Never Speak to Strangers and other writing from Russia and the Soviet Union

David Satter arrived in the Soviet Union in June, 1976 as the correspondent of the Financial Times of London and entered a country that was a giant theater of the absurd. After 1982, he was banned from the Soviet Union but allowed back in 1990, and finally expelled in 2013 on the grounds that the secret police regarded his presence as undesirable. From 1976 to the present, he saw four different Russias, which differed from each other radically while remaining essentially the same. From 1976 to 1982, the Soviet Union was at the height of its world power and its people were in thrall to an absurd ideology. With the advent of Gorbachev's perestroika, the Soviet population was liberated from the ideology and the state hurtled to its inevitable collapse. When independent Russia emerged from the wreckage, the failure to replace the missing ideology with genuine moral values led to Russia's complete criminalization. The articles in this unique collection are a chronicle of Russia from the day David Satter arrived in the Soviet Union until the present. Emigres from the states of the former Soviet Union often despair of their inability to convey the true character of their experiences to the West. Penetrating the veil of Russian mystification requires effort and the ability to understand that seeing is not always believing. The Russians have created an entire false world for our benefit. This collection reflects David Satter's 40-year attempt to see them as they are.

"These are not typical journalistic articles. Satter is a very intelligent observer of the culture, and the reader not only gets a sense of the practical matters that plagued Soviet citizens but also an in-depth understanding of ideology and the chaos it has caused for decades. Practically every piece in the collection either implies or explicitly asks philosophical questions that call on the reader to think deeply about the notion of ideology and the conditions a totalitarian regime brings. As Satter writes in the Introduction, he observed four different Russias which managed to differ radically from each other while remaining essentially the same. The key word here is essentially, because the essence of Russia is Satter's underlying theme, brilliantly presented with real knowledge and understanding of the Russian character and the horrific impact Marxist-Leninist ideology has had on it."Emina Melonic, Law & Liberty, March, 09 2021

Autorentext

David Satter has been one of the world's leading commentators on Russian affairs for almost five decades. He was the Moscow correspondent of the Financial Times from 1976 to 1982 and has written five books about Russia. After 1982, he was prevented from traveling to the Soviet Union but allowed back in 1990 and expelled in December 2013 with the explanation that the Russian intelligence services regarded his presence as "undesirable." This made him the first US journalist to be barred from Russia since the Cold War.