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Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe
An extraordinary journey into the past and present of the lands east of Poland and west of Russia. Rich in surprising encounters and vivid characters, Between East and West brilliantly illuminates the soul of these lands and the shaping power of their past.
314 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 1994
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2977 people want to read
About the author
Anne Applebaum
40 books3,197 followersAnne Elizabeth Applebaum is a Polish-American journalist and writer. She has written extensively about Marxism–Leninism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She has worked at The Economist and The Spectator, and was a member of the editorial board of The Washington Post.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews
July 18, 2012
"Travel here demands a forensic passion, not merely a love of art or architecture or natural beauty; there are many layers of civilisation in the borderlands, and they do not lie neatly on top of one another. A ruined medieval church sits in the site of a pagan temple, not far from a mass grave surrounded by a modern town. There is a castle on the hill and a Catholic church at its foot and an Orthodox church beside a ruined synagogue. A traveler can meet a man born in Poland, brought up in the Soviet Union, who now lives in Belarus - and he has never left his village."
As I read Anne Applebaum's introduction I thought "Every historian, every politician should read this in order to understand the damage that ignorance about a place can do. Every historian and politician should read this to understand the complexity of a place." In just a few superb paragraphs Anne paints a picture of persecution, subjugation and the search for identity that must be a part of ALL histories but dominates that of these ethnically-cleansed lands in which cultural genocide is the norm.
I was reminded of the time when, in the early 1990s, countries in the former Soviet Block sought their independence and often fought to establish what they felt was rightfully their heritage, English colleagues of mine, wrapped in the comfort of almost a thousand years of security and national identity, would sit baffled and in condemnation of what they saw as this pettiness. They had that same patronising attitude that they often reserve for the Welsh and the Scots when they try to retain a little of what makes them them.
Anne Applebaum is a very good writer - she has a comfortable way of grabbing one's attention and holding it. In her section on Kaliningrad it is almost as if one is in a spy story by le Carre. Her description of a failed society lies in that ruined city and the decrepit hotel where she stays, with its poor construction, plumbing and lively cockroach. The Soviet Union was always going to fail and once it did it would always resemble something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
She writes dispassionately in that she does not take sides, nor does she pass judgement; she observes and records. Being an "outsider" she is able to disassociate herself from the hopes, dreams and myths in a way that almost disappoints those of us exiles who are looking for reinforcement of our illusions - she is a blast of fresh air.
She observes the tragedy of rivalry and hatred between the Lithuanian Poles and ethnic Lithuanians. Was it always like this or has it grown out of the years of living apart, the evil of Russification and as a result of the growth of Nationalism? One becomes aware of small communities harking back to a past that was brutally and crudely torn out or eradicated by either the Nazis, the Soviets or, in the worst of cases, both.
Sadness permeates. The book is full of conflict as neighbours contest land, contest history, contest the ownership of poets and heroes. Anne Applebaum is a wonderful observer; her stay in Nowogrodek is so evocative of lost glory, lost hope, of decay and poverty, of that hopelessness and neglect one has come to associate with these contested borderlands.
Once one crosses the border into Western Ukraine things start to look more familiar. Stories of corruption, dodgy dealings and of the Mafia remind us that we are not only in the borderlands but also at a boundary in time; everything is in a state of flux. This is, in a strange way, a post-apocalyptic world where everyone has to find their new role, where one man is on his way down whilst another is going up, where the exploited suffer whilst the wheelers and dealers grow fat. And the countryside, so evocative of the countryside I saw in Poland at this time, there are poverty, survival, some hope and many ruined dreams made more tragic because of some greater loss.
Anne Applebaum writes beautifully. Her easy and evocative prose almost makes her materialise before you and her voice charms images out of the air. Her section on Dobrobych and Bruno Schulz is a masterwork of writing that all aspirants ought to study.
This is a strange journey, an exotic journey: from the concrete monstrosities of Kaliningrad and Minsk; through the isolated villages lost in mist, forest and mountains in the South; Kamenets with its Ghormengast castle and the eclectic structures of Czernowitz... this is an alien land. The sense of being on the outer limits of human habitation, on the borderlands of time and place, lingers. It touches your sensibilities like spreading tendrils or cobwebs. There is that sense of time having paused whilst boundaries always shift like rivers breaking their banks in constant flooding... almost surreal. This is a journey that can never be taken again and it ends in beautiful, exciting Odessa. From the cold, concrete Baltic to the warm, exotic sun of the Black Sea and the minarets of Istanbul. Wonderful.
Anne travelled this region in 1990-91 (in fact one of the last landmarks she plants for us is the declaration of independence made by Lithuania in February 1991) yet as I was reading the book I was also reading about continuing tensions in the region: tensions between Lithuania and Poland over the rights of Lithuanian Poles; of Polish-speaking Belorussians being persecuted by the Belarus state; of conflict between Eastern and Western Ukraines over the legality of the use of the Russian language. One paragraph among many stands out;
'Politics perplexed her. "I am Polish, he is Jewish, and we have been living together for thirty years," Larisa told me, pointing at her husband. "In all of that time I have never figured out what makes him different from me."'
As I read Anne Applebaum's introduction I thought "Every historian, every politician should read this in order to understand the damage that ignorance about a place can do. Every historian and politician should read this to understand the complexity of a place." In just a few superb paragraphs Anne paints a picture of persecution, subjugation and the search for identity that must be a part of ALL histories but dominates that of these ethnically-cleansed lands in which cultural genocide is the norm.
I was reminded of the time when, in the early 1990s, countries in the former Soviet Block sought their independence and often fought to establish what they felt was rightfully their heritage, English colleagues of mine, wrapped in the comfort of almost a thousand years of security and national identity, would sit baffled and in condemnation of what they saw as this pettiness. They had that same patronising attitude that they often reserve for the Welsh and the Scots when they try to retain a little of what makes them them.
Anne Applebaum is a very good writer - she has a comfortable way of grabbing one's attention and holding it. In her section on Kaliningrad it is almost as if one is in a spy story by le Carre. Her description of a failed society lies in that ruined city and the decrepit hotel where she stays, with its poor construction, plumbing and lively cockroach. The Soviet Union was always going to fail and once it did it would always resemble something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
She writes dispassionately in that she does not take sides, nor does she pass judgement; she observes and records. Being an "outsider" she is able to disassociate herself from the hopes, dreams and myths in a way that almost disappoints those of us exiles who are looking for reinforcement of our illusions - she is a blast of fresh air.
