Xanadu Enterprises Presents a Wondrous Selection of Books
Travel Guides: Russia & The CIS
(This is the Second of Three Shelves in this Aisle of the Eurasian Travel Guides Section.)
Category Shelves
The books listed below have been especially selected for those seeking to get the most out of a journey to the former Soviet Union. These are especially useful in terms of understanding the enormous changes that have occurred over the last decade, so that your adventures and explorations there can be absolutely fascinating!
IMPORTANT!
If you live in North America, please be sure to always select the "USA" button when making selections. And if you live in the U.K. or Europe, please be sure to click only on the "UK" button. Doing this will ensure you of the least expensive and most rapid delivery of your books or merchandise from Amazon. Thanks!
Wedded Strangers: The Challenges of Russian-American Marriages
by Lynn Visson
A reader from Washington, DC wrote, on August 19, 1998 --
A fine study of Russian-American marriages. Worth the read. A topically arranged medley of case studies of
Russian-American marriages from the early Soviet period to the present. Famous, infamous and everyday couples describe
their experiences dealing with many of the cultural hurdles that Russian-American couples must overcome. A "must read" title
for contemporary Russian-American couples.
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Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia
by Ellen Mickiewicz
Detailed Review: From Amazon.com --
At 7:20 pm on October 3, 1993, a nervous and shaky anchor broke
into coverage of a soccer match to tell Russian viewers that their state television was shutting down. In the opening salvos of the
parliamentary revolt against Boris Yeltsin's government, a mob had besieged the station's headquarters. A man had just been
killed in front of the news director. Moments later, screens all across Russia went blank, leaving audiences in the dark. But in
less than an hour, Russia's second state channel went on the air. Millions watched as Sergei Torchinsky anchored thirteen
straight hours of coverage, often with the sound of shooting clearly audible in the background. Streams of politicians, trade
union leaders, writers, television personalities, and other well-known figures braved gunfire to reach Channel Two's makeshift
studios and speak directly to the nation. In one stunning moment, a famous actress extemporaneously pleaded with viewers not
to return to the horrors of Stalinism. Boris Yeltsin, who had been glued to his television set like everyone else, later recalled,
"For the rest of my life I will remember the anxious but resolute and courageous expression of Liya Akhedzhakova...her hoarse,
cracking voice remains in my memory." In that time of crisis, television bound the nation together, a continuing emblem of
legitimate authority which lent an image of stability and credibility to Yeltsin's besieged government. "Television saved Russia," the Russian president said. Changing Channels vividly recreates this exciting time, as television both helped and hindered the Russian nation's struggle to create a new democracy. From the moribund, state-controlled television broadcasts at the end of the Soviet Union, through Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost, up to Yeltsin's victory in the most recent Russian presidential elections of 1996, Mickiewicz charts the omnipresent role of television, drawing on interviews, public opinion surveys, research, and the television programming itself. Analyzing the rise of political advertising (sometimes with controversial U.S. participation), the birth of journalists as opinionated television personalities, and the changing news coverage of coups, elections, and wars, she shows both how the gradual development of private, independent stations has begun to make real pluralism possible and how the authoritarian legacy of the Soviet state structure continues to affect Russian television even today. With television in 97% of all Russian households, and the nightly news watched by a viewership matching that for the Super Bowl in the U.S., the struggle for control over television became the struggle for control over the nation. Mickiewicz illuminates the efforts of those both in and out of power to control the media. Behind the momentous political changes are the stories of the men and women who chose to resist, test, or submit to the system. Mickiewicz offers brilliant sketches of these individuals: Yegor Ligachev,
Gorbachev's second in command, a man of strongly held opinions who, in retirement, still orated loudly, even over tea; Boris
Yeltsin, having not even put on his shirt yet, watching the early morning coverage of the attempted coup against Gorbachev; or
the new breed of Russian journalists covering the war in Chechnya with footage of bombed out streets and charred corpses for
privately owned NTV, despite continuing government intimidation. In vivid interviews, all the key players, including Gorbachev
himself, offered Mickiewicz their unique insights and frank personal commentary. Drawing on these interviews and on her
extensive research on the interactions of politics, economics, and society, Mickiewicz presents a rich and authoritative analysis
of television in Russia. In many ways, Mickiewicz writes, no other country in the world offers television a greater opportunity
and a greater role. Changing Channels tells the fascinating story of a truly modern phenomenon: the struggle to create genuine
political pluralism, helped and hindered by the barrage of information, advertisements, and media-created personalities that
make up modern television.
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Russia Survival Guide
by Paul E. Richardson
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Moscow Days: Life and Hard Times in the New Russia
by Catherine Fitzpatrick (Translator), and Galina Dutkina
Review: From Booklist, February 1, 1996 --
Moscow-based editor and journalist Dutkina reveals a frightening and chaotic picture of the new Russia. To visitors, Russia
may seem a place of plenty. Moscow's shops and department stores brim with cosmetics, Coca-Cola, Japanese cameras, and
Italian clothes. But most Russians can't afford these items, not when an iron costs more than a university professor's monthly
salary. Prices of consumer goods and food have risen more than 600 times in three years. To make ends meet, some Russians
work up to six jobs, punching in at one and then scurrying off to another, and doing none of them well. Dutkina's Russia is a
place where swindlers regularly offer stocks in corporations that don't exist, and gangsters and black marketers hawk
everything from Soviet tanks to kidnapped children. Through all this, Dutkina asserts, the average person still believes that life
will improve. Brian McCombie. Copyright© 1996, American Library Association. All rights reserved.
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