Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire

“It’s psychologically very attuned and allows you to see it through the eyes of Howard Amos himself. He speaks to individuals, visits those villages and institutions, and engages in their daily life. He does it almost in a Buddhist fashion: he just observes what happens and doesn’t make judgments. We find out what’s happening there: the pain, the nostalgia, the greatness that people refer to in the past, the sacred values that individuals who live in the villages in those lands refer to when they talk about World War Two, for example. This observational acuteness brings out for the reader an understanding of why Russians might be supporting Putin, why they so senselessly support the war in Ukraine, and how the conditions in which they live, in a way, predispose them to feel or think in certain ways.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize

Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Political Scientist