She observes the tragedy of rivalry and hatred between the Lithuanian Poles and ethnic Lithuanians. Was it always like this or has it grown out of the years of living apart, the evil of Russification and as a result of the growth of Nationalism? One becomes aware of small communities harking back to a past that was brutally and crudely torn out or eradicated by either the Nazis, the Soviets or, in the worst of cases, both.
Sadness permeates. The book is full of conflict as neighbours contest land, contest history, contest the ownership of poets and heroes. Anne Applebaum is a wonderful observer; her stay in Nowogrodek is so evocative of lost glory, lost hope, of decay and poverty, of that hopelessness and neglect one has come to associate with these contested borderlands.
Once one crosses the border into Western Ukraine things start to look more familiar. Stories of corruption, dodgy dealings and of the Mafia remind us that we are not only in the borderlands but also at a boundary in time; everything is in a state of flux. This is, in a strange way, a post-apocalyptic world where everyone has to find their new role, where one man is on his way down whilst another is going up, where the exploited suffer whilst the wheelers and dealers grow fat. And the countryside, so evocative of the countryside I saw in Poland at this time, there are poverty, survival, some hope and many ruined dreams made more tragic because of some greater loss.
Anne Applebaum writes beautifully. Her easy and evocative prose almost makes her materialise before you and her voice charms images out of the air. Her section on Dobrobych and Bruno Schulz is a masterwork of writing that all aspirants ought to study.
This is a strange journey, an exotic journey: from the concrete monstrosities of Kaliningrad and Minsk; through the isolated villages lost in mist, forest and mountains in the South; Kamenets with its Ghormengast castle and the eclectic structures of Czernowitz... this is an alien land. The sense of being on the outer limits of human habitation, on the borderlands of time and place, lingers. It touches your sensibilities like spreading tendrils or cobwebs. There is that sense of time having paused whilst boundaries always shift like rivers breaking their banks in constant flooding... almost surreal. This is a journey that can never be taken again and it ends in beautiful, exciting Odessa. From the cold, concrete Baltic to the warm, exotic sun of the Black Sea and the minarets of Istanbul. Wonderful.
Anne travelled this region in 1990-91 (in fact one of the last landmarks she plants for us is the declaration of independence made by Lithuania in February 1991) yet as I was reading the book I was also reading about continuing tensions in the region: tensions between Lithuania and Poland over the rights of Lithuanian Poles; of Polish-speaking Belorussians being persecuted by the Belarus state; of conflict between Eastern and Western Ukraines over the legality of the use of the Russian language. One paragraph among many stands out;
'Politics perplexed her. "I am Polish, he is Jewish, and we have been living together for thirty years," Larisa told me, pointing at her husband. "In all of that time I have never figured out what makes him different from me."'
June 18, 2013
Stunning travelogue from Kaliningrad to Odessa passing through Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Moldova including a bunch of places called in three or four different names at the same time once belonging to Hungary, Romania and former Czechoslovakia.
For those who are interested in digging deeper into these fascinating - if often forgotten - places, the Polish journalist Andrzej Stasiuk travelled on a similar route in his On the Road to Babadag a decade or so later.
And yet I have to reckon Between East and West is much much better than the excellent Babadag.
The year is 1991 and Anne Applebaum writes with the keen eye of a skilled reporter, the deep knowledge of a masterful historian and the flawless humor of a talented novelist.
And, what's more, Ms Applebaum (who married the Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Radek 'Twitter' Sikorski and now entertains herself writing books on Polish traditional cuisine...sic transit gloria mundi) doesn't make confusion at all. She is as knowledgeable about the writings by Bruno Schulz and Gregor von Rezzori as she masters the political and economic intrigues of post-communist countries.
Either if you're looking for something profound and engaging about that dreadful place named Kaliningrad (formerly Koenigsberg) or if you want to learn more about the sentimental life of Adam Mickiewicz - the poet on whose patriotism Poles and Lithuanians still quarrels for - there cannot be anything better than this.
PS: Just one remark for Anne Applebaum: Koenigsberg was heavily bombed and almost completely destroyed by the RAF well before the Red Army conquered the town. The author here doesn't mention the British bombing at all and that's a strange omission.
For those who are interested in digging deeper into these fascinating - if often forgotten - places, the Polish journalist Andrzej Stasiuk travelled on a similar route in his On the Road to Babadag a decade or so later.
And yet I have to reckon Between East and West is much much better than the excellent Babadag.
The year is 1991 and Anne Applebaum writes with the keen eye of a skilled reporter, the deep knowledge of a masterful historian and the flawless humor of a talented novelist.
And, what's more, Ms Applebaum (who married the Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Radek 'Twitter' Sikorski and now entertains herself writing books on Polish traditional cuisine...sic transit gloria mundi) doesn't make confusion at all. She is as knowledgeable about the writings by Bruno Schulz and Gregor von Rezzori as she masters the political and economic intrigues of post-communist countries.
Either if you're looking for something profound and engaging about that dreadful place named Kaliningrad (formerly Koenigsberg) or if you want to learn more about the sentimental life of Adam Mickiewicz - the poet on whose patriotism Poles and Lithuanians still quarrels for - there cannot be anything better than this.
PS: Just one remark for Anne Applebaum: Koenigsberg was heavily bombed and almost completely destroyed by the RAF well before the Red Army conquered the town. The author here doesn't mention the British bombing at all and that's a strange omission.
July 14, 2021
Перша книжка Енн Еплбом з далекого 1991 року - читаєш і наче в машині часу опиняєшся. Журналістка починає свою подорож з Калінінграду і через Литву, Білорусь, Україну їде до Одеси. Це подорож по руїнах Радянського Союзі під якими ще глибші руїни попередніх цивілізацій, але люди вперто вірять, що цього разу зроблять усе як слід. Що приємно тішить, то це те, що авторка не веде глибоких розмов з Мислителями, Політиками, Діячами і Корифеями. Таких там один-два, а решта це дивні персонажі, такі ж незрозумілі як і епоха. Остання німкеня колишнього Кенігсберга, що називає себе литовкою. Напівбожевільний литовець, що молитвами рятує борців з режимом. Католики у Білорусі, які відновили сільський костел. Литовський католицький ксьондз, що колекціонує у своїй хаті хрести. Вірменський мафіозі зі Львова і махінації з Гранд Готелем. Двоє угорських аферистів-авантюристів, з якими Енн, а в цих краях Аня чи Аннушка Епблом їде Закарпаттям. Журналістка їх слухає і переповідає діалоги - без оцінки і майже без власної рефлексії. Поляків, які скаржаться на відсутність польських шкіл у Вільнюсів, литовців, які скаржаться на колоніальні прагнення поляків. Росіян з парому Одеса-Стамбул, що вірять у свою цивілізаційну місію. Євреїв, які не знають, що таке юдаїзм. Молдаван, які не знають, що таке Румунія, але вірять у її вищість.
