Russia & Former Soviet Union - Travel Essays & Descriptions, Rural Sociology - General & Miscellaneous, Russia - Travel, Russia (Federation) - History - Social Aspects, Agriculture - General & Miscellaneous, Europe - General & Miscellaneous - Travel Essay

Travels with a Hungry Bear

Name: Travels with a Hungry Bear
Author: Mark Kramer
ISBN: 9780395426708

by Mark Kramer

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Overview

This journey into the Russian countryside heads right for the heart of the Russian character. In this extraordinary work of reportage Mark Kramer gives us the most intimate portrait we have yet had of a people who have been hidden from us for most of a century. His story begins in the waning days of Communism, as Gorbachev shines the spotlight of perestroika on the failing empire's moribund collective-farm system. Kramer, on an assignment for the New York Times Magazine, sets out to discover why a nation blessed with an eleven-time-zone stretch of fertile land still suffers from shortages and rationing. Travels with a Hungry Bear chronicles the ungainly struggle of the Soviet nation to feed itself. From 1987 to 1993, in successive journeys, Kramer revisits many of the same places and characters, from ministry officials to tractor drivers. Through them we come to understand the flawed system poignantly playing itself out. Kramer has provided a unique account of a nation self-destructing, then facing the grim task of remaking itself. Along the way we encounter the cruelties, absurdities, and waste visited upon rural life. We share in the sad, comical, and heroic moments of resourceful individuals caught in this grand web of inefficiencies. As Party rule tumbles, we experience the retreat of some Russians into imagined prior glory, and the hopes of others who strive to reinvent Russia.

In this fascinating account of travels in the city and the countryside, Kramer explores the roots of Russian character by chronicling the nation's ungainly struggle to feed itself. From 1987 to 1993, in successive journeys, Kramer visited many Russians, from ministry officials to tractor drivers, to try and understand how the flawed system of communism played itself out.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Kramer (Three Farms), a professor of journalism and Amer.ican studies at Boston University, takes the unusual approach of probing the character of the Russians by studying their agricultural practices. Sent to the U.S.S.R. in 1987 by the New York Times to investigate "why a nation whose farms stretched from Norway to Korea across eleven time zones suffered nearly empty food shops," he returned again every year through 1993, visiting collective farms and interviewing bureaucrats, as well as common laborers. His incisive commentary helps to explain the failure of the command economy to provide for even the most basic needs. With biting humor-in one instance, two self-congratulatory party hacks are likened to tubas tuning up-he points out the absurdities of the five-year plans dictated from Moscow and concludes that, despite many willing reformers in the country, "keeping down the Ivanovs was to the Soviet regime what keeping up with the Joneses was in America." Although general readers may find more information here than they need, those interested in how Russia got into its present mess will be greatly rewarded by this impressive reportage. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Kramer (journalism and American studies, Boston Univ.) offers a fascinating exploration of agriculture, or, more accurately, the failure of agriculture, in the former Soviet Union in the fading days of communism. Kramer journeyed to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1993 as Gorbachev was introducing perestroika to the dying collective-farm system. The author delves into the Russian character and exposes the country's great inefficiencies due to bureaucratic and socialistic mindsets. Kramer has worked on farms in the United States and makes numerous comparisons of the two countries' agricultural systems, clearly illustrating vast differences that resulted in the USSR's failure to feed its people despite its huge expanse of fertile farmland. Kramer's research is thorough and his writing excellent, though in the end the work will be too detailed for some readers.-Melinda Stivers Leach, Precision Editorial Svcs., Wondervu, Colo.

From Barnes & Noble

The author, on assignment for the New York Times Magazine, paints an intimate portrait of rural Russia in his quest to find out why a nation once regarded "the breadbasket of Europe" cannot feed itself.