A Journey Into Russia

by Jens Mühling

For the last ten years, journalist Jens Muhling has been traveling through Russia in search of stories that appear unbelievable: a hermit from the Taiga who only recently discovered there was a world beyond the woods; a mathematician who believes a thousand years of Russian history to be a fairy tale; a priest who ventures into the exclusion zone around Chernobyl to preach to those that stubbornly remain there. Muhling shows us a country whose customs, contradictions, absurdities, and attractions are still largely unknown beyond its borders.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Russia, History, Germany, Asia, German Literature

342 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Taylor Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Jens Mühling tells an incredible tale of travels through the Russian continent. What folly! What paradoxical perspective do hold these characters— what might’ly curious their thinking! Jens weaves history into the fabric of his tale, as history itself seems more firmly woven into the fabric of the many Russias than elsewhere, certainly more so than in our young Western New World. This book— this narrative is overflowing with the hardly believable. At times laughter flew from my throat at the page, such crazed dreamlike activities Jens finds himself caught in. The characters are fantastical enough they are hardly believable, and but for Mühling’s warning early in the tale, they would be hardly believed to have been real. Geographically, Russia is enormous— culturally, historically, spiritually: even linguistically, it seems its inhabits inhabit a place so wide they at times exist in different places altogether. A truly enjoyable and rewarding narrative, exciting, wondrous, edifying, and well-told.

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the wonderful story of how a German journalist happens upon a story of a family of Old Believers who had lived in isolation in Siberia for more than forty years, cut off from the world until an accidental encounter with Soviet geologists in 1978. Mühling becomes inspired to track down the last surviving member of the hermit family, 69 year old Agafya Lykova.
As he travels through Russia and Ukraine, he is waylaid by crumbling Lenin monuments, Rasputin's reputedly large member, and Yekaterinburg, the burial site of the Romanovs. These tangents all enhance the account of his quest, though may frustrate a more learned Russian historian than me..
He proceeds initially to Kiev, where the Russians adopted Christianity from Byzantium in 988, to Moscow, where in 1666 a patriarch’s reforms drove Agafya’s ancestors into the wilderness, to St Petersburg, seat of the Revolution, which led to further persecution of the Old Believers, this time by the Bolsheviks, and finally to Siberia, where in 1978 a team of geologists stumbled upon Agafya and her family when they spotted a potato field in the middle of the taiga.

The current state of relations between Russia and Ukraine make those early pages particularly interesting, though written in 2012.
Two of the people he meets are of particular interest..

She (a young female border officer) was barely out of earshot when the fellow Russian traveller in my compartment burst into laughter. 'Did you hear that?' He chuckled with delight.
'What?'
'That language! Chuckling, he raised his voice two octaves and imitated the customs officer; 'Dokumenty, bud lasko!' For a moment he let the soft twitter of the Ukranian sounds reverberate, before he changed back to his native Russian language. 'They speak like children! Ah, these sweet Ukranians!' His fat cheeks quivered with laughter.

and later..

Ukraine was never independent - never! The eastern part was always Russian, the west Polish, Lithuanian, Austrian. Now they have their own country and come up with nothing but sheer nonsense: a Ukranian language, a Ukranian history, their own government. Their language is a peasant dialect, their history a fairy tale, their state a circus.' Amused he shook his head, 'It is not really a country at all'.

And a tour guide in one of the Kiev Cave monastery when the author challenges her to the icons, which he says look Italian,

But they are Ukranian! Ukranian! The European style is just precisely what accounts for our icons!
Natalya's voice grew louder, until her rage filled the entire nave. 'Do you know what the Russians call us Ukranians? Little Russians! And yet we are the true Russians! We are the descendants of Kiev Rus! The Muscovites didn't start calling themselves Russians until the 18th century! They are not even rightfully Slavs; the scientists have found their genes are 70 per cent Tatar, Finnish, Estonian..'

[Ryan Murdock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written book about a journey through a place that feels more like a fable than the world just beyond the borders of Europe. A place where beliefs are unhinged, where the present feels like fiction, where messiahs are called for (and appear), and where only the distant past of the Old Believers is firmly anchored to the bedrock of the world.