Трохи втомлюють історичні впровадження до кожного розділу, бо ж цікаві не вони, а розмови і враження від бідних квартир, сірих злиденних готелів, ресторанів з червоною ікрою, нелегальних обмінників. За тридцять років стільки всього помінялося, що репортажі самі по собі стають історичним документом.
Трохи втомлюють історичні впровадження до кожного розділу, бо ж цікаві не вони, а розмови і враження від бідних квартир, сірих злиденних готелів, ресторанів з червоною ікрою, нелегальних обмінників. За тридцять років стільки всього помінялося, що репортажі самі по собі стають історичним документом.
November 2, 2012
I read this fascinating, haunting book some years ago.
One of the most fascinating things in this book is how the people, who lived on the eastern edge of Europe - the western edge of Russia, never could be too certain in which country they lived. For example, she quotes a man in the city of Brest - once in Poland, then a few years later in the USSR, and now in Belarus - as saying, “No one around here knows if he is Belarusian, Polish, Russian…” The borders between countries in that region shifted so often in the 20th century.
One of the most fascinating things in this book is how the people, who lived on the eastern edge of Europe - the western edge of Russia, never could be too certain in which country they lived. For example, she quotes a man in the city of Brest - once in Poland, then a few years later in the USSR, and now in Belarus - as saying, “No one around here knows if he is Belarusian, Polish, Russian…” The borders between countries in that region shifted so often in the 20th century.
March 12, 2016
PRE-REVIEW: Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. There are few words needed to recommend such a work, but I feel like I'd fare better if I wrote them - even if just for myself. However, it's currently 2:47 in the morning, and as I'm putting the book down, I'm also falling asleep.
REVIEW:
This historian is an exceptional writer. Or... this writer is an exceptional historian. The line is so blurred between these two statements that I can't decide. Better people than me might do it. I, however, enjoy lingering in this halo of uncertainty, because what I get in return is the perfect combination, the one that I always look for and seldom find. Anne Applebaum is one of those who can make words flow off paper, her writing is so real and so surreal that at times I found myself searching online for stories of long-dead, unknown people, just so I could prove to myself that we're still talking about our world.
Applebaum does what I, personally, love in a historian: brings history down to a very human level. At times, you won't be able to extract out of a statistic of deaths in Ukraine the human element, the pain that they felt, their families felt, the loss of people's communities or the loss of national identity; that is why, it takes a very special kind of writer to mine that information for you, and present it in a clear way - it's like trying to explain the truth to a child, through an anecdote. Applebaum does this every single page of this book, and the play between the present moment and the past, the living and the dead, the old and the new, is perfectly balanced to give the reader as accurate an image as possible with regards to the scene.
The acuity that the author's eye is capable of and the alertness with which she picks up the smallest details about particular people or societies is unbelievable. Just to give you a taste, the book is filled with lines such as: "people moved slowly, thought slowly in Chernivitsi", "the city seemed caught in a vacuum, reluctant to move", "it was like an underground current, the exotic subconscious of the city". These figments all come from the same chapter, almost the same page. Apart from brilliant trivia, the book also gives you (HD) insight into the lives of people and places that you might have otherwise missed.
I do have to say that I was very surprised at the way Applebaum portrayed Romanians, but I'm also not sure if I am in the position to quarrell with her opinions. I myself know Romanians the way she described her character, but the Bucharest-born man who helped her seemed to embody a whole nation, described as such a liar that he doesn't remember his own truth, a cheater, untrustworthy and overall fishy. I will admit the faults of my own people any day, but I felt like the attack and the ridicule were more powerful on behalf of Romanians. I'd like a person of another nationality represented in the book to tell me if they felt the same, because I might just be highly biased towards my own cradle. In the end, for all the Romanians that might want to read the book, I leave you with a fragment that made me laugh, a fragment about Iasi, a city in the Moldovan province of Romania, a city which Applebaum refers to as "the oddest place I have ever been [to]."
I am dying to know who the Romanian whose name was known in the West was.
REVIEW:
This historian is an exceptional writer. Or... this writer is an exceptional historian. The line is so blurred between these two statements that I can't decide. Better people than me might do it. I, however, enjoy lingering in this halo of uncertainty, because what I get in return is the perfect combination, the one that I always look for and seldom find. Anne Applebaum is one of those who can make words flow off paper, her writing is so real and so surreal that at times I found myself searching online for stories of long-dead, unknown people, just so I could prove to myself that we're still talking about our world.
Applebaum does what I, personally, love in a historian: brings history down to a very human level. At times, you won't be able to extract out of a statistic of deaths in Ukraine the human element, the pain that they felt, their families felt, the loss of people's communities or the loss of national identity; that is why, it takes a very special kind of writer to mine that information for you, and present it in a clear way - it's like trying to explain the truth to a child, through an anecdote. Applebaum does this every single page of this book, and the play between the present moment and the past, the living and the dead, the old and the new, is perfectly balanced to give the reader as accurate an image as possible with regards to the scene.
The acuity that the author's eye is capable of and the alertness with which she picks up the smallest details about particular people or societies is unbelievable. Just to give you a taste, the book is filled with lines such as: "people moved slowly, thought slowly in Chernivitsi", "the city seemed caught in a vacuum, reluctant to move", "it was like an underground current, the exotic subconscious of the city". These figments all come from the same chapter, almost the same page. Apart from brilliant trivia, the book also gives you (HD) insight into the lives of people and places that you might have otherwise missed.
