In Putin's Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones

by Nina Khrushcheva

In Putin’s Footsteps is Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler’s unique combination of travelogue, current affairs, and history, showing how Russia’s dimensions have shaped its identity and culture through the decades.With exclusive insider status as Nikita Khrushchev’s great grand-daughter, and an ex-pat living and reporting on Russia and the Soviet Union since 1993, Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler offer a poignant exploration of the largest country on earth through their recreation of Vladimir Putin’s fabled New Year’s Eve speech planned across all eleven time zones.After taking over from Yeltsin in 1999, and then being elected president in a landslide, Putin traveled to almost two dozen countries and a quarter of Russia’s eighty-nine regions to connect with ordinary Russians. His travels inspired the idea of a rousing New Year’s Eve address delivered every hour at midnight throughout Russia’s eleven time zones. The idea was beautiful, but quickly abandoned as an impossible feat. He correctly intuited, however, that the success of his presidency would rest on how the country’s outback citizens viewed their place on the world stage.Today more than ever, Putin is even more determined to present Russia as a formidable nation. We need to understand why Russia has for centuries been an adversary of the West. Its size, nuclear arsenal, arms industry, and scientific community (including cyber-experts), guarantees its influence.

Genres: Russia, Nonfiction, History, Travel, Politics, Soviet Union, Cultural

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Nina Lvovna Khrushcheva (Russian: Нина Львовна Хрущёва, /xrʊ.ˈɕo.və/) is a professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City, and a Contributing Editor to Project Syndicate: Association of Newspapers Around the World a funded project under the aegis Open Society Foundation .

Khrushcheva was born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, and is the great-granddaughter (and adoptive granddaughter) of former leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev. When Khrushchev's son Leonid died in World War II, Nikita adopted Leonid's two-year-old daughter, Julia, who later became Nina's mother. Khrushcheva's father, Lev Petrov, died in 1970 at age 47.

Khrushcheva received a degree from Moscow State University in Russia, with a major in Russian in 1987, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University in New Jersey, in 1998.

From 2002 to 2004, Khrushcheva was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University in New York. Khrushcheva is currently a Professor of International Affairs in the graduate program at The New School in New York.

Khrushcheva is the author of numerous articles. She directed the Russia Project at the World Policy Institute, and has been a long-time contributor to Project Syndicate: Association of Newspapers Around the World, and editor of Project Syndicate's Russia column. Her articles have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and other publications.

She had a two-year research appointment at the School of Historical Studies of Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and then served as Deputy Editor of East European Constitutional Review at NYU School of Law. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a recipient of Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

She is the author of Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics[6] (Yale UP, 2008) and The Lost Khrushchev: A Journey into the Gulag of the Russian Mind (Tate, 2014), and co-author of In Putin's Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones (St. Martin's Press, 2019).

In March 2022, Khrushcheva was critical of Vladimir Putin's conduct in the war that he waged against Ukraine, saying that her grandfather would have found Putin's conduct to be "despicable". In October 2022, she said, alluding to George Orwell's novel 1984, that in "Putin’s Russia, war is peace, slavery is freedom, ignorance is strength and illegally annexing a sovereign country’s territory is fighting colonialism."

Reviews

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors are Khrushchev's granddaughter who lives in New York and an American married to a Russian who lives in Moscow. They embark on a trip across Russia's eleven time zones in response to a speech once given by Putin. Their narrative is part history lesson, part political and part travelogue. Some of it is a bit Trip-Advisorish with tourist stories of rude ticket sellers and government officials. There's a lot about the coffee shops, restaurants, museums and cab rides.
I think though they only scratched the surface if what they were looking for and really did not seem to conduct anything more than a passing dialogue with the locals. There was a bit of ill-balanced with a lot of anti Putin comparisons with the reformers of Gorbachov, Yelstin and Khrushchev. As well as a tendency to be a bit derogatory such as comparing one city favourable against the normalcy of New York. Svetlana Alexievich in her Second-Hand Time gets much closer to the soul of modern Russia.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a major disappointment. I heard about it on the New York Times Book Review podcast and it caught my attention as someone long interested in Russia and in travel. But the authors were so uniformly negative that it made the reading unpleasant. It's not easy to thread the Paul Theroux needle of curmudgeonly but engrossing. This was more like plain whiney. Also, if you pester tourist guides and museum workers with loaded questions, they won't respond well.

