Re-discoveries, Russian style

The random choice for this week turned out to be Resurrection, by David Remnick. It's the follow-up to his Pulitzer-Prize winning Lenin's Tomb, from his reporting from the final days of the Soviet Union. These books are stunning - and Remnick became my hero, a status that only grew when he took over at the New Yorker.

These are both long books, especially the latter, but are well worth the read. Remnick is an amazing observer, and weaves the incredible tale of Glasnost into a coherent narrative. In Resurrection, the story is the nascent Russian democracy, and the Yeltsin's struggle for reelection. It's less than ten years old, but already you can see how far the Russian republic has slipped from its post-Soviet aspirations. There was a period where the enormous wealth and corruption didn't necessarily have to lead to an autocratic president.

As a trained Russian historian, these two books are obviously a little form of nirvana (I took Lenin's Tomb with me to Italy) but anyone interested in current events and politics - or even just excellent reporting - will get a lot out of Remnick's work.