The Russians next door
351807
This review would rate 5 stars, had it not been so obviously a young boy's story, in my case, being an American woman but formerly a German girl, it lacks universality. In Agee's quest for sex, he teases, but never fulfills his desires with anyone, that maybe reality, but then he should not tease the reader.  The food scenes were amazing to me, who lived in West Berlin and whenever I was able to supplied my brother in East Berlin with chocolate and other food items that they, in the East, could not get. But yes, it did open my eyes as to the differences between East and West, and the Communist elite and ordinary Soviet block citizens. My mother's friend had been a Communist in danger of being discovered under Hitler, and after the war moved to East Berlin.  She was feted and brought to the Soviet Union to paint Shostakovitch.  But even she, a famous comrade and a favorite student of Kaethe Kollwitz did not get the extra rations and favors the family of Bodo Uhse, Joel Agee's stepfather received.  I do wonder if his memory deceives him in part.  At least when he was in boarding school, the food would have been grim, as it was for my half-brothers in the DDR.  But aside from these  squabbles, it is a wonderfully written book, with many lyrical passages. One is often reminded in these pages, that the Russians were next door, and their tanks could have overrun the rest of Germany and then Europe at any time.
1352645
The author skillfully and thoroughly gets to the heart of what's going on with the hyper-wealthy Russians in Moscow and London. The level of ruthlessness and corruption perpetrated by some of these folks is jaw-dropping. I visited Moscow in 1974 and felt like I was on another planet. I think I'd feel the same way if I went there today, which I don't plan to do... I feel no need to visit snake pits.
1324999
Quite close to the truth, but not all of it. In 2010 I visited Russia, Petrozavodsk found the people very open and willing to communicate with me although not all spoke English. Russians are very romantic, artistic, in science far ahead Westerns, hard working people and do not look for 'fights' (warmonger what the Western Media keeps telling us). Yes, their Government system is not Democratic and obviously people in Moscow are City 'Slickers' like in every City (London, Paris, Helsinki...).
1422292
If you like the russians, you'll like this book. It reminded me of a quote by Boris Yeltsin, a seriously underrated statesman: "Communism was a fantastic experiment, an important experiment. The only sad thing was that it had to take place in such a big country."
2393972
A Russian language film that I watch for 1 minute.
849401
Having lost his last battle with the KGB, and the death of the KGB colonel who had protected him; Porfiry is demoted to working mundane and inconsequential cases.  But when a Commissar sent to the Siberian town of Tumsk (pop. 12) to look into the death of a dissidents daughter, is murdered.  Porfiry and 'the Vampire' are packed off to Siberia to find out what happened to the commissar.

Along with Rostnikov and Karpo is an investigator from the Procurators office who everyone knows is there to spy on Porfiry.  Even Karpo will have to report on his boss to the KGB Major who replaced Rostnikov's colonel.  The main suspects for the murder are the dissident himself, his second wife of two years, an ex-orthodox priest, and an exiled General.  Along to help out is the local policeman (who expects Porfiry to get him out of siberia) and an odd pair of eightysomethings who have been in the town for fifty-one years.

Just like a locked room story, all of the suspects are stuck in the town.  The only way out is by helicopter, and the phone exchange is controlled from the naval weather station.  To add to Porfiry's worries, his son Josef is back in Afganistan, and his wife Sarah has developed a benign (but large) brain tumor.

As always, Kaminsky develops some great ancillary characters (including an indigenous shaman of the Evenk tribe).  Even Tkach is given his own investigation to follow in Moscow since he doesn't go to siberia.

All in all a very fast and good read.
782358
Have not finished this book yet. It is somewhat difficult to read if you aren't used to Russian names. The premise is interesting and the people are ones you would not mind getting to know.
272379
Read this instead of the seemingly more popular "The Snowden Files". As one who used to work for the NSA, specifically on Soviet matters, I know how throughly the Russian secret services have been taking a hand in everything that goes on the world. The Trump scandal will be huuuuuge, and the world will wake up. Snowden inevitably arrived in Moscow because, all along, Moscow was the force behind this man whom most people still see as hacker-with-a-heart who only cared about abuse-of-privacy issues.
1610507
For anyone looking to not make a fool of themselves in Russia, this book is certainly a good place to start. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants a good idea of Russian culture and customs as it gives a well written introduction to the complex culture of the Russian people
4300369
Fast and racy, the plot is very much of our recent times. The Russians are the villains and centers around Ukraine and Crimea and world politics. Will wait for the next book !!
4336412
I just finished reading the new book by former KGB Col. Konstantin Preobrazhensky-- KGB/FSB's New Trojan Horse: Americans of Russian Descent (Gerard Group Publishing, 2008.)  It is truly frightening to read this material, somewhat similar to the feeling one has in reading the published Mitrokhin archival material in The Sword and the Shield. I grew up in America in the 1960's learning how to "duck and cover" under my desk in the event of a Soviet missle launch, but later began to view American paranoia about Russia and the KGB as somewhat comical, especially after perestroika and the fall of the former Soviet Union. I had read some of Col. Preobrazhensky's articles on the internet during the past two years, but his book on the KGB and Russian Emigration had never, to my knowledge, been translated into English.