Above all, for the love of God, who was the editor? Fire them posthaste! There was clunkiness in the text such as three mentions on Russia's time zones in about four sentences, as well as plain mistakes - mixing up Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk, missing a letter in a Russian phrase (russkih instead of russkikh). And speaking of Russian, there was no rhyme or reason as to when Russian words were used or not used.

[Owlseyes]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-...

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Taylor take the reader on a journey across Russia’s 11 time zones in this fascinating and revealing mix of travelogues, history, politics, current affairs and sociology. Nina Khrushcheva is Khrushchev’s great-granddaughter and has been reporting on the Soviet Union and Russia since 1983, and Taylor is a journalist who lives in Moscow. They know the country well, and bring a non-judgmental and unbiased approach to the land and its people. Their descriptions are vivid and atmospheric and the result is a snapshot of this most enigmatic of countries, Many of their encounters will feel familiar to anyone who has travelled in Russia where absurdity, rudeness and obstruction go hand-in-hand with warm hospitality and genuine affection. Ordinary people get their chance to express their opinions and the result is revealing and sometimes surprising. Essential reading for any Russophile, but also for anyone who would like to understand more about Russia today.

[Dmitry · Rating 1 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Я много раз слушал комментарии автора в различных СМИ данные на тему современной российской политики и мне они показались довольно объективными. Именно поэтому у меня были довольно высокие ожидания касаемо этой книги, но что я точно не ожидал увидеть в этой книге, так это типичный туристический блог или «записки путешественника». В общем, если коротко описывать эту книгу, то перед нами очень и очень скучная книга, которая выглядит как туристический блог, а не как серьёзное политологическое или социологическое исследование Российской Федерации. Подобную книгу мог написать практически любой журналист или блогер, т.к. содержание книги составляют скучные истории о том, как авторы книги посещали те или иные российские музеи или описание их разговора с тем или иным человеком в России. В книге нет никакого политологического анализа как нет глубокого исследования того что же представляет из себя такая большая и такая разная Россия. Такое чувство, что для автора все россияне едины – что в Москве, что в Екатеринбурге, что в каком-нибудь отдалённом городе в Сибири. Так же мне не понятно, зачем была включена глава, в которой один из авторов путешествует в Китай, если речь идёт о России.

Ну и конечно я не могу не отметить штампованное мышление автора, когда автор пишет что-то типа «в Украине – цивилизация, а в России – варварство». Это, конечно, не точная цитата, но суть примерно такая. И нет, книга была издана задолго до 24 февраля 2022 года, поэтому даже эмоционально это не совсем понятно, зачем это было написано, ведь не нужно быть экспертом, чтобы понимать, что восточная Европа, а именно Россия, Украина и Беларусь, являются очень специфическими странами, которые ещё очень далеко находятся даже от таких демократических стран как Польша и Румыния. Именно поэтому вдвойне странно слышать от профессора такие вот обобщённые выводы в отношении Украины и России.

Кто-то пишет в комментариях к этой книге, что автор считает Украину частью России, а так же, как пишет другой комментатор, «Nina Kruscheva writes at p. 283 "my profoundest gratitude goes to Vladmir Putin, and goes on to praise the autocrat.What??». Я этого не увидел и более того, я слушал политические комментарии автора множество раз, и в них всегда была критика Путина и путинского режима, поэтому утверждение второго комментатора кажется мне сомнительным. Впрочем, книгу я не дочитал, поэтому возможно ближе к концу автор и пишет об этом. В любом случаи для меня книга очень скучная и малоинформативная. По существу, проще на сайте YouTube посмотреть видеоролики о России (туристические) чтобы получить больше информации, чем может дать эта книга. Что касается политики РФ, то тут тоже лучше обратиться к более специализированным книгам. Данная книга является простым туристическим блогом и плохим политическим анализом или обзором современной путинской России.

I have listened many times to the author's comments in various media on the topic of contemporary Russian politics, and I found them quite objective. That's why I had high expectations about this book, but what I did not expect to see in this book was a typical travel blog or “traveler's notes”. In short, to summarize this book, it is a very, very boring book that looks like a travel blog rather than a serious political or sociological study of the Russian Federation. Such a book could have been written by almost any journalist or blogger, as the content of the book consists of boring stories about how the authors of the book visited this or that Russian museum or a description of their conversation with this or that person in Russia. There is no political analysis in the book, nor is there any in-depth study of what makes up such a large and different Russia. I feel that for the author all Russians are the same - in Moscow, in Yekaterinburg, in some remote town in Siberia. I also don't understand why a chapter was included in which one of the authors travels to China if it is about Russia.