I do have to say that I was very surprised at the way Applebaum portrayed Romanians, but I'm also not sure if I am in the position to quarrell with her opinions. I myself know Romanians the way she described her character, but the Bucharest-born man who helped her seemed to embody a whole nation, described as such a liar that he doesn't remember his own truth, a cheater, untrustworthy and overall fishy. I will admit the faults of my own people any day, but I felt like the attack and the ridicule were more powerful on behalf of Romanians. I'd like a person of another nationality represented in the book to tell me if they felt the same, because I might just be highly biased towards my own cradle. In the end, for all the Romanians that might want to read the book, I leave you with a fragment that made me laugh, a fragment about Iasi, a city in the Moldovan province of Romania, a city which Applebaum refers to as "the oddest place I have ever been [to]."
At that time, the Soviet Union was still intact, Ceausescu was still in power, and Iasi seemed remote and peculiar, like the end of the world. I stayed in a vast hotel where there were no other guests. The hotel staff kept moving me and my companion from room to room, the better to record our conversations. We changed money with an Arab student in the square, but then learned the best currency was not Romanian lei but Kent cigarettes. No one knew why Kent cigarettes and not, say, Malboro or Camel; that was just what one did in Iasi. Once, when we tried to visit a Romanian whose name was known in the West, plain-clothes police jumped out of the shrubbery and took our photographs with a large, black Instamatic camera. After that, comic-strip spies in trench coats and dark glasses followed us everywhere we went. To confuse them, we drove around in circles, and then set out from Iasi, driving as fast as we could, toward the Soviet border. We screeched to a halt near the blue village, and stopped to have a picnic while the men in trench coats and dark glasses sulked in their car nearby.
I am dying to know who the Romanian whose name was known in the West was.
January 14, 2021
Even though Anne Applebaum warns the reader in the introduction that the book has become significantly outdated ever since its first publication in the early 1990's, I have found Between East and West a great manual on how ethnicity and shifting borders continue to play a major role in European geopolitcs to this day.
Applebaum conducts a trip from the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad on the shores of the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea at Odessa in the newly independent state of Ukraine. On her way there passing through the the newly independent states of Lithuania and Belarus as well.
The book is full of fascinating interviews with people of a wide variety of backgrounds and their respective visions on their past and their future. Some of theseare guaranteed to make you laugh, while others will confront you with the grim legacy of a region stained with blood.
Applebaum conducts a trip from the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad on the shores of the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea at Odessa in the newly independent state of Ukraine. On her way there passing through the the newly independent states of Lithuania and Belarus as well.
The book is full of fascinating interviews with people of a wide variety of backgrounds and their respective visions on their past and their future. Some of theseare guaranteed to make you laugh, while others will confront you with the grim legacy of a region stained with blood.
August 25, 2020
Great personal story of the author's travels across parts of Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Immensely readable.
August 6, 2025
4.5⭐️
definitiv en neue favorit. amazing kombination vo journalism, history und authentizität
ich muss jetzt unbedingt uf Vilnius
definitiv en neue favorit. amazing kombination vo journalism, history und authentizität
ich muss jetzt unbedingt uf Vilnius
October 25, 2019
Between East and West was an interesting read. Having some ancestors from these borderlands provided a personal perspective. Growing up during the Cold War kept these lands a mystery to me in the USA. Now I have taken a glimpse beyond what was once the Iron Curtain, and find it rich in history and peoples.
February 25, 2023
I bought this book expecting a history and analysis of the borderlands of Eastern Europe and its messy relationship with nationalism and ethnicity. Instead, this book was a bit of a heartless travelogue. I’ve never read a travelogue before, and I don’t think I will be reading one again after this. While Applebaum’s history narratives are well researched and written, her own experiences are not. I was a little shocked at how condescending and derogatory she gets when describing the wide variety of people she meets. She constantly highlights when a person is “fat” or that she is surprised one woman has all her teeth. It felt like she was the ultimate judger for these people and I started to trust her recollection of what they had said less and less. Her thoughts on the people of Eastern Europe started reminding me of some of the Western travel diaries from the late 1700s…incredibly prejudiced. What was especially strange was how flat and lifeless her own character in her diaries was presented. Despite their short time in her book, everyone else had so much more personality than Applebaum, who besides narrating the history and thinking horrible things about others appearances, only makes the occasional comment or question and nothing else. I don’t really know who Applebaum is besides someone who is very judgmental. I’m really disappointed with this one but I hope her other works will have more merit and will pass less judgement when telling the histories of foreign places.
June 24, 2015
A poignant journey across the once eagerly-contested lands between great European powers - subsequently forgotten after their inclusion in the Soviet empire - in a time of uncertain transition... and giving several examples of the burdens that issues of history, culture, language and religion can pose on the present. Though the world Ms Applebaum so masterfully and unforgettably evoked has vanished in the flood of globalisation, but the sentiments survive and the recent resurgence of great power politics in this region between the eastern-most Baltic and the Black Sea make this an insightful read...
July 4, 2023
Some deeply unkind descriptions of the individuals the author encountered knocked off a star for me - I did not finish the book feeling that the author held many (any?) of the people encountered in high regard? Otherwise, a v interesting time capsule of a book.
October 29, 2019
Applebaum a ’90-es években, a Szovjetunió felbomlása után nekiveselkedik, megpakolja a hátitáskát Globus májkrémmel meg háztartási keksszel*, és bejárja az Oroszország és Európa között elterülő határvidéket (a kresy-t) a Baltikumtól egészen Odesszáig (tengertől tengerig). No most ha feltesszük (de meg nem engedjük), hogy a történelem egy országút, amin a világ zöme megy valahonnan valahova, akkor ez a régió ezen az országúton elkapott egy bitang nagy kátyút, és az árokba sodródott: valaha mind etnikailag, mind kulturálisan színes valósága erre az időszakra szürke lett és lelombozó, az ember szinte érzi áradni belőle a dohszagot. Helyenként ugyan látszanak még a múlt patinás nyomai (például Lviv/Lvov/Lwów/ Lemberg esetében némi Habsburg íz), de, mint Applebaum zseniálisan megfogalmazza: „Amikor a kagyló puha része elpusztul, a héja megmarad: gyönyörű, ám élettelen. Beköltözhet egy másik állat, aki mit sem tud az előző tulajdonosról; valami ilyesmi történt Lvivvel is.” Elkeserítő látlelet. Az összeomló birodalmak (az orosz, az osztrák, a török vagy épp a náci és szovjet) űrt hagytak maguk után – beolvasztottak, kényszerasszimiláltak, elpusztítottak és kitelepítettek, az etnikai sokszínűségből monotonitást igyekeztek faragni, de adni nem adtak helyette semmit, és ez éppen az eltűnésük után vált nyilvánvalóvá. Úgy néz ki, hogy a fizikához hasonlóan a történelem sem feltétlenül szereti a légüres tereket – elkezdett ugyanis eme űrbe beszivárogni számos új jelenség, mindenekelőtt a nacionalizmus. Applebaum tárgyilagosan vizsgálja ezt a tendenciát – könyve tele van habókos vagy épp veszedelmes elmékkel, képlékeny identitásokkal, zavaros múltépítési kísérletekkel, hazug mítoszokkal és ellenmítoszokkal, ugyanakkor az is világos számára, hogy ebben a nagy boldogtalan semmiben gyakran a nemzet eszméje az egyetlen, ami összetarthatja a közösséget. Igazán kár, hogy sokan csak a korrupciót meg a frusztrált agressziót akarják legitimálni vele.
