authorities that people prefer to ignore -- as if mentioning it, or asking questions, or being in any way associated with this mother and son, might somehow get them into trouble.
"'To this day,' Alexei says, 'not a single person has apologized to me'" (p. 116).
c.) "A fellow American radio reporter in Moscow described how after she arrived in Russia and received her press credential, she returned to her apartment -- which she had locked and closed up in the morning -- and found her bedroom light on, her computer turned on, and her e-mail open.
"Luke Harding, a correspondent with the Guardian, was hounded more than any other Western journalist, even briefly expelled from the country. He described a break-in in his apartment that left the window to his son's room open.
"'Nothing had been stolen; nothing damaged. The intruders' apparent aim had been merely to demonstrate that they had been there, and presumably to show that they could come back. The dark symbolism of the open window in the child's bedroom was not hard to decipher: take care, or your kids might just fall out. The men -- I assume it was men -- had vanished like ghosts'" (p. 126).
d.) Author has a 'banya' [Russian bath house] experience with a veterinarian -- in their boxers, they sweat profusely and then begin hitting each other with birch branch (p. 136)
e.) Author remembers a New Year's Eve with Rose outside Moscow at a friends dacha [vacation shack]:
"That New Year's Eve we spent hours inside a house cooking and chatting and drinking. Then, when midnight neared, we joined dozens of other local dacha owners in the forest, as a light snow fell. I was standing with a glass of champagne, looking at Rose, who was ten feet ahead with her back to me. Suddenly I saw what looked like a fiery rocket illuminate directly in front of Rose, then soar up in the air. I honestly thought for a split second that I had lost my wife in some fiery accident. She was okay -- and watched, as I did, as this rocket reached the sky above us and exploded -- it was industrial-scale fireworks, the kind you see at a baseball game [...] This place can be so crazy and loud and unregulated and dangerous. Any worry melted away quickly, though, as Rose and I stood in the forest and kissed at midnight. We agreed that snowy New Year's Eve in the Russian forest was one of the most poetic evenings either of us could remember" (p. 140-141).
f.) Author meets with the singing babushkas:
"Galina reaches into a bag and pulls out two little babushkas -- knitted versions of themselves. 'We sit and knit these together,' she says. 'They are for good luck and happiness. Here is one for you and one for Rose.' This is incredibly sweet" (p. 142).
g.) One of the babushkas describes her abusive husband:
"He got ill-tempered. Once, when I was pregnant with our second child, he shot at me with his rifle. [...] I was able to jump out of the way. But he had a serious rifle that was loaded to hunt wolves. Another time, he started coming at me with an ax. And. . . one time, he hit me on the ear and on my head. That is when I said 'I won't forgive you for this.' And I sent him out of the house. I said the world is too big for this. 'I'm pregnant with our second child -- five months pregnant. I'm twenty-two years old.' I told him, 'You run. You'll run all over the Soviet Union, but one day, you will come back to me to die. You will crawl on your knees back to me.'
"And Galina was right. He returned thirty years later.
"'He crawled back, with diabetes. He had been sick for a long time. I told him, 'My children might accept you, but not me.' My children kept saying, 'Mom, he doesn't drink anymore, he doesn't drink.' I did feel sorry for him. And you know, I guess a woman has long hair but a short wit. I took him back. He worked another four years, but then because of the diabetes, he lost his legs, went blind, and got weak. I was supposed to retire then, but I told him, 'You help as best you can, and I'll keep working.' I buried him nine years ago. I took care of him for thirteen years. That was my fate'" (p. 148).
h.) Author describes Russian home:
"The kitchen is noticeably lacking a sink. That's because water comes from a well into one place -- the small adjacent room, where there is a toilet, shower, and sink to wash yourself as well as the dishes. Andrei's wife is a striking woman who is a spitting image of Angelina Jolie. I imagine her -- like so many Russian women of modest means -- putting on makeup and sprucing up in a cramped room like this. I see her makeup laid out in the same room as dirty dishes. All this is a window into the haphazardness of Russian life. Many villages are like this -- in surprising stages of development. The streets are not paved. Homes have one room with well water. But then there is also a flat-screen television, and everyone owns mobile phones. The house is heated by burning wood, and cooking is done using an orange canister of gas that people have to replace every few months" (p. 178).
