The author had taken on exploration of the Wild East as a young post graduate and in 10 tumultuous years turned into an expert in post-Soviet business journalism. His adventure covers probably the most fascinating decade in the post-Soviet history – 1990′s.
For me, after having spent the years between 1991 and 1998 in the relative safety of the semi-military settlement away from the financial storms, it was interesting to look back at that time from the point of view of the Westerner who reported from the front lines on the awakening of the Russian bear from the communist nightmare, on murky details of a quick split of country assets, and on naivety of the foreign investors trying to gamble on Russian roulette.
Brzezinski had a chance to meet and talk to the state leaders, financiers big and small, and to some shady characters. We both left Russia almost at the same time in 1998 upon different circumstances.
Great reading for all involved in Yetsin’s Russia from inside and outside.
Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism’s Wildest Frontier
This movie is about SU-35 flight videos – there is a lot of Russian aircraft flying across the sky there. A lot.
You would think the title Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut does not need introduction. I was listening the Mother Night audio book when a colleague of mine, a TV reporter, by the way, inquired what I was listening to. To my surprise the colleague had never heard of that book. So neither of my colleagues that happened to be around at the moment had never heard of Kurt Vonnegut. For some strange reason I felt embarrassed…
I read it for the first time about 30 years ago. The copy was a Russian translation paperback. I thought it was a very good book, as anything else created by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Now after listening to Mother Night again, after all these years I am in awe. The book could be a life time accomplishment for any writer. Vonnegut could have dropped the pen (the typewriter, actually) after having finished Mother Night and still be one of the greatest book writers on Earth.
What else can I say? Buy the book and read it. So I don’t feel embarrassed again.
Once Comrade Lenin turned to Comrade Stalin:
“Listen Koba, our American friends seem to get into revolutionary situation. The tops cannot govern, whilst the bottoms wouldn’t put up with it anymore.”
“Pretty easy – rob and split” – responded Comrade Stalin.
“This is rude, Koba. Remember, I have called it Expropriation of Expropriators. Same stuff, only sounds better. The arch-important thing is to come up with right slogan, so the people would follow. We are in the twenty first century, you know.”
“They should call it Economic Stimulus Package, Vladimir Ilyich. Sounds scientific and soothing.”
“Brilliant, Koba”, – Comrade Lenin wound up the telephone and picked up the handset: “Mademoiselle, White House please!”
Once on a Halloween night Comrade Stalin came to idea to trick-or-treat Comrade Lenin. Sporting full dress demo Generalissimo uniform with well polished stars on epaulets he knocked on Comrade Lenin’s door.
The door squeaked open, and out stepped Comrade Lenin with no beard and in full dress KGB colonel uniform.
“Boo-o!” – he shouted loud into Comrade Stalin’s face.
Comrade Stalin dropped smoking pipe, his arm began to raise in salute.
One day The Worker came back home with the can of golden spray.
“Where did you get this spray?” – asked him The Kolkhoznitsa.
“Fell off the truck”, – shot back The Worker. “Comrade Lenin said in the Communism times everyone will have a golden toilet. So I’m gonna spray ours to make it look like gold.”
“But it’s not gonna be gold, just painted gold”, – The Kolkhoznitsa said.
“So the Communism has not arrived yet”, – replied The Worker.
Once Comrade Lenin was taking time off in the Gorki cottage. He contemplated the fortunes of Georgia and Russia in the back seat of the Rolls-Royce: “Should the Russian Emperor had not annexed Georgia, Koba would have never become Comrade Stalin. On the other hand there is at least something to avenge Kosovo.”
Once Comrade Lenin travelled to Razliv cottage in the sealed railroad car. He was working on a new slogan for the victory of the world proletariat. Comrade Lenin made a quick step forward, threw his arm to the right and yelled trying to outloud the wheels knocking against the rails:
“Proletarians of the world! Communism is Soviet power plus…” – the car jumped on a switch. “Plus railroadification! No, something’s wrong here… Is Soviet power plus steamification of the whole country! Yes, exactly, the whole country! I’ve got an archcool slogan here! Should write it down for the future.”
The engine whistled signaling arrival coming shortly.
Once Comrade Lenin, Nadezhda Konstantinovna and Leonardo DiCaprio were splitting a bottle of vodka in three ways. Leonardo DiCaprio raised his glass, showed big smile and proposed: “Na Zdorovie!”
“Lionechka, you are watching too many American movies” – corrected him Nadezhda Konstantinovna. “Only in American films bad Russians say Na Zdorovie while drinking vodka. It would be more correct to say “To your health”, or “Let us be healthy”.”
“We’ll drink to that next time” – Comrade Lenin said abruptly and rose. “The cinema is for us the most important instrument of all the arts. To you, Lionia” – and chugged his glass of vodka.
One late night The Worker and The Kolkhoznitsa were trying to flag down the taxi outside the restaurant. All of a sudden the Rolls-Royce pulled up. Comrade Lenin look out the window.
“Oh, pissed again, I see,” he said, wound the window up and drove away.
“Hey, was it Lenin or Harrison?” The Worker wondered.