This book is a collection of Preobrazhensky's observations and anecdotes about KGB/FSB involvement in the religious affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate and the exiled White Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) during the past few decades. He also discusses his own history as an agent and journalist working within the KGB in Japan and Russia prior to his seeking asylum in the U.S. in 2003. As I was reading the book, I kept thinking of the famous dictum from President Vladimir Putin to the effect that "there is no such thing as a FORMER KGB agent..." Somehow, Preobrazhensky, unlike his old friend Alexander Litvinenko, has lived to tell the tale of life within the KGB before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and of the permutations of the Russian foreign intelligence service during the Presidencies of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin.

What is most disturbing about these revelations are the fairly detailed descriptions of KGB propaganda techniques and recruitment methods, based upon the experiences of Preobrazhensky (and Vladimir Putin, himself) during his training years in the KGB. It all seems a bit surreal to an average American Joe like myself, but certainly offers a plausible explanation for what has happened to the ROCOR in America during the past two decades. For example, as I was reading Preobrazhensky's description of the old KGB/FSB "blueprint" for the takeover of ROCOR parishes in America, I discerned the exact series of events that had transpired in my own American ROCOR parish after 2000-- first, the appointment of a nationalistic, "Soviet" rector, then the gradual (or even sudden) replacement of the old American parish council and warden with mysterious recent Soviet emigres.  I didn't realize at the time that the Moscow Patriarchate would simply annex the ROCOR by May of 2007.

I have never been big on conspiracy theories, in general, and I am all too familiar with our American propensity for collective paranoia, but this book, overall, seems quite credible and well documented. The devil is, of course, in the details, as in the case of the Mitrokhin archives, and, if Col. Preobrazhensky is correct, the devil is also now, apparently, in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
474307
Suprisingly modern glimpse into Russia, pre-Mongol domination
4574091
This amazing work of fiction by one of my favorite authors, predicted what Russia would do if they were left unafraid of USA retaliation.  It was written before Russia "annexed" the Crimean Peninsula and now, 2/21/14, Russia has 20,000 troops on the Unkrainian border.  Will Russion invade Ukraine?  Let's hope not because the current USA administration will do nothing to stop this from happening.
4564063
I would have like to have had some insight as to how as an American, we can help or really engage with Russians who come here to stay.
1700573
Sylvia Christmas' One Way Ticket to Moscow accomplishes two goals: it lifts us off on a rocket-ship-paced, action-filled thriller and it gives us a strikingly realistic portrait of the "new Russia."  When an art-buying agent with her own psychological baggage alites at the Moscow airport, she is greeted by presumed friends.  Soon she is swept off her feet by another presumed friend.  But in this new Moscow, she soon learns that she can trust no one.  Whatever standards of morality and trustworthiness that existed before the breakup of the Soviet Union were destroyed along with the political structure of the country. Deception, dissimulation, fakery, disguises, lies, cheating, treachery are all rampant, and all become the vehicles for a desperate self-interest that, for many citizens of that city, is all that separates them from social and economic despair.  The climate described by Christmas seems to be the final degradation product of a Russian mentality with roots traceable to Czar Peter's creation of a Russian nobility in the 18th Century.  In that era, the distinction between theater and "real life" was completely blurred by a class of aristocrats who were ordered to "act" as if they were French nobility--speaking French, building chateaux, dressing in the latest Parisian fasions--all the while "being" Russian.  Most were only partly successful in maintaining the distinction.  Christmas' book shows how, three hundred years later, this same quandry faces the contemporary Muscovite: how to "act" like a wealthy American--whether by hook or by crook--while still "being" Russian.  This tale of deception and deceit becomes in Christmas' strong story-telling hands a modern parable of identities lost and the symbolic journey of rediscovery of who those "actors" really are.  This is a "fun read" with a message.
3128325
The prose isn't great, and its repetitive as hell, but Parchamenkos book is full of insights into the Slavic mind, and, I assume, everyday life in Ukraine and Russia. Written before the recent troubles between the two nations, the book seems to conflate Ukrainians and Russians as almost the same people separated by a border of little significance. That was then, this is now. As recent events have demonstrated, there are real differences between the two peoples.  Ukrainians are used to chaos, having been part of at least four different empires over the past four hundred years. Russians, on the other hand, abhor chaos more than anything else. As a result, they have adopted a herd mentality which allows them to sacrifice the notion of personal or political freedom for the safety of stability above all else. I hope Mr. Parchamenko sees fit to write a follow up book one day documenting the changes that may or may not have come about in the Ukrainian psyche.
4236579
This is a collection of interconnected short stories giving us a realistic look at the lives of people connected with the Russian town, Magadon.  There's humor here sometimes and there's poignancy here sometimes.  Each story has its own impact.  This is contemporary Russian literature at its best.  Highly recommended for a truly unique reading experience.