i.) Author describes a cafe in Rybinsk, with an outhouse attached, and a woman at the front watching an old TV behind the register:
"I try to act natural, inspecting a pink, creamy salad that's available for purchase in a glass case. Sergei tells me it's a Russian dish called "herring under a fur coat" -- it usually has herring, mayonnaise, beets, egg yolk, and garlic. The salad is wrapped tightly under plastic wrap. A handwritten note says, 'Don't touch with your hands.' Wouldn't dream of it, actually" (p. 198).
j.) "The train station in Chelyabinsk the next morning is far less welcoming than the city's pedestrian mall. It is a concrete block of a place with no signs to tell you anything -- where you buy tickets, where you catch trains, what time it is.
"'This is strange,' Sergei says, as we walk around outside.
"It's actually not. This kind of disorder no longer surprises me here. I've just come to live with it. Accept it. God, I sound Russian" (p. 209).
k.) The owner of the small hotel where the author's staying didn't know how to register foreigners with the government:
"'David, you will not believe it. The owner of the hotel is here. Nadezha. She stayed up all night reading about how a hotel should register foreigners. She has spoken to the local immigration authorities. They gave her instructions.'
"'Oh, Sergei.'
"'And she bought a portable photocopy machine this morning to copy your passport. She said she was very sorry for the trouble. And she thanked me, because she is grateful now to know how to register guests from other countries'" (p. 217).
l.) "In 2012, two students at the Univ. of Penn.'s Wharton School of Business [...] looked at the small business climate in Russia and published a study called 'Small Business in Russia: Drowning in a Sea of Giants.' They found business owners routinely 'face corrupt officials who have the power to deny licenses, permits, office space and access to supplies unless substantial 'gifts' or bribes are offered.'
"Nadezha, in Ishim, is fighting to survive in a system where bureaucratic corruption feeds off the chaos. If officials are never clear about what's actually required, they can say something is wrong -- at any time. And likely collect either a fine or a bribe."
m.) "What a strange purgatory Russians live in. For so many years they could not travel freely and took a major risk if they wrote or said anything critical of the government or anyone well connected. There were severe limits on where people could work and who could own businesses or property. Today many of those restrictions are gone. Life is more free and open. And yet the fear remains. The risk remains. In a way, maybe clear limits of toleration are less fearsome than erratic limits of toleration. Uncertainty about being punished it more intimidating than certainty. You are always just left to wonder" (p. 236).
n.) "And that's a paradox you discover in many younger, more well-off Russians. They are educated, have traveled the world, and find democratic principles and values appealing. Then again, they're still pulled by the cultural forces in their country that have defined their thinking and who they are. And what's more, at the end of the day, any complaints they have about the state of Russian society must be weighed against the fact that they themselves are doing quite well" (p. 238).
o.) Attempts to get a taxi driver to drive to tourist attraction (p. 246-247)
p.) Conversation with taxi driver named Sergei:
"'Yes, it's complicated. We have a saying, actually. Have a drink in the morning, and whole day ahead of you can be free. Have something to drink in the morning, and the whole day can feel like a holiday.'
"'Drinking helps you forget reality?'
"'I am just saying everything is brighter colors for a person when he is drunk.'
"Sergei takes us for a drive around his city, then drops us off at a restaurant so we can grab dinner before our evening train. We pay Sergei for his services. Then I ask if I can write down his last name for the book. He stiffens up and declines.
"'You never know what tomorrow will bring,' he says.
"I say thanks anyway, and we start to get out of the car. But then Sergei says something else.
"'Chort poberi [Oh damn]!'