Különös könyv: kalandos útirajz, riportregény, történelmi esszé. De akárhonnan közelítjük meg, varázslatos alkotás. Egyfelől azért, mert Applebaum alekszijevicsi talentummal kezeli interjúalanyait és az őt körülvevő tájat – érzékeny, de az elemzésben mindig tárgyilagos. Ráadásul történelmi ismeretei is elég mélyek ahhoz, hogy megértse a régió tektonikus mozgásait, és nem habozik ezeket az ismereteket megosztani az olvasóval. És egyébként is: egy olyan vidéknek és időszaknak állít emlékművet, ami önmagában is fel kell keltse az érdeklődésünket. Mert elképesztően közel van hozzánk időben és térben. És nem mindegy, hogy távolodunk tőle, vagy még inkább közeledünk hozzá.
* Jó, ezt csak tippelem.
Különös könyv: kalandos útirajz, riportregény, történelmi esszé. De akárhonnan közelítjük meg, varázslatos alkotás. Egyfelől azért, mert Applebaum alekszijevicsi talentummal kezeli interjúalanyait és az őt körülvevő tájat – érzékeny, de az elemzésben mindig tárgyilagos. Ráadásul történelmi ismeretei is elég mélyek ahhoz, hogy megértse a régió tektonikus mozgásait, és nem habozik ezeket az ismereteket megosztani az olvasóval. És egyébként is: egy olyan vidéknek és időszaknak állít emlékművet, ami önmagában is fel kell keltse az érdeklődésünket. Mert elképesztően közel van hozzánk időben és térben. És nem mindegy, hogy távolodunk tőle, vagy még inkább közeledünk hozzá.
* Jó, ezt csak tippelem.
November 29, 2020
My favorite genre of nonfiction books these days are ones that are mostly reportage with some history mixed in and this is an almost perfect example of the form. There’s nothing really witty or clever to say here because this is just a great, engaging book for anyone with a passing interest in European history.
July 16, 2021
originally published as a travel diary , 21 years later this book reads more like snapshot of a region caught in time .
as my first introduction to eastern european history , i was pleasantly surprised with how applebaum eloquently described the complexities of the history of this region seemingly always torn between great powers .
her description of the burgeoning nationalist movements in each of these newly independent post-soviet states makes me wonder about the continuity and longevity of the nation-state . is this the only way to construct society ? makes you think .
anyways , v good book . highly recommend for anyone wanting an introduction to post-soviet poltics or an small introduction to polish/lithuanian/belrussian/ukrainian history .
as my first introduction to eastern european history , i was pleasantly surprised with how applebaum eloquently described the complexities of the history of this region seemingly always torn between great powers .
her description of the burgeoning nationalist movements in each of these newly independent post-soviet states makes me wonder about the continuity and longevity of the nation-state . is this the only way to construct society ? makes you think .
anyways , v good book . highly recommend for anyone wanting an introduction to post-soviet poltics or an small introduction to polish/lithuanian/belrussian/ukrainian history .
January 13, 2019
'Between East and West' is a travelogue of Anne Applebaum's travel from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea at the end of the Iron Curtain and the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Alternating between descriptions of the history of the land through which she is traveling and narrative of her encounters with the lands' inhabitants, Applebaum's book is one of the better examples of I've read of the political travelogue.
If you are interested in this region then this book is a pretty good introduction.
If you are interested in this region then this book is a pretty good introduction.
October 7, 2024
I was unpleasantly surprised by the subjectivity of narration. While it’s indeed beautifully written, the author keeps taking sides and you can feel from the tonality of the passage who she thinks is “right” and who’s wrong. [When describing her time in Vilnius, visiting the Cathedral] “Just inside the entryway, Polish tourist was showing her child how to drop coins in the grate: ‘is so that we return’ she said, meaning not her family but her nation”. Go figure, how Anne Applebaum came to this conclusion..
September 19, 2020
I loved this and now am dying to find a book that would be an updated version of this same journey, which was made in the early 1990s. A lot of my ancestors came from this area so it was fascinating to read what a stew of ethnicities and countries it is. So many constantly moving borders and such multilingualism. I heard my great-grandmother spoke many languages, and, after reading this, it makes sense. She was no fancy lady, no scholar. It just came with the territory.
August 3, 2012
A bit gruelling at times, but a very important book if you want to understand anything of what happened in these countries, and particularly in the cities that are on borders between countries. Well written and clear thinking.
July 13, 2012
You could be born in Poland, grow up in the USSR, and currently live in Belarus--and yet live in the same town your whole life. Those pesky borders!
January 18, 2024
Anne Applebaum is a very brave woman as well as a great storyteller. She basically hitchhiked solo from Kalingrad to Odessa right after the demise of the Soviet Union. Well worth a read!
