Moscow, the Beautiful and the Damned: Life in Russia in Transition by Nick Holdsworth (review)

Abstract

MLRy 100.3, 2005 897 Moscow, theBeautiful and theDamned: Life in Russia in Transition. By Nick Holdsworth . London: Deutsch. 2003. xxiv + 262pp. ?9.99. ISBN 0-233-00998-1. Nick Holdsworth's professed goal is to provide 'an insight into the human conse? quences of Russia's shift' (p. xxiii). The method he chooses is the vignette and the thumbnail sketch; we are introduced to a dozen or so real-life characters whom the author identifies as winners or losers in the new society that emerged from the turbulent 1990s. It is a tried and tested technique (David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (New York: Random House, 1993) is the classic, and Charlotte Hobson's Black Earth City: A Year in the Heart of Russia (London: Granta, 2001) similarly brings to life an array of Russians whose lives illustrate the changes that his? tory has wrought on their country). Moscow, theBeautiful and theDamned, however, lacks both the depth of commentary and perspective of Remnick's book, and the in? timacy and vivacity of Hobson's depiction of Voronezh. It is none the less immensely readable and a good primer perhaps for undergraduates planning to study abroad in the former Soviet Union. Holdsworth's Russia is made up almost exclusively of the instantly recognizable milieu of a young British journalist living in Moscow. His characters are mostly white-collar workers?teachers, entrepreneurs, a translator, a TV journalist, a re? search biologist?who have knowledge and even direct experience of life in the West. They are educated people, Moscow's 'chattering classes', and while they have the advantage of accessibility for foreigners, they cannot and do not represent Russia. The only place the reader experiences outside the capital is Tula, just 165 km. away. A larger geographical spread would have greatly enhanced the book, and so too would a generational one. We hear from some elderly people (for example, the parents of a successful businessman who have remained ideological Communists and resent the capitalism and cronyism of the new world order), but not from young people who grew up knowing only post-Communist Russia. Where the book becomes interesting is when Holdsworth introduces the less privi? leged. Maksim provides a window onto the world ofthe homeless and unprotected, living at railway stations and trying to dodge petty criminals and bribe-taking police. Survival on the streets is a grim reality for the faceless underclass in any society?in Russia, bureaucratic obstacles and the lack of a social safetynet or a developed charity network compounds their difficulties. Through a combination of wits, luck, and sheer determination, Maksim manages to improve his lot; those same qualities inspire Maria, who is an impassioned activist with the Soldiers' Mothers' Committee, an extraordinary group of ordinary women bound together by fear and love for their sons, who have been sent to serve in the Chechen conflict. Maria's account of the brutality and indifference to sufferingof the Russian military command is chilling and her own story of the rescue of her captured son is dramatic and moving. One other character on the margins of society is mafia bodyguard Andrei. His story gives Holdsworth an opportunity to delve into the many facets of Russian lawlessness, from the headline-grabbing gangland murders of the early 1990s to today's endemic corruption. Every entrepreneur we meet has bent the rules and accepts that paying for 'security' is part of doing business. The jump from the personal to the political canvas is occasionally uneven. For example, in describing teacher Tatiana's tight budget, the author suddenly leaps back eight years to a meeting of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian presidents? in an old hunting lodge in the Belovezhsky Forest, near Brest, close to the Polish border?because public-housing costs have barely changed in that period of time. The extraneous detail confuses, rather than adds to, our understanding. 898 Reviews As well as charting political, social, and economic changes, the book examines how Soviet/Russian morality has been affected by the demise of Communist ideology. The chapter on sexual relations provides good insight into how women's increased opportunities in business influence their personal...