"He pauses.
"'Sergei Komarov,' he says. 'Let the world know me.'"
"Let the world know me.
"Those words carry power. The power of a man who, before my eyes, overcame fear" (p. 251).
q.) Author describes being at a Korean restaurant / bar in Vladivostok. A Russian guy buys a bottle of whiskey and pours shots for everyone -- other patrons, and the servers:
"'Korea, America, Russia!' he cries out, noting the diplomatic success we seem to have achieved by sharing a dance floor. 'So interesting. Cheese!' (I believe he meant 'Cheers,' but he's trying English, so I've got to give him a pass)" (p. 279).
r.) "My friend Chandler once asked me if I love Russia, or if it fascinates me. 'I think I'm fascinated,' I told him. 'I may love it. I do like the chaos. Anything can happen. But I can't imagine what all that means for people who live here -- especially people who don't have money'" (p. 279).
"'I do my best for my son,' Lyudmila says, almost apologetically. She points to the wheelchair in the corner of the room. 'He can't walk. The doorways in our flat are too narrow for the wheelchair. It doesn't fit in the bathroom, so I lift him up and put him on the toilet. It's not easy.' She's smiling. 'He's a big guy!'" (p. 112).
b.) "For fifteen years, mother and son [wrongfully-accused paralyzed cop] have been largely shunned in the community. It is as if they were responsible for causing some dust-up with the authorities that people prefer to ignore -- as if mentioning it, or asking questions, or being in any way associated with this mother and son, might somehow get them into trouble.
"'To this day,' Alexei says, 'not a single person has apologized to me'" (p. 116).
c.) "A fellow American radio reporter in Moscow described how after she arrived in Russia and received her press credential, she returned to her apartment -- which she had locked and closed up in the morning -- and found her bedroom light on, her computer turned on, and her e-mail open.
"Luke Harding, a correspondent with the Guardian, was hounded more than any other Western journalist, even briefly expelled from the country. He described a break-in in his apartment that left the window to his son's room open.
"'Nothing had been stolen; nothing damaged. The intruders' apparent aim had been merely to demonstrate that they had been there, and presumably to show that they could come back. The dark symbolism of the open window in the child's bedroom was not hard to decipher: take care, or your kids might just fall out. The men -- I assume it was men -- had vanished like ghosts'" (p. 126).
d.) Author has a 'banya' [Russian bath house] experience with a veterinarian -- in their boxers, they sweat profusely and then begin hitting each other with birch branch (p. 136)
e.) Author remembers a New Year's Eve with Rose outside Moscow at a friends dacha [vacation shack]:
"That New Year's Eve we spent hours inside a house cooking and chatting and drinking. Then, when midnight neared, we joined dozens of other local dacha owners in the forest, as a light snow fell. I was standing with a glass of champagne, looking at Rose, who was ten feet ahead with her back to me. Suddenly I saw what looked like a fiery rocket illuminate directly in front of Rose, then soar up in the air. I honestly thought for a split second that I had lost my wife in some fiery accident. She was okay -- and watched, as I did, as this rocket reached the sky above us and exploded -- it was industrial-scale fireworks, the kind you see at a baseball game [...] This place can be so crazy and loud and unregulated and dangerous. Any worry melted away quickly, though, as Rose and I stood in the forest and kissed at midnight. We agreed that snowy New Year's Eve in the Russian forest was one of the most poetic evenings either of us could remember" (p. 140-141).
f.) Author meets with the singing babushkas:
"Galina reaches into a bag and pulls out two little babushkas -- knitted versions of themselves. 'We sit and knit these together,' she says. 'They are for good luck and happiness. Here is one for you and one for Rose.' This is incredibly sweet" (p. 142).
g.) One of the babushkas describes her abusive husband:
"He got ill-tempered. Once, when I was pregnant with our second child, he shot at me with his rifle. [...] I was able to jump out of the way. But he had a serious rifle that was loaded to hunt wolves. Another time, he started coming at me with an ax. And. . . one time, he hit me on the ear and on my head. That is when I said 'I won't forgive you for this.' And I sent him out of the house. I said the world is too big for this. 'I'm pregnant with our second child -- five months pregnant. I'm twenty-two years old.' I told him, 'You run. You'll run all over the Soviet Union, but one day, you will come back to me to die. You will crawl on your knees back to me.'
