Russians: The People behind the Power
Autor Gregory Feiferen Limba Engleză Paperback – 17 feb 2014
From
former
NPR
Moscow
correspondent
Gregory
Feifer
comes
an
incisive
portrait
that
draws
on
vivid
personal
stories
to
portray
the
forces
that
have
shaped
the
Russian
character
for
centuries-and
continue
to
do
so
today.
RUSSIANSexplores the seeming paradoxes of life in Russia by unraveling the nature of its people: what is it in their history, their desires, and their conception of themselves that makes them baffling to the West? Using the insights of his decade as a journalist in Russia, Feifer corrects pervasive misconceptions by showing that much of what appears inexplicable about the country is logical when seen from the inside. He gets to the heart of why the world's leading energy producer continues to exasperate many in the international community. And he makes clear why President Vladimir Putin remains popular even as the gap widens between the super-rich and the great majority of poor.
Traversing the world's largest country from the violent North Caucasus to Arctic Siberia, Feifer conducted hundreds of intimate conversations about everything from sex and vodka to Russia's complex relationship with the world. From fabulously wealthy oligarchs to the destitute elderly babushki who beg in Moscow's streets, he tells the story of a society bursting with vitality under a leadership rooted in tradition and often on the edge of collapse despite its authoritarian power.
Feifer also draws on formative experiences in Russia's past and illustrative workings of its culture to shed much-needed light on the purposely hidden functioning of its society before, during, and after communism. Woven throughout is an intimate, first-person account of his family history, from his Russian mother's coming of age among Moscow's bohemian artistic elite to his American father's harrowing vodka-fueled run-ins with the KGB.
What emerges is a rare portrait of a unique land of extremes whose forbidding geography, merciless climate, and crushing corruption has nevertheless produced some of the world's greatest art and some of its most remarkable scientific advances.RUSSIANSis an expertly observed, gripping profile of a people who will continue challenging the West for the foreseeable future.
RUSSIANSexplores the seeming paradoxes of life in Russia by unraveling the nature of its people: what is it in their history, their desires, and their conception of themselves that makes them baffling to the West? Using the insights of his decade as a journalist in Russia, Feifer corrects pervasive misconceptions by showing that much of what appears inexplicable about the country is logical when seen from the inside. He gets to the heart of why the world's leading energy producer continues to exasperate many in the international community. And he makes clear why President Vladimir Putin remains popular even as the gap widens between the super-rich and the great majority of poor.
Traversing the world's largest country from the violent North Caucasus to Arctic Siberia, Feifer conducted hundreds of intimate conversations about everything from sex and vodka to Russia's complex relationship with the world. From fabulously wealthy oligarchs to the destitute elderly babushki who beg in Moscow's streets, he tells the story of a society bursting with vitality under a leadership rooted in tradition and often on the edge of collapse despite its authoritarian power.
Feifer also draws on formative experiences in Russia's past and illustrative workings of its culture to shed much-needed light on the purposely hidden functioning of its society before, during, and after communism. Woven throughout is an intimate, first-person account of his family history, from his Russian mother's coming of age among Moscow's bohemian artistic elite to his American father's harrowing vodka-fueled run-ins with the KGB.
What emerges is a rare portrait of a unique land of extremes whose forbidding geography, merciless climate, and crushing corruption has nevertheless produced some of the world's greatest art and some of its most remarkable scientific advances.RUSSIANSis an expertly observed, gripping profile of a people who will continue challenging the West for the foreseeable future.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781455573455
ISBN-10: 1455573450
Pagini: 384
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.46 kg
Editura: Grand Central Publishing
Colecția Twelve
ISBN-10: 1455573450
Pagini: 384
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.46 kg
Editura: Grand Central Publishing
Colecția Twelve
Notă biografică
Gregory
Feiferis
a
senior
correspondent
for
Radio
Free
Europe
who
also
writes
forForeign
AffairsandThe
New
Republic.
Until
recently,
he
was
National
Public
Radio's
Moscow
correspondent,
and
has
reported
from
Russia
for
almost
a
decade.
During
its
resurgence
under
Putin,
he
filed
from
other
former
Soviet
republics
and
across
Russia,
where
he
observed
the
effects
of
the
country's
vast
new
oil
wealth
on
an
increasingly
nationalistic
society
as
well
as
Moscow's
rekindling
of
a
new
Cold
War-style
opposition
to
the
West.
In
2008,
Feifer
covered
the
Russia-Georgia
war
from
the
breakaway
Georgian
region
of
South
Ossetia
and
traveled
to
Siberia,
Belgrade
and
Berlin
to
produce
a
series
on
the
Kremlin's
use
of
Gazprom,
the
Russian
gas
monopoly,
as
an
instrument
of
foreign
policy.
Before joining NPR in 2005, Feifer-whose mother is Russian-lived in Paris and New York, and wrote for outlets including Agence France PresseandWorld Policy Journal. He witnessed the coup d'état attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, and later, on a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs, examined the end of the Yeltsin era and Russia's subsequent transformation into an authoritarian state.
Feifer is the author ofThe Great Gamble, a history of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and coauthor ofSpy Handlerwith former KGB colonel Victor Cherkashin. He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees at Harvard University and now lives in Prague with his wife Elizabeth and son Sebastian.
Before joining NPR in 2005, Feifer-whose mother is Russian-lived in Paris and New York, and wrote for outlets including Agence France PresseandWorld Policy Journal. He witnessed the coup d'état attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, and later, on a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs, examined the end of the Yeltsin era and Russia's subsequent transformation into an authoritarian state.
Feifer is the author ofThe Great Gamble, a history of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and coauthor ofSpy Handlerwith former KGB colonel Victor Cherkashin. He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees at Harvard University and now lives in Prague with his wife Elizabeth and son Sebastian.