Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia (37 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

S
HORTLY AFTER RETURNING
to the United States from Russia, I got an e-mail out of the blue from Howard Yoon. He introduced himself as a book agent and wrote that he was interested in talking to me about a series we had aired on NPR’s
Morning Edition
. It was called “Russia by Rail” and it chronicled a three-week journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Howard and I met for a long night of eating, drinking, and conversation. He was convinced I could do the journey again for a book about life in modern Russia. He saw the train as a perfect setting—readers could come on board with me, get comfy in the compartment, make stops, meet people, and then return to the familiar confines of the train as the journey continued. He envisioned the book as part travel adventure, part sociological look at an important country at an inflection point.

Here’s the thing: I thought Howard was nuts.

I just did the trip for the radio, I said. But a book will be a totally different experience, he told me. I was just starting a new job at
Morning Edition
and had no time, I told him. This is not an opportunity to miss, he told me. He finally convinced me to write just a few paragraphs, which he reviewed. He liked them. So he told me to write a few more. And a few more. I knew what he was up to—but I became a willing victim of his manipulation. Within weeks, we had a book proposal. And back to Russia I went. I am enormously grateful to Howard for his instincts, for his belief in this idea and in me as an author, for his many edits and endless advice, and for his friendship. He and his partner, Gail Ross, are so much more than agents.

David Berarducci is so much more than a landlord. In my fantasy, I imagined writing my first book in some little old shack on a fishing wharf in New England that happened to have Wi-Fi. That’s what I googled—and the one place that showed up was David’s serene little rental on Cape Cod. In my nightmare, I imagined losing my unfinished manuscript somewhere in the process. That also happened. Margaret O’Connor (who lives at my old address and thought that package looked like something important when it showed up in the mail) and Andrea Messina (who babysat the manuscript for weeks) saved the day.

I am lucky to work for a company, NPR, that could not have been more supportive. The book never would have happened without that first radio series, which never would have come together without producer/editor Laura Krantz and editor Chuck Holmes.

Chuck: You, Eric Rubin, and Fiona Hill have so much more important things to be doing than reading a friend’s manuscript, at different stages of writing. But the three of you were so willing and generous.

I swear, there is no one in the business of news photography better than David Gilkey. I’m grateful for our time together in Russia and for your willingness to let your photos live in this book.

Some of my dearest friends—Chandler Arnold, Joe Levin, Jed Howbert and Sean Strasburg—took time away from busy lives to fly to Russia and experience the place with me. I’m grateful for all your reflections and insights, a few more vodka-induced than the rest.

Norton took a risk on this first-time author and made me believe in myself as a writer. I owe Mitchell Kohles for the many e-mails answering my most basic questions (so I write my changes directly on this thing called a “proof”?). My editor, Maria Guarnaschelli, was passionate about this project from day one. I love how she shared in the journey with me, asking the right questions, enjoying the surprises, and learning about Russia at every turn. Maria taught me about writing—how to find a voice, without forcing it or getting in the way of letting stories tell themselves.

I have really supportive families—the Greenes (Doug, Sally, Jackie, and Jose) and Prevites (Rose, Albert, Maggie, Joey, Jeanne, Becca, Peter, another Peter, and yet another Peter)—who put up with my endless obsession with all things Russia. My father, Doug, has been my primary editor since the first papers I wrote in grade school, and I hope he found this book to be an improvement. My late mother, Terry, believed everyone had a story to tell, and her inspiration is felt in this book and in my career.

I leave this project humbled and awed by the strength and will displayed by so many people in Russia, who opened their doors and lives to me in ways I never would have done myself for a stranger. While in Russia, Rose and I were so far from family, but we never felt that way because of Boris and Sergei. They would have done anything for us.

This book truly belongs to Sergei as much as it does to me. Sergei, I learned so much wisdom from you. I value our friendship more than you know and cannot wait for our next adventure together. I really feel like the two of us, as a team,
can
“do everything”!