August 12, 2022
Initially, I thought that this book would look at the borderlands through a historical and/or cultural lens, which is what drew me to it. Instead, although both of the former components were in it as well, this book was mainly a travel diary, if you will. This meant that many of the details in it seemed unnecessary to me, which made the book drag out longer than I would have liked it to. However, the stories and perspectives shared by people local to these regions were so interesting to me, especially in regards to how they both dismissed and revered Applebaum for being American (the former due to her inability to relate to their struggles, and the later for being part of a nation they considered to be so great). Ultimately, I'd say this book gave me a really good idea of just how complicated the borderlands region is, and I empathize a lot with people who belong to it; their identity is evidently, so intrinsically tied to their nationality and to their land, and yet they seem to have little claim on either. Everything is disputed and everything is messy, and as expressed by one interviewee, most people live in shadows - stuck in the past, during a time when their nation was independent, powerful, and its people were great. In this regard, there are many parallels between the various people of the borderlands and the way Croatian people understand themselves and their nation, so reading this felt familiar in an odd way. I'd probably rate this 3.5 stars if I could, but 4 felt too generous for how much of a struggle this was towards the end.
June 20, 2013
This fine book is part straight history, part travelogue and part oral history. It recounts the author's solo overland journey along the western border of the former Soviet Union from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea in 1991, shortly after the Soviet Union's collapse. She recounts her travels from Kaliningrad to Odessa through the corridor comprised of East Prussia, Lithuania, western Belarus, Moldova and western Ukraine. Her purpose was to find "evidence that things of beauty had survived war, communism, and Russification; proof that difference and variety can outlast an imposed homogeneity; testimony, in fact, that people can survive any attempt to uproot them."
These borderlands offer no natural obstacles to conquest other than rivers and forests. Over the centuries, part or all of them have been variously controlled or conquered by the Swedes, Tatars, Muscovites, Poles, Lithuanians, Turks, tsarist Russians, Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Nazi Germany and the Soviets, among others. The borderlands have been home to at least five religions: Catholics, Orthodox, Jewish, Moslem and Karaim, and countless ethnic groups, including Estonians, Poles, Galicians, Polesians, Braclavians, Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Hungarians, Tartars, Germans, Russians, Czechs, Turks, and others.
The territory has endured the brutality of World War I, World War II (from both Germans and Russians), the massacre of Jews by the Nazis and others, forced deportations or relocations by the Soviets of millions of Poles, West Ukrainians and Balts to Siberia and Central Asia, and the importation of Russian settlers into the territory to replace those deported or relocated.
The author, who was in her late 20's at the time of this trip, has the advantage of apparent fluency in Polish and Russian, among other languages. Her fluency would have been indispensable in navigating this territory which is not exactly tourist-friendly. She is an intrepid traveler. Transportation is catch-as-catch-can. Although she frequently is able to travel by train, she often must travel with privately hired drivers, many of whom are smugglers. She also rides in taxis, the back of trucks, and on overcrowded buses, and she even resorts to hitchhiking in the Ukraine. Her accommodations range from luxurious but empty hotels to the back seats of cars. On one unforgettable evening in Nowogrodek, she is forced to spend the night in an unspeakably filthy apartment with a grotesquely ill old lady who turns out to be a virulent anti-Semite. (The author is Jewish.)
She finds instances of people who have lived under the control of Poland, Germany and Russia, all the while living in the same place. She finds historical and literary figures who are claimed as their own by multiple countries. One example is the poet Adam Mickiewicz, born in 1798, who is claimed by the Poles, the Belarusians (Mickievic), the Lithuanians (Mickevicius) and the Russians, and who may or may not have been Jewish.
Along the way the author meets many people from all walks of life, including professors, poets, KGB agents, newspapermen, priests, mourners, Jews, ex-Bolsheviks, various slick operators, smugglers, factory managers, prostitutes, and assorted other characters. Many of the people she meets are either secretive about their backgrounds or have no sense of their own histories.
There is a pervasive sense among many of those whom she meets that they will never escape or be able to change their grim surroundings. In one revealing exchange between a teacher and her student, the teacher, Yelena, says to her student, Sveta, "One or two like you can't change the system...." Sveta replies, "I think there is something to do... We can do our best. We can try and study and improve ourselves." Yelena glares at Sveta and says, "You are foolish. What do you think will happen when you try to teach well, try to educate your students? What if you work hard, study things on your own? Your colleagues will become jealous, they will destroy you. They will drive you out of your job. No one is allowed to be better than anyone else. No one is allowed to be better than anyone else. Yes, and that is all.... Our city...is doomed. Our city will sink back into the river under the weight of its own stupidity.... If only we could visit Paris or London...."
The Jews of the borderlands were virtually exterminated by the Nazis and others during World War II. Although the book does not focus overly on these events, she writes movingly about the murder of the Jews in her chapter on Radun in Belarus. She also points out that the purges, famine and collectivization under Stalin in the 1930's, which were responsible for the deaths of 14.5 million Ukrainians and Belarusians, were the equivalent of the Holocaust, although they have never been recognized as such in the outside world.
The author writes with a maturity of someone much older than her years. She has written an excellent and readable account of the history of the Soviet borderlands and her travels within them. I wonder if much would have changed if she were to take the same trip again today. I strongly recommend this book, and I am looking forward to reading her later books, "Gulag: A History," and "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956."
These borderlands offer no natural obstacles to conquest other than rivers and forests. Over the centuries, part or all of them have been variously controlled or conquered by the Swedes, Tatars, Muscovites, Poles, Lithuanians, Turks, tsarist Russians, Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Nazi Germany and the Soviets, among others. The borderlands have been home to at least five religions: Catholics, Orthodox, Jewish, Moslem and Karaim, and countless ethnic groups, including Estonians, Poles, Galicians, Polesians, Braclavians, Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Hungarians, Tartars, Germans, Russians, Czechs, Turks, and others.
The territory has endured the brutality of World War I, World War II (from both Germans and Russians), the massacre of Jews by the Nazis and others, forced deportations or relocations by the Soviets of millions of Poles, West Ukrainians and Balts to Siberia and Central Asia, and the importation of Russian settlers into the territory to replace those deported or relocated.
The author, who was in her late 20's at the time of this trip, has the advantage of apparent fluency in Polish and Russian, among other languages. Her fluency would have been indispensable in navigating this territory which is not exactly tourist-friendly. She is an intrepid traveler. Transportation is catch-as-catch-can. Although she frequently is able to travel by train, she often must travel with privately hired drivers, many of whom are smugglers. She also rides in taxis, the back of trucks, and on overcrowded buses, and she even resorts to hitchhiking in the Ukraine. Her accommodations range from luxurious but empty hotels to the back seats of cars. On one unforgettable evening in Nowogrodek, she is forced to spend the night in an unspeakably filthy apartment with a grotesquely ill old lady who turns out to be a virulent anti-Semite. (The author is Jewish.)
