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The Red Wake: A Hybrid of Travel, History and Journalism
A hybrid of history, travel and journalism.
Kurt has long been captivated by 'the communists' from his immigrant grandparents' past, transfixed by stories of the Soviet Union, the place where history happened. In the West, the Soviet universe has long been consigned to the dustbin of history, no longer relevant to a world where the Golden Arches have supplanted the Hammer and Sickle. But what about those still living in the shadow of the USSR?
The language and symbols of the Soviet Union have become a nostalgic brand, but after travels to the Balkans, Romania and Bulgaria, Kurt begins to suspect that for some they have retained their former sanctity. He quickly realises he must journey from these outlying countries and visit socialism's giant red heart.
Spurred on by a growing obsession to find what remains of this old Red World, Kurt visits the far reaches of the former USSR. From frozen corners of Kyrgyzstan still rocked by ethnic riots, to the ex-KGB headquarters in Moscow; from a rocket launch on the Kazakh Steppe, to an unrecognised gangster state in Moldova; through the irradiated ruins of Chernobyl, to a gulag in Siberia.
Staying one step ahead of the secret police, Kurt meets the people cast adrift by the collapse of the Soviet system, and the disappearance of the only world they knew. Far from lying dormant, he discovers the legacy of the Soviet Union is alive, its history shaped to serve the political ends of the Kremlin in this new Cold War.
Kurt has long been captivated by 'the communists' from his immigrant grandparents' past, transfixed by stories of the Soviet Union, the place where history happened. In the West, the Soviet universe has long been consigned to the dustbin of history, no longer relevant to a world where the Golden Arches have supplanted the Hammer and Sickle. But what about those still living in the shadow of the USSR?
The language and symbols of the Soviet Union have become a nostalgic brand, but after travels to the Balkans, Romania and Bulgaria, Kurt begins to suspect that for some they have retained their former sanctity. He quickly realises he must journey from these outlying countries and visit socialism's giant red heart.
Spurred on by a growing obsession to find what remains of this old Red World, Kurt visits the far reaches of the former USSR. From frozen corners of Kyrgyzstan still rocked by ethnic riots, to the ex-KGB headquarters in Moscow; from a rocket launch on the Kazakh Steppe, to an unrecognised gangster state in Moldova; through the irradiated ruins of Chernobyl, to a gulag in Siberia.
Staying one step ahead of the secret police, Kurt meets the people cast adrift by the collapse of the Soviet system, and the disappearance of the only world they knew. Far from lying dormant, he discovers the legacy of the Soviet Union is alive, its history shaped to serve the political ends of the Kremlin in this new Cold War.
340 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2016
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 4, 2016
I loved this book. The author takes you with him on his travels across the former Soviet Union, trying to understand the people, the culture, the buildings and the history of the USSR. He has a really interesting style, with a dry sense of humour and an ability to capture details and instantly transport you to these relatively unknown corners of the world. Highly recommended!
December 14, 2022
This is my second reading of this book and it is even more relevant now than it was when I first read it.
Kurt Johnson travels through the old Soviet countries from the Baltics to Moldova and writes about the legacy of the old USSR. He talks to real people and visits real places some times with very comic outcomes. The book is full of deep introspection and wry comments as he visits places where there has been disastrous environmental outcomes of the push to modernise at all costs. Also a deep impact on the population with the push to move people into alien countries, also with consequences that are with us today.
Johnson is even driven to look on his own country, Australia, when he comes face to face on the destruction that comes with nuclear testing. Why have Australians largely been kept in the dark about the nuclear testing by the British in areas still populated by indigenous people. Do we have the right to criticise other countries that have done the same?
Kurt Johnson travels through the old Soviet countries from the Baltics to Moldova and writes about the legacy of the old USSR. He talks to real people and visits real places some times with very comic outcomes. The book is full of deep introspection and wry comments as he visits places where there has been disastrous environmental outcomes of the push to modernise at all costs. Also a deep impact on the population with the push to move people into alien countries, also with consequences that are with us today.
