Black Earth: A journey through Russia after the fall

Black Earth: A journey through Russia after the fall
Andrew Meier

Due to the level of detail, maps are best viewed on a tablet.Russia today is a world in a dark limbo. The body politic is diseased, the state in collapse. Yet for all the signs of encroaching doom, Russians do not fear the future. They fear the past. Russians have long known theirs is not a land that develops and progresses. It careens, heaves, and all too often sinks.Once again, Russia stands at a crossroads getting by on little but faith, vodka and a blithe indifference to the moral and financial bankruptcy looming from all sides.Andrew Meier’s stunning debut explains a state in collapse; how millions of Russians have been displaced by the death of an ideology. It seeks to explain how the Russian government can increase defence spending by 50% whilst the poverty line cuts through a third of its households, and the people face epidemics of AIDS, TB, alcoholism and suicide.Russia’s story is told through the voices of Russians who live at the five corners of the nation. It is a dramatic portrait of Russia at a time when the old regime has given way, but the new has yet to take hold. Meier has travelled to the extremes – north to Norilsk above the Arctic Circle; east to Sakhalin, south to Vladikavkaz and west to St. Petersburg. And to Moscow.His writing is classic, poised, poignantly observant and richly human. No one has yet captured the historical, cultural and political disintegration of Russia as well as Andrew Meier.

BLACK EARTH

RUSSIA AFTER THE FALL

ANDREW MEIER

PRAISE (#ulink_ea66a8a4-24c1-56ab-a261-46a886942f38)

‘There is depth to Andrew Meier’s portrait of Russia, but breadth as well. The treasures lie in his love for the country and the nuances that emerge from his encounters with Russian soldiers, politicians, pensioners and public servants’

Books of the Year, Economist

‘Written with curiosity, wit and sensitivity [Andrew Meier’s Black Earth is] a superb and erudite journey into the Russia he loves and knows better than virtually any other writer of his generation: it is the best work of Russian reportage since the fall of Communism’

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

‘The best piece of journalism written about Russia in English, and likely to remain so for a long time … The detail, knowledge and, above all, understanding which reside in this book remind us of how good journalism can be: how the first draft of history can be its freshest, its most poignant and its most alive … a record of extraordinary quality’

Glasgow Herald

‘Andrew Meier is not only a highly skilled journalist but also a remarkable listener … Black Earth is compelling and richly readable’

Mail on Sunday

‘A remarkable book. From the powerful first paragraph to the hopeful last it grips and grabs and stays with you. Highly recommended’

Ireland on Sunday

‘Impressive, building up to a many-layered portrait of post-Communist Russia … Meier has a genuine affection for the country and its people, which helps him to see beyond the one-dimensional image one gets from foreign newspaper reports’

Independent on Sunday

‘Moving … fascinating … Beautifully written and serves as a forceful reminder of quite how hard it will be to make real changes in Russia beyond the Moscow ring road’

Literary Review

‘[Meier] talks to gangsters, apparatchiks, intellectuals, oligarchs. He gives us not merely the buzz and glitter of Moscow and St Petersburg, but the squalid house-to-house fighting in Chechnya and – a rare experience – distant decaying Sakhalin beyond the Strait of Tartary’

Books of the Year, Times Literary Supplement

DEDICATION (#ulink_5a43f808-5f92-5e24-82a0-3cfa8ec60836)

for Mia,

and for my parents

CONTENTS

Cover (#u029013db-50fe-51fd-b07f-7484f014b0fb)

Title Page (#u1bb3c024-671b-5792-a593-fb9f897a266c)

Praise (#u11086649-ccb3-5a01-836d-fcc4ac0fe318)

Dedication (#uf7df59af-4af2-5d94-9dc4-dd17e40c5b11)

Prologue (#ub4c19b38-df80-510a-b1a7-47b6249f2373)

I. Moscow: Zero Gravity (#u57860153-fc11-5fbe-a6ce-1f0c29ea4b23)

One (#u3d9c8e90-03bd-5515-94fb-bdfd5449fd63)

Two (#u3e8658c4-13ac-5d43-a43f-c95ffe95657d)

Three (#ub36876db-affa-5a59-8460-2b04e59ea4d0)

Four (#ub92ccef0-83b0-5e26-a73e-f5bd5af5ee8b)

Five (#u12deae6a-a90a-5432-962b-027e6f8ead5b)

Six (#u8950d0a7-912b-58df-b744-9a35768237ef)

Seven (#u51a90c30-7033-5277-a8e7-2d738f365b14)

Eight (#uc7147829-a474-5a9b-84db-75d88a642216)

Nine (#u1ce5aba6-e4e5-5c99-a420-58885428631f)

Ten (#u94810620-9b07-5cf5-806f-c9895472f391)

Eleven (#u75d78e4b-58fe-5368-b5e1-c8c7e7f2e449)

II. South: To the Zone (#u1d842526-5bd2-5495-b241-99a7fb0896d8)

One (#u1bd66648-4489-5c41-878a-27abfed51b17)

Two (#ud174b893-8648-5084-a282-1bedda4fb5d3)

Three (#uf5571e3e-2a68-58db-88e2-4c5dabe9ff23)

Four (#ue532b9d7-9d00-5306-b32c-b94f7d8c8b82)

Five (#ue8df9ada-c8da-51a4-bce3-cf6b8d82791a)

Six (#uf198244e-9c1a-5095-b597-2c23651814ef)