The vast empty steppes and the vodka-soaked river journey near the end of the book reminded me of traveling in Mongolia, another of those places that feel like another planet, so far off the fringes of the maps we inhabit.

It's heartening to know that places like this still exist, and that people still want to go there, simply for the sake of learning what they look like and how their people live.

[NJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve really enjoyed this book since I’ll be going to Russia in a week’s time. This book was a gift from one of my close friends, she’s definitely picked out a gem. Really loved each story and delving into the history of Russia. It’s such a complex country that has gone through tremendous change and carnage. In particular I liked how the book was written. The writing is on point and sensitive. Highly recommended.

[Gruia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about the Russia unknown to those of its citizens used to air travel and paper napkins. The author's effect on the people he meets, with them opening up to him without preamble as if picking up on a friendship left unattended, is comical at first glance before it reveals itself as something therapeutic: these are stories that had been pushing to be told but hadn't found any outlet until the young German came to relieve them. And it's not the stories that count, they are merely sketched: it's what Mühling has to say about their tellers and their world that makes this travel account so gripping.

[GJ Monahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mühling is at his best when describing the people that he meets - the eccentric, the zealous, the earnest, and the drunk. I especially enjoyed his accounts of Agafya and Alexei the hermits; San Sanych and Misha the unreliable boatmen; and Yevstafy, the priest who would canonise Stalin, whose white-blond beard and red-flushed face made him look "like a burning haystack."

The intial pages didn't engage me, with some purposeless fumbling around Germany and Kiev. But once Mühling set out to encounter some specific interesting people and situations, he blossomed into an adventurous yet relatable companion.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though Muhling had some overly flowery words when it wasn't necessary, the story of his journey through Russia was really interesting and compelling. It made me jealous of his extroverted-ness in talking to perfect strangers and getting them to open up and tell him constant stories. How each section was divided up gave a beautiful and tragic look into a conflicted country.

I'm very much looking forward to my three-day trip this summer, but also sad I will not be there for a year to explore all what he did.

An excellent read and a great snapshot into an elusive country.

[Rita Costa (Lusitania Geek) · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know a bit more than “a brief history of Russia” than I recommend read this book. Its much more rather than the history of this strange / suffering country. Its about the people, their culture, the old believers way of living.

I mean this author’s writting style makes the reading so easy to read and with pleasure ! So if you want to learn more about Russia, I really do recommend picking this book and start reading !

5 ⭐️

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this one as I wanted a focus on society, not politics; in that regard, things went as expected. However, it is not "typical" travel writing in the sense of exploring various locations being primary focus. He's good with the description of places visited, including one Siberian city as having the "feel" of St. Petersburg.

I was puzzled at the first chapter being in Ukraine, although by the end I understood why he'd done that. So much Soviet past, shared Slavic backgrounds, kind of unavoidable.

Moscow brings in the controversial mathematician, with his theory of "fated" historical cycles, as well as introducing the Old Believers, who struck me as a mix of observant Jews and fundamentalist Christians; he did run across younger ones who had less strict views on being in the modern world. And yes, the alcoholism he experienced was along the lines of Russian stereotypes.

Second half focuses on Siberia, specifically Old Believer settlements very far in the wilderness to avoid Communists. This held limited interest for me, I'm afraid. I came away feeling that served his point that authoritarianism is entrenched in the culture: Tsars, Lenin, Stalin, and ... more modern times. There seemed to be no place for debate/disagreement in such a society.

The people encountered were generally kind, open to his query in interviews. At one point, he's staying with a family during a period of intense domestic drama (violence). Jens is shocked that things can return to normal soon afterwards so easily, but the head of the household (who wasn't present during that episode) shrugs of off as fate, pretty much.

Anyway, it's well-written, just not completely what I'd expected. I also bought two of his other books, looking forward to those.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another travelogue in search of the Russian "soul" and given the sprawling vastness of the Russian continent, it is one that I was happy to arrive to after I had a preliminary incursion in this vast strange Russian land in reading David Greene's Midnight in Siberia: A train journey into the heart of Russia last year. Jen's book was written in 2010 and as such a lot of the political situation has since changed for the worse, but that is if you actually start from the premise that anything ever does change in Russia. In reading this book, it quickly becomes apparent that it does not.