Johnson is even driven to look on his own country, Australia, when he comes face to face on the destruction that comes with nuclear testing. Why have Australians largely been kept in the dark about the nuclear testing by the British in areas still populated by indigenous people. Do we have the right to criticise other countries that have done the same?
December 14, 2022
Who would have thought that Kurt Johnson's book "The Red Wake" published in 2016 would be even more relevant for the world in 2022? Johnson takes a close look at the countries of the former Soviet Union and how people's lives changed when the Union broke apart.
The author traveled extensively to places like Kryrgyzstan, the Balkan states, Romania and Bulgaria, meeting and talking with people who had to come to grips with life after the Soviet Union. The book gives some insight into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, particularly on the issue of the annexation of Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Johnson's style is refreshingly authentic, the descriptions of the people he meets on his travels are both fascinating and different.
A book well worth reading, and one that will surely remain a central issue in grasping the events and destinies of Eastern Europe and Russia for a long time.
The author traveled extensively to places like Kryrgyzstan, the Balkan states, Romania and Bulgaria, meeting and talking with people who had to come to grips with life after the Soviet Union. The book gives some insight into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, particularly on the issue of the annexation of Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Johnson's style is refreshingly authentic, the descriptions of the people he meets on his travels are both fascinating and different.
A book well worth reading, and one that will surely remain a central issue in grasping the events and destinies of Eastern Europe and Russia for a long time.
May 17, 2017
Written in 2015/16, this book provides and interesting insight into the remrents of Soviet influence and impacts remaining in several East European/ Central Asian states. First hand account of one russian speaking Australian's jornies through several of the Stans and also into eastern Europe as he seeks out their soviet past.
Insightful and understanding, his description of what it meant to the individual to go from a socialst environment to a capitalist one from the point to view of self-worth is excllent, it presents the 2010's as first hand experiences that are well worth reading and considering.
writeen in an emgaging style, well worth a read.
Insightful and understanding, his description of what it meant to the individual to go from a socialst environment to a capitalist one from the point to view of self-worth is excllent, it presents the 2010's as first hand experiences that are well worth reading and considering.
writeen in an emgaging style, well worth a read.
August 21, 2016
(Disclosure: The author is a friend.)
I'm struggling to find a better way to describe 'The Red Wake' than the book's subtitle. Johnson creates something unique, fusing travel, history and journalism together into a story of his time travelling through the former Soviet Union. If you're as tragically ignorant of these countries as I am, this is a terrific place to start.
One thing did bother me at the beginning: the lack of a clear arc to the narrative. Each chapter is a vignette of Johnson's time in a particular place and the abrupt shift from place to place without a sense of destination disorients at first. As things progress, though, this feeling of placelessness begins to feel like the point. This a region that stands apart. Not sure whether it's going backwards or forwards and forever inaccessible to those from outside.
I'm struggling to find a better way to describe 'The Red Wake' than the book's subtitle. Johnson creates something unique, fusing travel, history and journalism together into a story of his time travelling through the former Soviet Union. If you're as tragically ignorant of these countries as I am, this is a terrific place to start.
One thing did bother me at the beginning: the lack of a clear arc to the narrative. Each chapter is a vignette of Johnson's time in a particular place and the abrupt shift from place to place without a sense of destination disorients at first. As things progress, though, this feeling of placelessness begins to feel like the point. This a region that stands apart. Not sure whether it's going backwards or forwards and forever inaccessible to those from outside.
July 2, 2016
I found the book very engaging. Funny, thoughtful, intelligent with wry asides. Johnson gets arrested, meets a Viking called Eric on a motorbike in the desert, watches a rocket launch, visits a gulag before it gets its revisionist history treatment, gets a lesson on Australian history by a Russian, visits two places destroyed by nuclear activity- by a nuclear plant meltdown and the other, the result of nuclear testing. In all he meets he sees the hubris, the delusion, the isolation, the vastness and savagery that was the Soviet Union, the effects of which are still very evident today.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews