PDF Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall by Andrew Meier in History

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Excellent readBy Will MyersAndrew Meier shows us the new Russia from the four corners of the vast country through the eyes of an American6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Extraordinarily entertaining readBy Catherine R. LincolnStyle should always be basic to books; and Black Earth is an extraordinarily entertaining read. It is valuable also because author Andrew Meier reaches deep into the huge problems the “new” Russia faces; not so much with scholarly study as with impressions and interviews normally never seen in printed press dispatches. Some stylistically descriptive passages: “Moscow eludes one. It defies measurement and loathes explanation; as if inherently ill disposed to definition….Makeshift vendors….hawk everything from Swedish porn to Chinese bras.” Or; taking the train to St. Petersburg “was a routine secretly beloved by all. Swaddled in the communal conveyance….strangers flirted; military men became gallant; illicit lovers played coy.” And interviews that conveyed influential impressions rather than convential hard facts. A well-known Chechen fighter told Meier the Chechen conflict with the Russian government “was not Moscow’s fault alone. Washington; Wall Street; world Zionism had also colluded against the Chechens.” About Taliban terrorists with whom the U. S. citizen since 9/11 has been especially concerned; “We have no Taliban here (but) do we support the Taliban? Of course. They are our spiritual brothers.” He believed all Muslims should engage in the Islamic jihad (war) against others. Author Meier; a recent fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for scholars in Washington; D. C.; was a Russian correspondent for Time magazine from 1996 to 2001. Black Earth is a travel book. Like most worthwhile travel books; it is also a political book. Meier will be criticized for arriving at questions but then producing partial (or no) answers. In Black Earth he devotes one hundred pages to the conflict in Chechnya; which today dominates news to the West about President Vladimir Putin’s military efforts to present a unified nation to the world. Meier’s hopeful observation: the rule of law might prevail. He quotes a Chechen paraplegic victim of the fighting: “Without a legal order; it is impossible to achieve anything. Anything at all.”In his reportage on Chechnya; Meier reminds the reader of the historical Russian-Chechen hatred of each other. The Chechen fighter quoted above told Meier that Chechnya had gone the Wahhabi (extremely conservative Islamic) way to “purify the soul of the nation.” Russian views are summed up in the notion that the only way to defeat the Chechens is to burn all their villages to the ground. Catherine the Great back in 1785 had ordered troops to storm a Chechen stronghold. Background information is necessary for any analysis of the news from Russia; and doubly vital to the American voter. Russia in some ways seems to resemble the U. S. – in size; cultural diversity. Its government is working on the theory that unification rather than separation is the answer. However; Russian leaders through history have displayed embarrassment at their inability to adjust to the civilization of their time. Their current effort to adjust to democracy will require understanding of their past as well as their present; and Black Earth is going to help. The author will win no awards for cold objectivity; but he might for presentation of meaningful emotional reactions.Robert A. Lincoln; a retired officer of the U. S. Foreign Service; lived in northern Virginia.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. The best travel-based book on contemporary Russian culture and politics I've readBy Michael C. WalkerThere are small flaws I could find with this book if I chose to; but they're quite small and really don't matter: the author introduces so many various people in the book—especially in the chapter on Chechnya—that it's hard to keep straight who is who; the final chapter which is supposed to concern Moscow (as the other chapters have concerned specific places in Russia) really serves to tie up the whole book and speaks of the changes of the Putin years following the Yeltsin years but doesn't shed a whole lot of light on Moscow itself; the author goes into great detail to explain Russian history in some instances and in others; glosses over things even serious students of Russia might not know. But these really are small issues considering that this is possibly overall the finest travel-based nonfiction on Russia I've read in English. The author speaks fluent Russian and is a journalist for Time Magazine so he both knows how to communicate while exploring Russia and how to write about it.The chapters on Norilsk and Saint Petersburg I felt were overall the best: The description of the river cruise to Norilsk was probably the best writing altogether in the book and is not to be missed; but most of the book really shines. The chapter on Chechnya is expectedly depressing and spends too much time and effort rehashing just how brutal the conflict there was—a valid point but not one that needs to be drilled in so constantly—and not quite enough time looking at the roots of the conflict and the aspects of various battles. It's clear the author wishes to command our attention to the violence; but once that's been done; he could have spent more effort on getting further into the nuances of the war because he does obviously have the understanding of the topic to do so. I also would have liked more description of place—especially in the case of Norilsk. He does this very well in speaking of the river cruise; but doesn't furnish Norilsk itself with the same benefit despite a stated desire to see its industrial landscape. The chapter on Saint Petersburg however contains both fine descriptions of the city and great exploration of the woes of contemporary Russian politics and corruption woven into the examination of the city itself. Very fine writing there and a great understanding of Russia at the early years of Putin's tenure.Again; there are some flaws but overall it's five stars; maybe six if I could give it an extra one. I write mainly about Russia and the Balkans myself; I read fluent Russian; and I know what's going on in Russian politics and yet I learned plenty from this book. I also gained a lot of insight of how to construct narratives of place tied into explorations of politics from Meier's efforts here. If you want to understand Russia better; I can think of no better a place to start.