And, of course, I can't help but note the author's cliched thinking when the author writes something like “in Ukraine - civilization, and in Russia - barbarism”. This, of course, is not an exact quote, but the essence is approximately the same. And no, the book was published well before February 24, 2022, so even emotionally, it's not clear why it was written because you don't have to be an expert to understand that Eastern Europe, namely Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, are very specific countries that are still very far away from even democracies like Poland and Romania. That is why it is strange to hear such generalized conclusions about Ukraine and Russia from the professor.

Someone writes in the comments to this book that the author considers Ukraine to be part of Russia, and as another commenter writes: «Nina Kruscheva writes at p. 283 "my profoundest gratitude goes to Vladmir Putin, and goes on to praise the autocrat. What??».

I didn't see it, and I listened to the author's political comments many times and they always criticized Putin and Putin's regime, so the second commentator's statement seems doubtful to me. However, I didn't finish the book, so maybe toward the end, the author wrote about it. In any case, for me, the book is very boring and uninformative. It is easier to watch videos about Russia (tourist videos) on YouTube to get more information than this book can give. As for the politics of the Russian Federation, it is better to turn to more specialized books. This book is a simple travel blog and a poor political analysis or overview of Putin's modern Russia.

[Michael Kott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who better to write a book about the largest country in the world (From East to West it spawls across 11 Time Zones) then the granddaughter of a Russian Premier who was born in Moscow and lives in New York and a writer born in New York, married to a Russian woman and lives in Moscow! This book gives a great view of this country, it's current leader, Putin, and the people who live across it's time zones. Thoroughly well written and very interesting.

[Jim Bogue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is sort of a travelogue with commentary, so the readers’ reactions will vary. I didn’t care much for the beginning, partly because they moved so fast and partly because of the commentary. One of the authors is the great-granddaughter of the Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev, and at first the author’s kept white-washing his rule (he was better than Stalin, but pretty brutal).
However, it’s worth hanging on. As they head east they visit more intriguing venues, stay longer, and analyze more. They don’t like Putin, but they note that life is better. They use the double-headed eagle symbol, now again common, to illustrate the duality of Russia today : looking in and out, East and West, backwards and forwards.
In the end, despite glitches, the book gives an overview of modern Russia.

[Jonathon McKenney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but was really let down by a thesis that simply boiled down to "Russia ain't great". The constant harping on the fact that "Russia isn't a civilization" despite never offering a definition for "civilization" bugged me to no end. I thought I would be getting a Tony Horowitz travel-ogue, but instead just got a sloppily put together series of chapters.

[Kate Harlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book if you are seeking to understand more about modern-day Russia - historically, politically, and culturally.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was so much about Russia that I never knew about before reading this book, and it is difficult to begin enumerating everything I learned from reading this. The book I read claims to be written by Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler, but it felt like Ms. Khrushcheva wrote most of it. Interestingly, there is just as much Stalin-bashing as there is criticism of Vladmir Putin. Perhaps not so surprisingly, Nikita Khrushchev is portrayed as a reformer who tried hard to push back the repression of the Stalin era (and maybe he did, but most Americans would not agree). Overall I thought there was too much discussion of Russian politics by the authors as they traveled across the country from west to east, and not enough of what life was like for the very ordinary Russian people in all of these regions.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Co-authors travel across Russia exploring towns along the way, discussing the history, culture, Lenin statues, and cafes of the country.

Why I started this book: I have so many audio books stock piled that it's not a hardship to start the next one.

Why I finished it: Interesting insights to modern Russia but I must admit that I was half-way thru the book before I realized that the strong pro-Khrushchev stance not only was because he contrasts so well with Putin. One of the co-authors' is his great-granddaughter. I knew that Russia had 11 time zones but I didn't know that if it followed standard practice it would have 8. (China on the other hand would have 5 instead of its current 1.)

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always wanted to travel Russia, and to do it going from West to East as done in the chronological order in the book. It was very well written, and I enjoyed the insights of the various Russian towns they visited and the people which inhabited them. My main complaint is that there was much maligning of Stalin (and rightfully so), however Khrushchev (the co-author’s great-grandfather) was portrayed in a much more positive light as a “reformer” in particular. She left out the fact that Khrushchev was also responsible for the deaths of thousands of his countrymen, often done at the behest of Stalin. She also failed to mention the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was disappointed in the lack of objectivity but perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised.

[Chantelle ellesbooksandbakes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was open to reading a travel memoir or an analytical text; unfortunately, this book isn't a good example of either. The travel discussion was the dullest I've ever had the displeasure of reading, and the political "investigation" lacks the methodology or analytical rigor to make it at all meaningful. If you are aware that Russia at once disdains and envies the cultural west but is not a part of it, and that Russia has been shaped by its history but has changed since the 80's...this book has absolutely nothing new to teach you. Super disappointed. As a longtime russophile who loves political articles, I was so excited for this after reading the back of the book, but it was truly one of the worst and most boring books I've ever read.

[PJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not the easiest book to read, and I couldn't help but think that the authors had a conclusion they were seeking to support. It was interesting to learn of the many ethnic groups incorporated in Russia through-out its history, and the ways they think of themselves as Russian or not. Chilling to see parallels between Putin's rise and tactics, and a certain someone else. Chilling to learn that Stalin has been reinstated as a leader of importance, that power is necessary to lead people over such a huge territory.

[Kimberly Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read, since I know very little about Russia. A bit repetitive, but I learned some things.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

mediocre and poorly written

[Watchingthewords · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dull travelogue with an underlying tone of disdain. I had hoped for more.

[Edna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about the smaller towns outside of Moscow. Worth a skim...

[Alasdair Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights into modern day Russia.

[Elaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this strange book. Part political history, part geography lesson, part travelogue, and a healthy sprinkling of Russian contemporary "jokes."

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a book for those who enjoy learning about the geography and history of Russia.

[Linus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some points:
1.The Legacy of the Gulag and Soviet Oppression: Solovki symbolized the origins of the Gulag system, immortalized in Solzhenitsyn’s works, illustrating the grim realities of Soviet totalitarianism, while remnants of state control persist in modern Russian governance and societal organization, as seen in Kaliningrad and beyond.
2.Putin's Russia and Imperial Symbolism: Putin leverages Russia’s historical myths, including the “benevolent tsar” archetype and the spiritual heritage of Byzantium, to foster national unity and justify centralized power, intertwining Orthodoxy, state authority, and populism to perpetuate his vision of a modern empire.
3.Cultural Dichotomies and Western Influences: Kaliningrad’s fragile Russian identity contrasts with its Western lifestyle, showcasing the tensions between embracing modernity and clinging to traditionalism, a theme recurring across Russian cities where local and Western influences clash.
4.Historical Amnesia and Manipulated Narratives: From the erasure of German cultural roots in Königsberg to the selective emphasis on strong leaders like Stalin while sidelining reformists such as Khrushchev and Gorbachev, Russia crafts a narrative that glorifies authoritarianism while marginalizing its democratic experiments.
5.Byzantinization and the "Third Rome": Russia’s self-perception as a successor to Byzantine values manifests in its resistance to Western “moral decay,” a theme reinforced through state propaganda, religious revival, and the cultural integration of imperial symbols into everyday life.
6.Soviet and Post-Soviet Contrasts: While the Soviet era’s rigid control and planned economies left indelible marks, modern Russia grapples with systemic corruption, uneven regional development, and a yearning for strong leadership to navigate its geopolitical challenges and domestic inequities.
7.Cultural Memory and Resistance: The Gulag’s historical trauma persists as a cautionary tale, embodied by local initiatives and fading memorials, while contemporary Russia struggles to reconcile this dark legacy with its quest for national pride and global standing.
8.Geopolitical Frictions and the Sino-Russian Border: The complex dynamics of Russian-Chinese relations, particularly in border regions, reveal underlying anxieties about demographic imbalances, economic dependencies, and cultural assimilation, all against a backdrop of cautious cooperation and strategic rivalry.
9.Urban Contrasts and Identity Struggles: Cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Tyumen exemplify Russia’s diverse socio-economic landscapes, blending old-world charm, imperial grandeur, and modern aspirations, while provincial areas often lag behind, reflecting uneven modernization.
10.The Persistent Search for Leadership and Stability: Amid a lack of rule of law and institutional accountability, Russians yearn for a “good tsar” who can deliver justice and prosperity, a sentiment that underpins both the enduring popularity of authoritarian governance and the deepening disenchantment with its failings.

[Marsha Rafalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.75 rounded to 4.0)


“We will drive humanity to happiness with an iron hand.” (Soviet Slogan from Stalin Era.

In 1999, Putin was elected president of Russia. In the first few months of his term, he traveled widely across the sprawling country covering more than 500 miles from east to west and through each of Russia’s 11 time zones. He had a vague idea of coordinating a speech in every time zone at midnight New Year’s Eve in 2000. At that time, Russia had 11 time zones although the country had had a checkered history of how many time zones there were and what their boundaries were. Most recently, during the period of Putin’s brief break between his two tenures as president, Dmitry Medvedev changed the number to 9 to streamline business relations. Astronomically the estimate of the true zones is 5-7. Upon Putin’s reelection in 2012 and given his concern that everything about Russia be the biggest, grandest country in the world, he changed it back to 11.

During the spring and summer of 2017, the authors wanted to see if Putin’s journey had had any effects on the residents of those regions and towns. Nina Khrushchev is the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev. Jeffrey Taylor is an ex-pat US reporter/journalist who has lived with his Russian wife in Moscow for over 20 years. Together they bring a unique view to examining the history, politics, current affairs and social climate of contemporary Russia.

This book was a fascinating portrait of Russia and its people prior to the Ukraine Invasion. It explains in some measure how the Russian citizen’s view Putin’s Russia and the success of his regime. I enjoyed this book and learned much about a puzzling country and its people. The history of Russia under the various leaders was told from a narrative focus rather than a chronological historical account. The Khrushchev regime is examined less than the others, but I don’t see it as a major flaw. I highly recommend to those interested in a more personal, less scholarly profile of a country, a people and a man who leads them. The authors open most of the chapters with a quotation or a contemporary Russian joke.

Contemporary Russian Jokes:

The Kremlin warned that if the West continues to increase sanctions, the Kremlin will increase Putin’s ratings.

In Russia there is a thousand year old tradition to pass on a dream—generation to generation, father to son, one political system to the next—that in a country so rich with resources, people will live well one day.

Can you fix a town in 24 hours? Yes, you can. Putin only has to announce he will visit the whole region and pick the town later.

Putin has failed to build us a great future, so he has built us a great past.

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this book on mp3 in my car. It recollects the visit of the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and her co-author to Russia a few years ago. At one point, Putin had talked about traveling in one day to all of Russia's time zones but could not do so due to technical issues. These authors visit cities or towns in each time zone and offer insight on both Putin's Russia and on the Russian character.

It turns out that Russia has 11 time zones because it made some of them up to brag that it had the most time zones.

The general overview is that Putin is a smarter version of Trump. He constantly touts a version of "Make Russia Great Again" to his countrymen. Because he lives in an autocratic country, despite its democratic claims, he can rule more arbitrarily than Trump was allowed to do. Also, he can suppress criticism in ways that were forbidden to Trump. As American citizens, we should all be thankful for our democratic institutions.

The annexation of Crimea and the secessionist movement in east Ukraine are all bragged about as great Russian victories by Putin. The news media is his puppet. Critics have fake "crimes" charged against them to justify their imprisonment.

An amazing aspect was the authors' visit to museums that discussed the atrocities committed in the gulags and under Stalin. The prevailing attitude of Russians seemed to be that to make a country great, you had to break a few eggs. Few people are interested in learning about the past.

Stalin, after his fall under Khrushchev, is rehabilitated as the leader of the Great Patriotic War (World War II). The relationship with the old Communist regime is somewhat confused.

The travelogue to each time zone is very worthwhile. I learned a lot about Russian history and past and current priorities of the Soviets and then Putin to each region or city. I took a survey course in Russian history in college during the summer session, but the facts that I learned here filled in many gaps.

Some regions fare better than others under Putin. Much seems to depend on the various governors and mayors of each region or city.

Truly an eye-opener.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors present Russia by traveling from west to east visiting about a dozen different cities, including St Petersburg and Moscow but with an emphasis on the other cities from Kaliningrad in the west to Petropavlosk-Kamchatskii in the east and what similarities they observe along with regional differences. The authors are Nina Khrushcheva, a Russian who now teaches in the U.S., a professor of international affairs, and Jeffrey Tayler, who lives in Moscow and is married to a Russian, whose previous books are mostly descriptions of trips he took in different parts of the world.

As a book trying to present who Russians are today under Putin, I'm not sure their travel narrative approach works that well. It isn't clear when the visits to the different cities took place or how long they were in any one place. Using a typical usual travel approach, what are apparently meant to be representative interactions with different individuals are presented as though representative of Russians today and the places where they took place. Well, perhaps.

I'm not sure who the expected audience for this book is. Like many travel books for exotic places (and many of the cities they visited certainly qualify for most Americans as such) there is a fair amount of background history supplied along with the description of the current situation and some current persons met, but I don't think there is enough of the basics about these places with a focus on more unusual aspects. Of course this is often a problem with books like these - balancing the potentially droning history in favor of more engaging anecdotes.

