Customer Reviews

Moscow Days: Life and Hard Times in the New Russia

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I empathize with her constant fear of the crimes of the many against ordinary citizens. It could not have been easy for Ms. Dutkina to be so open about the problems in Moscow these days and to write with such intelligent restraint that the book provides important albeit unpleasant information without demonizing the Russian people or becoming pedantic.

A fantastic eloquently written account of contemporary Moscow that also manages to convey the psyche of ordinary muscovites far more perceptively than anything that I have ever read. It's like being hit by a brick. Breathtaking and achingly painful in its delivery it makes incredible reading.

Living and working as an expat in Moscow it opened to me a completely different way of viewing Russia. Maybe I was blinkered, but I owe a great debt to the author for showing me what I should have been seeing with my eyes and ears every day of the week but filtered by my western upbringing refused to see and refused to hear.

I can't recommend this book highly enough (Catherine A. Fitzpatricks translation is exceptional).

We have heard of the crisis in Russia for many years; however, like most tragedies of great magnitude, this situation is difficult to truly imagine. "Moscow Days" provides tangible descriptions of the plight of everyday Russians to which the average western reader can relate. It brings the impact of the dissolution of the Soviet system, and the unleashing of unrestained "capitalism" down to a quotidian level. Reading this book provided me with a greater appreciation of the ramifications of the economic and political crisis confronting Russia as well as, paradoxically, an understanding of how people are surviving the midst of this castastrophe.

While the above probably makes this book sound like a depressing reading experience the author's sardonic wit, and often mordant humor, makes this a palatable learning experience. Dutkina leaves you with a tremendous amount of respect for the resiliance of the Russian people and their stoic response to an ever changing situation which they find themselves largely impotent to affect.

I found this book reminiscent of the Croatian author,Slavenka Drakulic's works "How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed" and "Balkan Days". While bright and witty, unfortunately Galina Dutkina does not have the literary prowess of Drakulic. Nevertheless, this is a worthwhile and important read, particularly in light of how ignorant the average American is of the devastation confronting the Russian people.