"And Galina was right. He returned thirty years later.
"'He crawled back, with diabetes. He had been sick for a long time. I told him, 'My children might accept you, but not me.' My children kept saying, 'Mom, he doesn't drink anymore, he doesn't drink.' I did feel sorry for him. And you know, I guess a woman has long hair but a short wit. I took him back. He worked another four years, but then because of the diabetes, he lost his legs, went blind, and got weak. I was supposed to retire then, but I told him, 'You help as best you can, and I'll keep working.' I buried him nine years ago. I took care of him for thirteen years. That was my fate'" (p. 148).
h.) Author describes Russian home:
"The kitchen is noticeably lacking a sink. That's because water comes from a well into one place -- the small adjacent room, where there is a toilet, shower, and sink to wash yourself as well as the dishes. Andrei's wife is a striking woman who is a spitting image of Angelina Jolie. I imagine her -- like so many Russian women of modest means -- putting on makeup and sprucing up in a cramped room like this. I see her makeup laid out in the same room as dirty dishes. All this is a window into the haphazardness of Russian life. Many villages are like this -- in surprising stages of development. The streets are not paved. Homes have one room with well water. But then there is also a flat-screen television, and everyone owns mobile phones. The house is heated by burning wood, and cooking is done using an orange canister of gas that people have to replace every few months" (p. 178).
i.) Author describes a cafe in Rybinsk, with an outhouse attached, and a woman at the front watching an old TV behind the register:
"I try to act natural, inspecting a pink, creamy salad that's available for purchase in a glass case. Sergei tells me it's a Russian dish called "herring under a fur coat" -- it usually has herring, mayonnaise, beets, egg yolk, and garlic. The salad is wrapped tightly under plastic wrap. A handwritten note says, 'Don't touch with your hands.' Wouldn't dream of it, actually" (p. 198).
j.) "The train station in Chelyabinsk the next morning is far less welcoming than the city's pedestrian mall. It is a concrete block of a place with no signs to tell you anything -- where you buy tickets, where you catch trains, what time it is.
"'This is strange,' Sergei says, as we walk around outside.
"It's actually not. This kind of disorder no longer surprises me here. I've just come to live with it. Accept it. God, I sound Russian" (p. 209).
k.) The owner of the small hotel where the author's staying didn't know how to register foreigners with the government:
"'David, you will not believe it. The owner of the hotel is here. Nadezha. She stayed up all night reading about how a hotel should register foreigners. She has spoken to the local immigration authorities. They gave her instructions.'
"'Oh, Sergei.'
"'And she bought a portable photocopy machine this morning to copy your passport. She said she was very sorry for the trouble. And she thanked me, because she is grateful now to know how to register guests from other countries'" (p. 217).
l.) "In 2012, two students at the Univ. of Penn.'s Wharton School of Business [...] looked at the small business climate in Russia and published a study called 'Small Business in Russia: Drowning in a Sea of Giants.' They found business owners routinely 'face corrupt officials who have the power to deny licenses, permits, office space and access to supplies unless substantial 'gifts' or bribes are offered.'
