I made reference to Susan Richards’ book Lost and Found in Russia: Encounters in a Deep Heartland in my last post. I have not read the book, nor can I buy it unless I want to pay extra shipping from England. Lost and Found has yet to be published in the US. Too bad. As this Guardian review suggests, it sounds like a worthwhile read:
In the great tradition of Chekhov or Dostoevsky, her subjects live in the anonymous provinces, in the appropriately named town of Marx (what a great choice – at one point she was categorically informed by a telephone operator that “Marx does not exist, but Engels does”). The opening chapters are ones of pure despair. Richards describes struggling to capture the weird reality that just when we all thought the Russians should be celebrating the advent of democracy and freedom, their lives were collapsing around them. Provincial Russia knows a thing or two about hopelessness.
The subsequent 16 years of change have tested her characters to the limits – throwing some off into Siberia, a couple to the Crimea. Richards kept on going back, doggedly and affectionately following the lives they offer up.
Or you can get a taste yourself. OpenDemocracy has published a few excepts from the text:
Lost and Found in Russia: a visit to Marx
Between Heaven and Hell
My Dream House
And if that isn’t enough, Richards recently spoke at OpenDemocracy’s Russia evening in London. Anatol Lieven provided commentary.
[podcast]http://www.opendemocracy.net/files/audio/Russia-evening-July-09.mp3[/podcast]
Thanks, Sean. Sounds very interesting. Another book to add to my “to read” pile.
My apologies for being off topic. Just read about the death of another brave human rights activist. From the BBC:
“A prominent Russian human rights activist, Natalia Estemirova, has been found dead in the North Caucasus.
She was bundled into a van and abducted as she left her home in Chechnya on Wednesday morning, a colleague said. Her body was found in Ingushetia.
The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed “outrage” at the murder, and ordered a top-level investigation.
Ms Estemirova had been investigating human rights abuses in Chechnya for the independent Memorial group. …
In recent months, she had been gathering evidence of a campaign of house-burnings by government-backed militias.
Ms Estemirova, who was 50 according to Russian prosecutors, had worked in the past with the activists Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in 2006, and Stanislav Markelov, who was killed in January this year.
In 2007 she was awarded the inaugural Anna Politkovskaya Prize, and had also received awards from the Swedish and European parliaments, Memorial said.
In a statement the group said she “was forcefully taken from her house into a car and shouted that she was being kidnapped” at about 0830 local time (0430 GMT).
Her body was found in woodland near Nazran, the main city in neighbouring Ingushetia, about nine hours later. She had bullet wounds to the head and chest.”
I read this too. Tragic. If you notice I added a new feature to the blog via Facebook. I’m posting articles I’ve read but don’t want or have the time to blog about. So become a fan and have the posts added to your Facebook feed.
For some reason I dread the thought of Facebook, even though I have a dormant account… But I guess I’ll join the bandwagon soon….
No wonder you haven’t approved me as a friend! I was the same way. And then I got addicted. I blame Doom and poemless.
I blame Doom and you. ;p
How about we just come to a consensus and just blame Doom. He’s always up to some nastiness anyway. In fact, I bet it was Doom who first made the “wise Latina” comment.
Absolutley. It’s a pretty safe bet to blame him for everything.
The book sounds like a big straw box of sour klukva.
Facebook is the devil. I’ve purposefully stopped using it and intend to keep it that way.
From the second article (Building Heaven or Hell):
Does this account for Putin’s popularity?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_low_frequency
There was some thought that ELF communications might mess with brain waves as a side effect. Likely the kernel of truth that started the tinfoil hat brigade, as I imagine the military on both sides did some rudimentary research into it, just to see if there was anything to it. That is usually all that’s needed to get a good conspiracy theory going.
My words were twisted by the media. I said “wise Latverian,” refering to myself.
Facebook is the devil. I’ve purposefully stopped using it and intend to keep it that way.
Facebook is the devil, yes. But so is Doss, and yet we keep using him. So, I just joined your little facebook group a few days ago & then Doss and Sean like little sheep followed suit. Should I unjoin? Or wait for you to sell your soul?
Psychotronic weapons
Why can I no longer find Zhirinovsky’s quote about mind control weapons being the reason the Russian football team lost to Spain? Have the Spaniards white-washed the story? They would…
I’m waiting for Kadyrov to blame the death of Estemirova on zombified Chechen kids who’ve been drugged by Western agents.
“But so is Doss, and yet we keep using him. So, I just joined your little facebook group a few days ago & then Doss and Sean like little sheep followed suit.”
Which would mean that you lead the Devil, which raises interesting theological questions.
Facebook is the devil. I can believe that. What destructive impulse made me join Facebook two or more years ago? I let it sit there, lying dormant, and by doing so I probably offended real life friends and cyber buddies who assumed that I’m purposefully ignoring them…. On the other hand, when I joined way back then my daughter (who at the time was around 15) told me in no uncertain terms that she does NOT want to be my friend. (Way to uncool and embarrassing.)
(Sean, for what is worth, remember that time you added a feature that within a limited time frame allowed commenters to self-edit their comments? Too bad it had glitches (forgot what they were), because I would love to have the ability to edit my own badly worded comments. All too often I submit a comment only to later see that it had more than its share of redundant words and other silly stuff.)