And there really is too much to thank my wife for. She put her entire career on hold and dove with me into the unknown. I had the immediate benefit of a journalism community in Russia—Rose landed in the country with no automatic support network and no promise of work. She made the best of it, while supporting me in every way. Rose, your curiosity about people, your respect for friends and strangers alike, your street smarts, and your hunger for adventure all made me a better journalist in Russia and better able to write this book. Now back home, you are owning and running a successful restaurant, with not a minute of free time—and yet you somehow found the time to read, edit, and talk me through the tougher moments. I am eternally grateful—and promise we will never vacation anywhere with a temperature below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

INDEX

Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

accidents, 87, 92, 140–41, 192

adoption, 241

Aeroflot, 174

Afghanistan, 147, 255, 267, 290

Africa, 240

African Americans, 183

Agora, 170

AIDS, 290–92

Air Force One
, 40

air travel, 21–22, 28, 40–41, 50, 154

Alaska, 173

Albert, 105, 111

alcoholism, 37, 104, 134, 140, 144, 147, 148–49, 180 , 195, 224, 251, 258, 260

Amazar, 268, 284

American Women’s Organization, 207–8

Andrei, 259–60

“Another Day in Paradise,” 284

apartments, 5, 27, 59–60, 84–85, 102–3, 118, 181, 200, 280

apathy, 15–17, 108–10, 117–20, 260–64

Arab Spring, 16, 70, 105, 161, 230, 288

armed forces, 98, 104, 120, 201–2, 204, 207, 255, 276, 280, 289

Arnold, Chandler, 122, 278

arrests, 94, 109–20, 159–62, 167–68, 177–78, 210, 265

article 31 protests, 170

Ash, Lucy, 47–48

Asia, 46, 127–28, 162, 173, 220, 240, 243, 245

attempted coup (1991), 288–89

Aunt Nina, 3–6, 17, 97, 102–13

Auschwitz concentration camp, 108

Austria, 31

authoritarianism, xiii–xiv, xv, 9, 10, 14, 35, 40, 42, 58, 69, 165–72, 180–81, 208, 212–13, 235, 264–67