"Nadezha, in Ishim, is fighting to survive in a system where bureaucratic corruption feeds off the chaos. If officials are never clear about what's actually required, they can say something is wrong -- at any time. And likely collect either a fine or a bribe."
m.) "What a strange purgatory Russians live in. For so many years they could not travel freely and took a major risk if they wrote or said anything critical of the government or anyone well connected. There were severe limits on where people could work and who could own businesses or property. Today many of those restrictions are gone. Life is more free and open. And yet the fear remains. The risk remains. In a way, maybe clear limits of toleration are less fearsome than erratic limits of toleration. Uncertainty about being punished it more intimidating than certainty. You are always just left to wonder" (p. 236).
n.) "And that's a paradox you discover in many younger, more well-off Russians. They are educated, have traveled the world, and find democratic principles and values appealing. Then again, they're still pulled by the cultural forces in their country that have defined their thinking and who they are. And what's more, at the end of the day, any complaints they have about the state of Russian society must be weighed against the fact that they themselves are doing quite well" (p. 238).
o.) Attempts to get a taxi driver to drive to tourist attraction (p. 246-247)
p.) Conversation with taxi driver named Sergei:
"'Yes, it's complicated. We have a saying, actually. Have a drink in the morning, and whole day ahead of you can be free. Have something to drink in the morning, and the whole day can feel like a holiday.'
"'Drinking helps you forget reality?'
"'I am just saying everything is brighter colors for a person when he is drunk.'
"Sergei takes us for a drive around his city, then drops us off at a restaurant so we can grab dinner before our evening train. We pay Sergei for his services. Then I ask if I can write down his last name for the book. He stiffens up and declines.
"'You never know what tomorrow will bring,' he says.
"I say thanks anyway, and we start to get out of the car. But then Sergei says something else.
"'Chort poberi [Oh damn]!'
"He pauses.
"'Sergei Komarov,' he says. 'Let the world know me.'"
"Let the world know me.
"Those words carry power. The power of a man who, before my eyes, overcame fear" (p. 251).
q.) Author describes being at a Korean restaurant / bar in Vladivostok. A Russian guy buys a bottle of whiskey and pours shots for everyone -- other patrons, and the servers:
"'Korea, America, Russia!' he cries out, noting the diplomatic success we seem to have achieved by sharing a dance floor. 'So interesting. Cheese!' (I believe he meant 'Cheers,' but he's trying English, so I've got to give him a pass)" (p. 279).
r.) "My friend Chandler once asked me if I love Russia, or if it fascinates me. 'I think I'm fascinated,' I told him. 'I may love it. I do like the chaos. Anything can happen. But I can't imagine what all that means for people who live here -- especially people who don't have money'" (p. 279).
November 6, 2018
Snow Job: Political Travel Agenda
Turn on your radio and listen to NPR for about 8 hours. No, you wouldn't do that? Well then, why would you listen to this book? Remember the 'talking heads' label that became popular in the eighties? Imagine one of those talking heads on a train across Russia.
This is where we get the expression "reading the news." Television news reporters are all too often chosen for the wrong reasons, and then read the news on the air, from audio feeds they are presented while live. The author actually tells his story like that.... like he is reading the news.
For me, the biggest problem is the author's Western-centric viewpoint. Once you can get past his apparent dislike for travel, you uncover the fact that he has a political agenda behind his story. He dislikes everything about Russia and he speaks patronizingly about his travel companions... 'the poor little people of Russia who cannot even see how to be like US Americans.' He shapes each conversation with the people he meets as a proof-text opportunity to prove his preconceived ideas. When the interviewee responses do not match his expectations, he marvels that they just do not understand yet how democracy works. He comes across as the type of person who travels, but goes nowhere, and returns to the place he never left.
The author makes the statement late in the book that, 'Culture matters.' But he fails at delivering that. Russia is a beautiful country steeped in culture, much older than our own democratic culture. Little if any of that comes through in this book. The title is ambiguous, given the subject matter. But, in the end he admits that Russia may not be looking for a democracy. Too little too late.
Many of the criticisms of Russian politics are true of American politics. Even US citizens know that we manipulate the elections of other countries as a matter of policy, like it is our birthright. If we do not, then the money we spend for that is wasted. I am not being negative about it, but it is just being realistic. All countries have extensive spy networks and utilize intelligence reports to manipulate world events the best they can for their own advantages.
