Black Earth: Russia after the Fall

Andrew Meier

Black Earth is a sprawling piece of journalism, an ultra-modern look at Russia as experienced by young American writer and long time Russian resident Andrew Meier.

The book starts and ends in Moscow (I liked the final chapter title: "Moscow: everything is normal", rich in double meaning) but for much of the book Meier is at the geographical extremes of the country. If Chechnya is the hell-hole of the south we've all heard of (and a hundred or so pages are indeed devoted to that forlorn territory), Meier also offers of us bleak and terrible Norilsk, the ex-labour camp in the frozen north. Meier finds St Petersburgers in the west are little better off than the people in the economically failing island of Sakhalin (also a giant ex-prison camp) in the far east.

Over ten years ago, when the scale of the disaster which was the Russian economy was first revealed, the country was described as "Upper Volta with nuclear weapons". It doesn't feel like much has changed.

It ought to be a straightforward read but it's easy to lose track of Meier's cast of thousands. Somewhat overdone is the journalistic device of having middle-ranking politicians, writers, businessmen and soldiers float easily across Meier's canvas without explaining very closely the nature of his relationship with his subjects. They disappear again as suddenly as they appeared. As a result it's hard for the reader to know whether these are names to look out for in the future (certainly I'd heard of none of them) or just small-time local fixers. Few of Meier's interviewees are western commentators so the perspective is very Russian: admirable, but it makes it tough going if you're looking for the overview.