She finds instances of people who have lived under the control of Poland, Germany and Russia, all the while living in the same place. She finds historical and literary figures who are claimed as their own by multiple countries. One example is the poet Adam Mickiewicz, born in 1798, who is claimed by the Poles, the Belarusians (Mickievic), the Lithuanians (Mickevicius) and the Russians, and who may or may not have been Jewish.
Along the way the author meets many people from all walks of life, including professors, poets, KGB agents, newspapermen, priests, mourners, Jews, ex-Bolsheviks, various slick operators, smugglers, factory managers, prostitutes, and assorted other characters. Many of the people she meets are either secretive about their backgrounds or have no sense of their own histories.
There is a pervasive sense among many of those whom she meets that they will never escape or be able to change their grim surroundings. In one revealing exchange between a teacher and her student, the teacher, Yelena, says to her student, Sveta, "One or two like you can't change the system...." Sveta replies, "I think there is something to do... We can do our best. We can try and study and improve ourselves." Yelena glares at Sveta and says, "You are foolish. What do you think will happen when you try to teach well, try to educate your students? What if you work hard, study things on your own? Your colleagues will become jealous, they will destroy you. They will drive you out of your job. No one is allowed to be better than anyone else. No one is allowed to be better than anyone else. Yes, and that is all.... Our city...is doomed. Our city will sink back into the river under the weight of its own stupidity.... If only we could visit Paris or London...."
The Jews of the borderlands were virtually exterminated by the Nazis and others during World War II. Although the book does not focus overly on these events, she writes movingly about the murder of the Jews in her chapter on Radun in Belarus. She also points out that the purges, famine and collectivization under Stalin in the 1930's, which were responsible for the deaths of 14.5 million Ukrainians and Belarusians, were the equivalent of the Holocaust, although they have never been recognized as such in the outside world.
The author writes with a maturity of someone much older than her years. She has written an excellent and readable account of the history of the Soviet borderlands and her travels within them. I wonder if much would have changed if she were to take the same trip again today. I strongly recommend this book, and I am looking forward to reading her later books, "Gulag: A History," and "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956."
January 17, 2025
“There were the peasants: the Estonians and the Livonians who spoke Baltic tongues…”
Kui see faktiviga välja arvata, siis oli täitsa huvitav vaade “piirimaade” olemusse vahetult pärast Nõukogude Liidu kokku kukkumist.
Kui see faktiviga välja arvata, siis oli täitsa huvitav vaade “piirimaade” olemusse vahetult pärast Nõukogude Liidu kokku kukkumist.
February 18, 2022
I liked the history bits better than the travel vignettes but it’s an interesting read especially when we seem to be expecting world war 3 to break out in those parts.
July 25, 2022
Although published in 1994, it still felt very relevant, especially after russia’s invasion in Ukraine.
I can’t shut up about this book and will keep giving unsolicited recommendations to everyone around me to read it. Thank you Anne
I can’t shut up about this book and will keep giving unsolicited recommendations to everyone around me to read it. Thank you Anne
August 23, 2023
A fascinating book from every point of view. The author manages to embed a vivid and exciting narrative style in the context of a historical-analytical travelogue, gives voice to people who have never spoken to "foreign" people, visits run-down villages and thriving urban areas, and overall paints a highly interesting picture of a vast and diverse region from Kaliningrad to Odessa, where over centuries a mix of languages, religions, customs, and eventually nations emerged - until Hitler and Stalin turned them into "bloodlands" (Snyder). Applebaum's book makes an excellent contribution to a fact-based but also empathetic understanding of the region, and also serves as a contemporary historical document of the 1990s. In addition to that, it is of new relevance against the backdrop of Russia's war in Ukraine and Putin's justification with imperialist, historically twisted arguments.
July 18, 2025
qué interesante 🤓🤓 no podría reproducir absolutamente ningún nombre de las ciudades que aparecen !!
April 1, 2013
In 1994 Anne Applebaum traveled through the flat lands between Russia and Poland and documented her journey in "Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe."
At first glance, it was a different time: Communist governments had toppled a few years before and the chaos of transition to democracy pervaded all life. But, Applebaum presages what Anne Porter documented in "The Ghosts of Europe": history casts a long shadow across time. Shifting borders, clashing empires, and old conflicts turn making sense of the borderlands into a daunting challenge.
Applebaum performs the task admirably, confirming that the version of her I know from Slate and other venues was already fully formed back then. The personal encounters and observations take place on the background of impressive historical research, as Applebaum backs every assertion with rich detail. As a good journalist, Applebaum remains consistently respectful of the people she meets. Only once does she cross the line and judges, but to pity an ignorant anti-Semite can be forgiven (Applebaum is Jewish).
As she travels from the Russian Kaliningrad to Lithuania to Belarus and down to Odessa, Ukraine, she first organizes her journey by the peoples inhabiting the lands she crosses, then by cities, towns, and villages she passes through. Thus in Part One she visits Germans, in Part Two Poles and Lithuanians, and finally in Part Three Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. But even as she describes well a municipality in each chapter, nations and nationalism matter more than the place and characteristics of each place matter only inasmuch as they relate to the shifting national borders. Granted, on the backdrop of nationalisms bubbling up after the fall of Communism, the impulse to see the region through the national lens seems understandable. Too, in 1994 the concept of place identity wasn’t a force it is today. But writing so little about the impact of villages and cities themselves, as places, on the people Applebaum meets struck me as a missed opportunity.
"Between East and West" was the rare book I read word for word (I would have even read the index, had there been one). But I almost abandoned it when, after leaving Mukachevo and passing, roughly south-eastbound, through Khust, Applebaum miraculously finds herself near Miková, Andy Warhol’s parents’ village in Eastern Slovakia which is some 230 kilometers (144 miles) to the northwest. The episode is only a page of text, but the magnitude of the error left a bitter aftertaste of a misplaced gimmick.
Save for the one instance of teleportation, "Between East and West" is the kind of book I want (and am planning) to write: combination travelogue, historic geography, and literary reportage focusing on Central/Eastern Europe. Rather than being dated, it reveals a striking portrait of a turbulent time in the region.
