The author provides a personal, eye-witness account from the mid 1960's through the turn of the 21st century, starting as a graduate student at Moscow State University and ending as the wife of the American Ambassador to Russia.<br><br>"This book is like a script for a documentary spanning four decades when an especially astute and literate observer watched Russia emerge from stagnation and enter a period of dramatic economic, social, and political change and, on many fronts, upheaval." —Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution.<br><br>"Naomi Collins takes the reader on a fascinating ride through the last forty years of Russia's turbulent history, beginning as a graduate student and ending as the wife of the American Ambassador. Because she writes so well, the ride is always fun, informative and insightful. Read, enjoy, learn!" —Marvin Kalb, Murrow Professor Emeritus, Harvard University.<br><br>"Naomi Collins's book conveys the atmosphere and feel of these changing times, describing settings and scenes, and the people in them, in a pointillist style." —William Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Amherst College
Оглавление
Naomi F. Collins. Through Dark Days and White Nights: Four Decades Observing a Changing Russia
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Strobe Talbott
Introduction by Ambassador James F. Collins
Prologue
1. Encounters with a Closed Society
2. Returning to a Stagnant, Gray Land
3. Caught in the Coup: Turning Points and Transformations
4. Witnessing the Century’s Close: Russia Re-emerging
Epilogue: Cycles, Generations, and Journeys. Reflecting on the Span of Time
Postscript: Framing the Future by Ambassador James F. Collins
Отрывок из книги
Figures 1-6
Figures 7-10
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She was so taken with Jim that when she had a special joy in her life, she came to see him and share the moment with him. She invited him into the kitchen, conspiratorially, to reveal—as she unwrapped the newspaper surrounding the item—one plucked skinny dead duck, a duck she had purchased unexpectedly, and triumphantly, for her family’s holiday dinner. She could not have been prouder if she had shot it herself. Jim expressed the admiration she hoped for. At the end of our stay, Jim presented her, along with our gratuity and probably far more precious, the remains of the can of Ajax.
At the same time, in public places, blue-collar women, women construction workers, plasterers and painters, and other laborers on scaffolds and on the ground (women, as always, serving as the heavy labor force of Russia) thought nothing in hot weather of removing their blouses and working in their brassieres. And nobody seemed to notice, except foreigners like us.