automobiles, 31, 192–93, 218–19, 259

Azerbaijan, 135, 140

Azeri, 176

babushkas (grandmothers), 5, 59, 123, 128, 133, 134–50, 152, 157, 158, 181, 243

babushkas (scarves), 5, 142

Baikal, Lake, ix, 47, 173, 233, 252, 255–64, 270

Baikalsk, ix, 258–64, 267, 284

Baku, 149

ballet, 75

ballroom dancing, 292

Baltic Sea, 108

banya
(bathhouse), 128–33, 157, 278

Barandin, Evgeni, 199, 200–201, 205, 206

bars, 207–8

Baryshenko, Taisiya, 259–64, 267, 284

BBC, 272

Beatles, The, 134

beer, 79, 129, 131, 132, 144, 208, 232

Beijing, 46

Beirut, 240

Belarus, 29, 100, 127, 161

Berlin Wall, 7–8

Birobidzhan, 272–73, 274

Black Sea, xiv

Bluetooth, 239

Bolshevik Revolution, 15, 16

borders, 48, 255, 266–67

Boris, 55–61, 62, 118, 124–25, 181, 275, 284

borscht, 4, 100, 104

Boston Marathon bombing (2013), 66

Brezhnev, Leonid, 241

bribery, 35, 225–27, 230, 240, 249–50, 252, 269

bugging, 24

Buranovo, 134–50

“Buranovo Babushkas,” 128, 133, 134–50, 152, 157, 158, 181, 243

bureaucracy, 15–16, 29–30, 51, 65, 86, 89, 93, 140, 271, 283

Busan, 175

Bush, George W., 20, 40, 175

Bushueva, Angelina, 166–69

business trips, 45

bus transportation, 122–23, 185, 187–92

butter, 74–75, 92, 104, 208

cafés, 55–57, 196–97, 239, 276–78

Canada, 82

cancer, 200, 222, 250

capitalism, 11, 42, 208, 284–85

Carey, Mariah, 285

Carpet World, 239–40, 243, 270

Caucasus Mountains, 44, 66, 98, 200, 201–2, 255

cell phones, 79, 234, 260

cemeteries, 38

Central Asia, 245, 266–67, 268, 283–84

chai (tea), 45

champagne, 11

charitable contributions, 170

Chebarkul, 194–95

chechel
(cheese), 173

Chechnya, 66, 120, 202

“checkups,” 170

cheerleaders, 80

Chekhov, Anton, 14, 211, 234, 245–46, 254–55

Chelyabinsk, ix, 188–209, 210, 239, 244, 270, 281, 289

chemical weapons, xv

Chikov, Pavel, 170

China, 271, 274, 281, 282

Chivers, C. J., 156

civil liberties, 13–14, 96, 165–72, 180–81, 186, 269–70, 287

climate, 19, 35, 173, 211, 217, 233–34

Clinton, Hillary, 181–82

clothing, 5, 102, 142, 233–34

coal heating, 54, 162, 213

coal mining, 34, 36, 37, 39–40, 41, 42, 60, 162

cognac, 36–37, 182, 183, 208

Cold War, xiii, xiv, xvi, 45, 132

Collins, Phil, 284

color therapy, 138–39

Committee Against Torture, 117

Communism, xiii, 10, 11–12, 15–16, 32, 109, 140, 229, 263, 284–85, 288–89

compartments, train, 53–55, 63, 72, 98–99, 210–11, 231–32, 244–45, 252–53

Confucius, 188

corruption, 11, 35, 40, 49, 169, 178, 183, 192, 225–27, 230, 240, 249–50, 252, 264, 265, 269

crime, 159–62, 176–84, 226

Crimea, xiii–xvi

cuisine, 4, 100, 104, 163–64, 178–79, 198, 256–57;
see also specific dishes

cultural traditions, xvi, xvii, 9, 11, 12, 21, 32, 35, 38–39, 49, 51, 69–70, 74–75, 83–84, 90, 91, 121, 200–203, 207–8, 240–41, 273, 275–76, 284–89

Cyrillic alphabet, 23, 52–53

czarist Russia, 11, 13–16, 221, 222–23, 256, 260, 263, 287–88

Czech Republic, 8

dacha
(cottage), 140–41

Dagestan, 32, 66, 126–27

Daily Show
,
The
, 192–93

dance, 291–92

Dead Souls
(Gogol), 9

December (2011) protests, 95–97, 105, 242, 269, 279

Decembrists, 222–23, 256, 260, 263, 287–88

Decembrists, The
(Zetlin), 222–23

Ded Moroz (Santa Claus), 90

Delicatessen Café, 55–57

democracy, xiii, xvi, 8, 9, 11, 13–15, 20, 33, 40, 41–42, 69, 159–89, 205, 225–26, 229–30, 239, 240–42, 249–50, 265, 268–70, 282–85, 288–89

denunciations, 59

deportation, 46–47, 166–69, 211

diabetes, 148–49

dictatorship, 9, 14

dining cars, 99–100, 270–71

Dirty Dancing
, 128

disabled individuals, 113–20, 290–92

divorce, 219

documentation, 44, 51–52, 76–77, 124–25, 151–52, 175, 189–90, 209, 210, 217–18, 227

dogs, 194

Domodedevo Airport bombing (2011), 66, 67

Donetsk, 34–42, 60

Dorodova, Zoya, 147

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 8, 20

drug problem, 176–77, 290–92

dry-cleaning businesses, 51–52

“dual faith,” 38

Dubai, 243

economic issues, xiii, xv, 11, 44, 49, 51, 67–68, 69, 96–97, 161, 175, 177–78, 186–87, 190–91, 195, 200, 203, 205, 207, 212, 238, 239–44, 245, 249–50, 254, 256–58, 262, 268–69, 271, 276, 283–85

education, 55, 240, 282–83

Egypt, 16, 70, 96, 161

Eiffel Tower, 46

Ekaterinburg, ix, 127, 163, 174–76, 185–89, 209, 210, 270, 289

ekskursiia
(travel plans), 136–38

Elder, Miriam, 51–52

elections, 8–9, 171, 181, 199, 229–30, 241

Electoral College, U.S., 181

electric power, 54, 213

electronic tickets, 50–51, 53, 64, 72–73

Elena, 277

elevators, 102–3

e-mail, 234–35, 244

Embassy, U.S., 126

emigration, 281–82

employment, 51, 245, 254, 258, 262

“End of History?, The” (Fukuyama), xiii, xvi