Interestingly, you can feel the vivid exasperation in Jen's Western European (German) encounters with Russians, especially Russian men, in the old women's (but not only) rose tinted glass approach to communist times, in the fact that nothing works as it should in this vast conglomerate of people (the book starts almost accidentally given all that has happened since in Kiev), everyone is out for themselves before they obliterate themselves in vodka and cynicism.

The quest for the Old Believers which is the thread that ties this book together is almost as chimeric and quixotic in trying to make sense of a place that is too vast, too used to despotic regimes to ever change. An additional aide for those who are fascinated by Russia and its people. A strong 3.5 stars: geography, history and social sweep all in one very readable and engaging account.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough, exploring the huge country through its people and contradictions; east/west, democracy or autocracy, religion or not or belief in something, vodka, etc.

There are many interesting conversations described, for example. The author asks a fellow traveller, "why is it that many Russians keep looking back to something that they or the country has lost?" The reply is - "perhaps Russians have always thought they had nothing to lose"!

The book's weakness is that there is no real sense of how 'young' people feel today, also I don't know how the author felt after his travels.

[Roger Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jens Muehling really touched my heart with this one. As with his wonderful "Black Earth", about his travels in Ukraine, "A Journey into Russia", he largely avoids conventional travel writing by dwelling, sometimes at length, among those he's writing about, and by finding ingenious ways to meet and get to know ordinary people - people who smell like "vinegar and pepper", in one memorable phrase. Russia is vast in every way, but you will feel the pebbles and smell the pines on the forest path he walks down, even if you're spared the sweeping historical sagas of other books.

[Helen Meads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much that I didn’t know about Russia from reading this account. The beginnings of the Russian nation, the role the Cossacks (Khazaks) played in extending the Russian Empire, the death of Tsa Nicholas II and his family (including that the death squad bullets bounced off two of the Princesses because their diamonds were sewn into their gowns!). The last section about the Old Believer hermit was almost magical.
Well worth the effort of so many pages.

[John Pilkington · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to read a book on Russia, make it this one. Without getting stymied in politics or heavily into literature, Mühling goes from one adventure to the next, sharing his experiences with Russian people.
His writing is mostly free of judgment and offers a well-written view of contemporary Russia through the gaze of many of her citizens.

[Chris Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jens is an excellent travel writer. You can immediately engage with his encounters of the most peculiar Russians that you can imagine. There is so much here to amaze and astound and all told so well that I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the many cultures in the vastness of Russia.

[Mete Oguz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite entertaining to read, provides a lot of demographic and cultural divergences into the Russian psyche. Also it is not purely urban-based, as the author ventures into the Russian countryside too. Especially the Pagan rituals he witnesses and partakes in a small village outside Moscow was quite entertaining to read about.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having spent quite a lot of time in Russia myself, I was worried upon receiving this book that I would be reading the same old things about how different Russia is. But in actual fact, this book was absolutely fascinating and has made me want to jump on a plane and head back out there!

[Amanda Chia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author introduced the contradictions of modern Russia well. Through first hand accounts with the locals, a sense of the country being stuck in its own past is palpable. The reader is left with the impression of a country that is no less mysterious, but with unique, grotesque charms.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good for what it was - It was written well and everything. However, I think it dragged on a bit and was a little unorganized.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific. Funny.

[Stephen Makin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. Fascinating and well written. Paul Theroux for our generation.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd been looking forward to reading this book because the blurb sounded fascinating, but it just didn't deliver on its promise. A mediocre read.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book

[Fin Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual and unique writing style but tells the story very well. Enough detail is provided to deliver an insight into the russian pysche and the story pulls you in. Informative and enjoyable.

[Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exercise in absurdity, Jens Muhling traverses much of one of the most stereotyped nations in the world and shows that not only is truth stranger than fiction, it is often completely incoherent. Muhling poetically describes his bizarre surroundings and impartially describes some of the most absurd, unreal characters that I've ever read of, and in his execution of this sets a new bar for travel writing for me.