Overall, the subjects of conversation the author has with fellow passengers are shallow and meaningless, and come across as prearranged interviews. There is some of the travel experience that the reader catches glimpses of, in between the propaganda. But overall I do not recommend this book. It is one that I will exchange on Audible. I read this for my stop in Russia on my Journey Around the World in 80 Books. My next stop is Georgia. Hopefully I have done my research better for the book I selected: The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus.
Turn on your radio and listen to NPR for about 8 hours. No, you wouldn't do that? Well then, why would you listen to this book? Remember the 'talking heads' label that became popular in the eighties? Imagine one of those talking heads on a train across Russia.
This is where we get the expression "reading the news." Television news reporters are all too often chosen for the wrong reasons, and then read the news on the air, from audio feeds they are presented while live. The author actually tells his story like that.... like he is reading the news.
For me, the biggest problem is the author's Western-centric viewpoint. Once you can get past his apparent dislike for travel, you uncover the fact that he has a political agenda behind his story. He dislikes everything about Russia and he speaks patronizingly about his travel companions... 'the poor little people of Russia who cannot even see how to be like US Americans.' He shapes each conversation with the people he meets as a proof-text opportunity to prove his preconceived ideas. When the interviewee responses do not match his expectations, he marvels that they just do not understand yet how democracy works. He comes across as the type of person who travels, but goes nowhere, and returns to the place he never left.
The author makes the statement late in the book that, 'Culture matters.' But he fails at delivering that. Russia is a beautiful country steeped in culture, much older than our own democratic culture. Little if any of that comes through in this book. The title is ambiguous, given the subject matter. But, in the end he admits that Russia may not be looking for a democracy. Too little too late.
Many of the criticisms of Russian politics are true of American politics. Even US citizens know that we manipulate the elections of other countries as a matter of policy, like it is our birthright. If we do not, then the money we spend for that is wasted. I am not being negative about it, but it is just being realistic. All countries have extensive spy networks and utilize intelligence reports to manipulate world events the best they can for their own advantages.
Overall, the subjects of conversation the author has with fellow passengers are shallow and meaningless, and come across as prearranged interviews. There is some of the travel experience that the reader catches glimpses of, in between the propaganda. But overall I do not recommend this book. It is one that I will exchange on Audible. I read this for my stop in Russia on my Journey Around the World in 80 Books. My next stop is Georgia. Hopefully I have done my research better for the book I selected: The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus.
August 10, 2020
It was interesting to learn more about the Russian people and the cities in Siberia. My biggest problem with the book was how much the author interjected his own opinions instead of letting the people and stories speak for themselves. What took away from the book even more was the repetitiveness of his opinions.
September 15, 2020
I am so glad I finally read this. Truly enjoyed the insight into Russia’s people, and the journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway. I would give it five stars, but the author’s weird insistence that America’s “way” is better no matter what kinda irritated me. He writes very well, and I appreciated his thoughts, but there was something aloof in his tone sometimes.
October 13, 2022
While there are some interesting stories about daily life in Russia and some history, the tone of the book was unpleasant. Given that the author works for NPR, I should have expected his writing to come across as pretentious. However, I was not prepared for the arrogance and constant judging of Russian culture, attitudes or way of life.
August 23, 2017
This was a wonderful book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the author's travels across Russia. it was really cool to read and learn about the lives, culture, and even political differences that appear across the country! I am sure that this book will make a travel junkie very happy.
July 9, 2017
I'm a fan of David Greene's commentary on NPR, so it was exciting to learn about this book and the personal stories of Russian people with whom he's come in contact. However, I found most chapters to be a bit condescending towards the Russians he interviewed, and he tended to overgeneralize about Russian culture despite his years of living there. His cliche judgements as a foreigner observing the long suffering Russian soul and corruption everywhere have been said before. I'd rather he'd have explored the nature of his interviewees as individuals and not necessarily stamp most of them with a typical Western stereotype.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 378 reviews