At first glance, it was a different time: Communist governments had toppled a few years before and the chaos of transition to democracy pervaded all life. But, Applebaum presages what Anne Porter documented in "The Ghosts of Europe": history casts a long shadow across time. Shifting borders, clashing empires, and old conflicts turn making sense of the borderlands into a daunting challenge.
Applebaum performs the task admirably, confirming that the version of her I know from Slate and other venues was already fully formed back then. The personal encounters and observations take place on the background of impressive historical research, as Applebaum backs every assertion with rich detail. As a good journalist, Applebaum remains consistently respectful of the people she meets. Only once does she cross the line and judges, but to pity an ignorant anti-Semite can be forgiven (Applebaum is Jewish).
As she travels from the Russian Kaliningrad to Lithuania to Belarus and down to Odessa, Ukraine, she first organizes her journey by the peoples inhabiting the lands she crosses, then by cities, towns, and villages she passes through. Thus in Part One she visits Germans, in Part Two Poles and Lithuanians, and finally in Part Three Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. But even as she describes well a municipality in each chapter, nations and nationalism matter more than the place and characteristics of each place matter only inasmuch as they relate to the shifting national borders. Granted, on the backdrop of nationalisms bubbling up after the fall of Communism, the impulse to see the region through the national lens seems understandable. Too, in 1994 the concept of place identity wasn’t a force it is today. But writing so little about the impact of villages and cities themselves, as places, on the people Applebaum meets struck me as a missed opportunity.
"Between East and West" was the rare book I read word for word (I would have even read the index, had there been one). But I almost abandoned it when, after leaving Mukachevo and passing, roughly south-eastbound, through Khust, Applebaum miraculously finds herself near Miková, Andy Warhol’s parents’ village in Eastern Slovakia which is some 230 kilometers (144 miles) to the northwest. The episode is only a page of text, but the magnitude of the error left a bitter aftertaste of a misplaced gimmick.
Save for the one instance of teleportation, "Between East and West" is the kind of book I want (and am planning) to write: combination travelogue, historic geography, and literary reportage focusing on Central/Eastern Europe. Rather than being dated, it reveals a striking portrait of a turbulent time in the region.
December 19, 2015
Tohle je skvělá roadmovie Krvavými zeměmi. Anne Applebaum to vzala skoro přesně napříč územím, které Timothy Snyder popisuje jako Krvavé země. Její cesta se odehrála na začátku devadesátých let, v době bezčasí - Sovětský svaz skončil a nové zřízení zatím nepřišlo. Takové momenty jsou v historii výjimečné a dnes už není možné takovou cestu zopakovat, protože tenhle skoro magický čas zrodu již dávno neexistuje.
Kniha je dělena geograficky podle národností obyvatel (Němci, Poláci, Litevci, atd.) - ke každé skupině je vždy krátký historický úvod a pak již následují historky z autorčiny cesty. Obojí do sebe zapadá a doplňuje se. Byť jsem o daném regionu již něco načetla, tak jsem se zde dozvěděla řadu nových a zajímavých věcí, ale nejcennější je opravdu to svědectví doby zrodu, hledání vlastní identity postsovětských národů i jednotlivých lidí.
Historie evropského pohraničí je velmi pohnutá, jednotlivé oblasti měnily vládce opakovaně a nebyl problém prožít život na jednom místě, ale přitom klidně v šesti různých státech. Region tak byl vždy velmi multikulturní a tato rozmanitost, která ho činila výjimečným, zmizela až po druhé světové válce se sovětským záborem území a také díky holokaustu. Dnes nezbývá než této ztráty litovat (a nejen v geografických končinách této knihy).
V knize je spousta skvělých historek a postřehů. Díky kapitole o Drohobyči jsem zase sáhla po Bruno Schulzovi, kapitola o Kamenci Podolském mě donutila hledat na Wiki a přemýšlet, zda bych si na tu Ukrajinu nezajela, atd. Ale třeba závěrečné scény s Rusy na lodi do Istanbulu jsou věrným obrazem ruské většinové mentality až do dnešních dní - a mrazí z nich v zádech tedy pořádně.
Autorka při své cestě zabrousí i na Podkarpatskou Rus, takže se v knize mihne i Československo.
Kontext: Po tom těžkém Lawrencovi jsem si chtěla oddechnout a tahle kniha přesně splnila očekávání.
První věta: "Po tisíc let diktovala osud pohraničí Evropy jeho zeměpisná poloha."
Poslední věta: "Byla jsem zpátky na Západě."
Kniha je dělena geograficky podle národností obyvatel (Němci, Poláci, Litevci, atd.) - ke každé skupině je vždy krátký historický úvod a pak již následují historky z autorčiny cesty. Obojí do sebe zapadá a doplňuje se. Byť jsem o daném regionu již něco načetla, tak jsem se zde dozvěděla řadu nových a zajímavých věcí, ale nejcennější je opravdu to svědectví doby zrodu, hledání vlastní identity postsovětských národů i jednotlivých lidí.
Historie evropského pohraničí je velmi pohnutá, jednotlivé oblasti měnily vládce opakovaně a nebyl problém prožít život na jednom místě, ale přitom klidně v šesti různých státech. Region tak byl vždy velmi multikulturní a tato rozmanitost, která ho činila výjimečným, zmizela až po druhé světové válce se sovětským záborem území a také díky holokaustu. Dnes nezbývá než této ztráty litovat (a nejen v geografických končinách této knihy).
V knize je spousta skvělých historek a postřehů. Díky kapitole o Drohobyči jsem zase sáhla po Bruno Schulzovi, kapitola o Kamenci Podolském mě donutila hledat na Wiki a přemýšlet, zda bych si na tu Ukrajinu nezajela, atd. Ale třeba závěrečné scény s Rusy na lodi do Istanbulu jsou věrným obrazem ruské většinové mentality až do dnešních dní - a mrazí z nich v zádech tedy pořádně.
Autorka při své cestě zabrousí i na Podkarpatskou Rus, takže se v knize mihne i Československo.
Kontext: Po tom těžkém Lawrencovi jsem si chtěla oddechnout a tahle kniha přesně splnila očekávání.
První věta: "Po tisíc let diktovala osud pohraničí Evropy jeho zeměpisná poloha."
Poslední věta: "Byla jsem zpátky na Západě."
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