[Bookish Tokyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Pr-r-robki! Pr-r-robki!'
Finally I understood. The cawing was a traffic announcement: 'Congestion! Congestion!' I lost the old parrot in the war. I don't know what became of him. Maybe he is still alive. Parrots can live to be 300 years old.' 'Pr-r-robki!' Three hundred years! I suddenly imagined a parrot who remembered Lenin, the Revolution, the Tsar. Who knew, maybe somewhere in Sochi there were parrots who could sing Old Believer chorales. But when I asked around among the parrot owners in the park, it turned out that all the birds were post-Soviet immigrants. Only one, a South American macaw, was rumoured to have witnessed perestroika. 'But he doesn't speak much,' his owner said regretfully. The parrot and I stared at each other stupidly - two foreigners who could not find a common language. I blinked first.”
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Reading anything about Russia, whether social history or otherwise, one is struck by how unfortunate the Russian people are with their leaders whether it was the Tsars, the communists or Putin, the Russian people seem uniquely unlucky. It is perhaps easy to understand why someone may want to live remotely in the great expanse of the Taiga.
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For the sweeping forests and the interminable insects, the Taiga represents the end goal for Muhlings. The journey really isn’t the goal but the people he encounters, and he very much encounters people. People with history, with no history, with sadness, with joy, with humour. The book is at its strongest when he depicts the people he meets and encounters.
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It is perhaps not all that groundbreaking, especially if you are semi-familiar with Russia. Yet I was thoroughly taken by it. I was especially taken by the insights into the Russian Orthodox Church, from the architecture to the eccentric world of religious iconography in which an ostracized priest had a large iconographic picture of Stalin.
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I enjoyed this immensely, especially the occasional dry humor elements and the depiction of ordinary, or not so ordinary Russians.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a huge fan of non-fiction but I fell in love with the first page of the book and have never looked back.

A Journey into Russia is not just a travelogue to Russia, listing its attraction and talking about a culture purely from the observation of the author. It is more than that - its about conversations with the Russians, understanding the Russians' temperament, foraging into the unknown (Taiga) through the determination of wanting to know, and a glimpse into the history of Russia.

Before this book, Russia was an interesting yet strange place. There were many incredible stories, some fiction, some facts, some myth. I was drawn to this land because of the beauty of its colourful places in travel brochures.

But reading this book, this account of Russia makes me want to know more about the people. The book has been truly captivating and accounts of Moscow, St Peterberg, Taiga and the Ural mountain still hold a lingering presence in my memory.

So be captivated.

[Micha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great travel book, easy to read and humorous. I enjoyed it very much

[Hendrik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein Zeitungsartikel über eine alte Frau, die ihr ganzes Leben in der Abgeschiedenheit der Taiga verbrachte, ist der Ausgangspunkt für diese Reise. Sie ist eine Altgläubige, Angehörige einer lange Zeit verfolgten Minderheit innerhalb der russischen Orthodoxie. Diese Frau zu finden ist das Ziel des Autors, was sich allerdings äußerst schwierig gestaltet (sonst wärs ja auch kein richtiges Abenteuer). Die Begegnungen unterwegs dienen dabei als Aufhänger für tiefergehende Erkundungen der russischen Geschichte. Ein sehr gelungener Reisebericht, man möchte am liebsten gleich selber in Richtung Osten aufbrechen. Also: Поехали!

[MrKillick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooo muß travel writing!
Der Autor war mir schon von seinem Ukraine-Buch "Schwarze Erde" bekannt und so hatte ich mich schon auf dieses - ältere - Buch von ihm gefreut, und ich bin nicht enttäuscht worden.
Der Autor trifft für mich genau den richtigen Ton zwischen genauer Beobachtung, Belesenheit und der richtigen Prise an Selbstironie und Lockerheit, die aber nie plump witzig daherkommt (er ist somit in allem das genaue Gegenteil von Andreas Altmann (Reise durch einen einsamen Kontinent), der mir nur als besserwisserisch, jammerlappig und penetrant um witzige Pointen bemüht in Erinnerung geblieben ist).