As it happens, I have visited more than half these cities, but I did this travel over about a dozen years starting in the 1990s, and not recently, so I was intrigued and enjoyed this. I also thought that the conclusion that Russia today is a mass of contradictions (my short version) made sense.

For readers who know about Russia but not much about the regions, this is probably a good read.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russia is in the news. Russia makes the news. Russia IS the news, particularly with Vladimir Putin as the leader. But who is Vladimir Putin and what's the Russia that he rules? Nina Khrushcheva (great-granddaughter and look-a-like of you-know-who) and Jeffrey Taylor have asked and answered that question in their new book, "In Putin's Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of An Empire: Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones". The two take a journey across current-day Russia, beginning in the west and traveling east. They visited towns and cities and empty areas and have written a very sophisticated travel journal. surrounded by political and historical observations. (By the way, there's a map of their journey in the front of the book. It's actually not accurate as the authors visited other places not indicated on the map. The editor should check the map against the text before the book goes to press.)

There are several themes to the book. One is the continued look at alterations in identity of Russian cities and people. Names of cities change on a whim as people come in and out of favor. What's the status of Vladimir Lenin? Depends on where you are in the country. While this was prevalent in the old Soviet Union, it continues to today. And while much of the book looks at "official" Russia, the authors include interviews with many of the people they meet. It's both a personal and professional account of their journey.

Both Khrushcheva and Taylor are journalists. I've seen Khrushcheva on TV here, trying to explain Russia and the ex-Soviet Union. Taylor lives in Moscow with his Russian wife. Both are good writers and very good questioners and observers. And there's a lot to ask and observe in Russia. They've written a very good book which should interest armchair historians and politics junkies alike.

[Claire Binkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The responsibility of saving drowning people is that of drowning people." I like this aphorism which I found from this book very much. I chose to study Russian the first semester I started undergrad and deeply considered grad school at an institution in Moscow, but then I had severe troubles with the men of the department, so I changed languages. I mean, I was amiable friends with a guy from my first Russian class named Ben, but the others might have been strange, in different ways, all of whom I have had to block from contacting my phone, for more reasons than just the chess problem.

This book is an interesting one to consider, in words having to do with what I just read.

On second thought, though, coming back to this review, I might only be referring to drowning in metaphorical deep water. When in real deep water one may be suffering from hypothermia as well as certain other physical difficulties. A helping hand is more than welcome.

I had promptly drowned myself metaphorically in coursework, at the time, with the ideal of the almighty 4.0 soaring above my head.

[Uuree Batsaikhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid reader of Nina Khrushcheva's column on Project Syndicate I was delighted to find that she wrote a book on Putin's Russia. I was quite disappointed that the book lacked the analytical rigour or an exacting methodology that was expected from such an esteemed professor of international affairs. Her storytelling through conversations with cabdrivers and receptionists do not yield much but seems to be central to the story of the book. Russia's 11 timezones and its diverse people deserve more than glossing over and at certain points it seemed like the hypothesis was clear from the beginning and it was more of an evidence finding mission, which ended up (not so) accidentally catering to the "Western" mostly US-based stereotypes of Russians and of Putin. I believe that she has an all-encompassing knowledge of Russian history and its people, but sadly it wasn't reflected in this book.

[Tony Wohlfarth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book, expecting to learn more about Russia. I have major reservations:
- IMO, the book does not adequately deal with The Ukraine. Russia invaded The Ukraine back in 2014, and all I read was sycophantic references to how much they love Russia - including the chapter from Kiev and Crimea.
- Diversity is a theme & yet the authors say (p. 279) "Russia is largely a homogenous country". Huh? I thought the theme was how unique each of the regions are?
- Nina Kruscheva writes at p. 283 "my profoundest gratitude goes to Vladmir Putin, and goes on to praise the autocrat. What ?? Every other commentator portrays him as a paranoid dictator. How is it that this American professor admires him? Like Trump?
Read this book if you wish to plan a trip on the Trans Siberian Express. Great stories. Avoid this book if you want to know more about Russia.

[Essi Shams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about Russia by two people who obviously understand the history and current affairs of the country. A lot of insight is offered, and although at times the authors draw conclusions that are best left to the readers, such content does not diminish the value of the book.
The authors have visited notable cities across Russia in all of its time zones to bring to light an image of why Russia is what it is today. Some stops seem hurried and less well developed than others, but overall the journey leaves the readers with an excellent idea of what Russian society has been through and where it is standing today.
An Excellent book which is definitely a rewarding reading experience.