Through Dark Days and White Nights: Four Decades Observing a Changing Russia

Naomi F. Collins

Description

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.

"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.

"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.

"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

Sujets

• Former Soviet Union
• Histoire
• URSS
• Russia
• History

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780984583263
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 21 Mo

Extrait

Through Dark Days and White Nights

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Read an excerpt at: www.newacademia.com

Through Dark Days and White Nights

Four Decades Observing a Changing Russia: Impressions and Reflections

Naomi F. Collins

Washington, DC

Copyright © 2008 by Naomi F. Collins

Published in eBook format by SCARITH/New Academia Publishing Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.

ISBN-13: 978-0-9845-8326-3

Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Control Number 2007940796 ISBN 978-0-9800814-0-4 paperback

An imprint of New Academia Publishing Washington, DC

[e-mail] www.newacademia.com

I dedicateThrough Dark Days and White Nightsto our wonderful sons Robert and Jonathan, who shared many of the ups and downs of these experiences; and to their children and future generations whose “todays” will be built on our “yesterdays.”

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Contents

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

Postscript: Framing the Future by Ambassador James F. Collins

Figures 1-6

Figures 7-10

Figures 11-15

Figures 16-19

Illustrations

All photographs are from the author’s collection.

Acknowledgments

W ithout my husband Jim Collins, who generously supported my writing and who impelled my unexpected lifetime of journeys to and from the former Soviet Union, then Russia, I would not have had the opportunity to witness and report four decades of static and dramatic life in that compelling nation. And because of the encouragement of several friends, including Anne Garside, Janet Rabinowitch and Regina Foster, whose professional judgments I value deeply, my diaries and letters have become the basis of this book. Other friends and colleagues know who they are, and I am deeply grateful to them for championing this endeavor. Sensitive editing by Josephine Woll, and support from my publisher, Anna Lawton (New Academia Publishing), have helped polish the prose and realize the publication. Of course the book’s content and views are solely my own. Some names in the text have been changed to avoid intruding on the privacy of friends and colleagues.

Foreword by Strobe Talbott

R ussia has come a long way from the Soviet era, but it is still a country as perplexing as it is important. In the decades I have spent visiting Russia as a journalist, diplomat, and policy analyst, I have come to appreciate books that provide useful insight into what has changed—and what hasn’t—in that giant country that straddles Europe and Asia, spanning eleven time zones. This book so qualifies.Through Dark Days and White Nightsgoes beyond an engaging memoir of life in Russia during an important period, st from the 1960’s through the turn of the 21 century: it captures a sense of Russia as a work-in-progress. Rather than a musty snapshot of an earlier era, or an account of a short stay, the book is more 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. Because of the scope of Naomi Collins’ experience with Russia, she is able to provide a sense of continuity in the development of a country whose daily life advanced from static to dramatic, yet retained enduring features that the author also discerns and describes with great skill and clarity. She recognizes how much of Russia’s past lives in its present, how long and dark a shadow the Soviet system casts over what we can now safely (if apprehensively) call “the Putin era.” She also has an acute eye and ear for Russian daily life; she understands and conveys how a talented but often beleaguered people have learned to buoy their spirits— including during periods of stagnation and upheaval— through an appreciation of the richness of their culture, the intensity of friendships, the natural beauty of their country, the rotation of the seasons, and the respite of holidays. The policies emanating from the Kremlin play their part in her story, but so do the pleasures of a weekend in the countryside and an Easter