The Russians Author:Hedrick Smith Hedrick Smith has done what we all wish we could do: he has gone to Russia and spoken to the people. Over steaming samovars, in cramped flats, and on dirt-floors, he has spoken to peasants and bureaucrats, artists and officials. He has studied their customs and their governments and shares his fascinating insights and fresh perspectives with us.... more »
Contents: The people. The privileged class : Dachas and Zils -- Consumers : the art of queuing -- Corruption: living nalevo -- Private life : Russians as people -- Women : liberated but not emancipated -- Children : between parent and teacher -- Youth : rock without roll -- The system. Rural life : why they won't stay down on the farm -- Industrial life : skoro budet, it'll be here soon -- Leaders and led : nostalgia for a strong boss -- The Party : Communist rituals and Communist jokes -- Patriotism : World War II was only yesterday -- Siberia : high rises on the permafrost -- Information : White Tass and letters to the editor -- Issues. Culture : cat and mouse -- Intellectual life : the archipelago of private culture -- Religion : Solzhenitsyn and the Russianness of Russia -- Dissent : the modern technology of repression -- The outside world : province of the privileged and the pariahs -- Convergence : are they becoming more like us?« less