Customer Reviews

Please Don't Call It Soviet Georgia

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While the author of this book did travel extensively during a pivotal time in Georgia's history (the late '80s-early /90s, just as the country was preparing to declare independence), and her observations are sometimes astute, she asserts herself very much as part of the narrative. It started to get annoyingly intrusive, especially her thoughts about feminist issues. Although I would be the first to admit that Georgia has significant problems regarding gender (even more so at the time this was published), I think Russell is unnecessarily harsh in her judgment of a developing post-soviet society by contemporary Western standards of morality. This is a good basic overview, but should definitely be taken with a grain of salt as far as datedness and the author's perspective are concerned.

This book is now out of print and hard to find. After I went to Georgia, I started tracking down all the books I could find on the country, and managed to get hold of a copy. If you can find one, it's worth reading.

Mary Russel's book is somewhat bizarrely written-- it's part travelogue (her stories of dealing with bureaucracy will resonate well with ANYONE who's been to the former soviet republics), part historiography (her research on Georgian and Soviet history is solid, but not presented in any logical or chronological format), and part cultural biography (with heavy delving into Georgian and classical mythology-- Jason and the Argonauts and whatnot).

The book is somewhat annoying in that it doesn't seem to follow chronological order of any kind; the organization is radial, based around the cities she visited, with topics coming off of each place. But she's got a great eye for description, and her overall view of Georgia, as well as her descriptions of Georgians and their customs, was pretty much on point.

Reading this book made me want to go back to Georgia.

I couldn't decide if I'd have liked the book as much if I hadn't been to Georgia, and didn't already have a fairly substantial background in Soviet politics and history. But my final conclusion was that it was worth reading one way or the other: it's light, a quick read, and fairly much packed with information, albeit poorly organized.