Other Russia

by Michael Glenny

Where is "The Other Russia"? The answer to that is to be found throughout the world in the memories of people exiled from their motherland by the drama of the Russian Revolution. This book recounts the experiences of three generations of emigres from Russia, why they fled, how, where they chose to go and what they found when they got there. Michael Glenny interviewed hundreds of exiles and invited them to tell the stories of their lives. Norman Stone introduces and adds to their testimony. The experiences range from the princess who was the last lady-in-waiting to the Dowager Empress in the Crimea, the young Jewish lawyer escaping from Petrograd through German-occupied Kiev and the disabled Russian hounded by the KGB.

Genres: History, Russia, Russian History

496 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1990

About the author

Michael Valentine Guybon Glenny was a British lecturer in Russian studies and a translator of Russian literature into English.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann]

This book is a compilation of oral histories from individuals who emigrated or defected from, what would eventually become the Soviet Union, since 1917. The book covers the stories of three generations of emigres from Russia, including those fleeing Bolshevism, Stalinism, and anti-Jewish discrimination.

It is a pity that the book is now virtually unread, certainly unreviewed here on GR, because in 1990 it was the first breach in the silence that had fallen over the rich emigre experiences of Russians and the varied and complicated reasons for Russians/Soviet citizens choosing or being forced into exile. It was quickly overtaken by events, a year after publication the Soviet Union was gone, history was at an end (the asinine assertion by American political scientist and pundit Francis Fukuyama).

Russia reclaimed its past, exiles like Nureyev could finally go home, people like Horowitz were once nolonger persona non grata, and a rich vein of archival and other sources became available. More importantly western academics began to publish on this phenomena, 'Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration, 1919-1939' by Marc Raeff; 'Russia Abroad: Prague and the Russian Diaspora, 1928-1939' by Catherine Andreyev and Ivan Savicky; and 'The Philosophy Steamer: Lenin and the Exile of the Intelligentsia' by Lesley Chamberlain all brought new light onto a forgotten world.

But Glenny's book's strength is in the breadth of the personal stories and the time period. It isn't just exiled nobility, intellectuals or refusniks it is about them all. It is also about refugees and exile and in this day and age we all need to be reminded of the reality of exile and what it means.

[Jackson Peplow]

What does it mean to lose one’s country? In this astonishing and moving work, dozens of people who fled Russia and the Soviet Union give their personal histories that portray the lived experience of exile.

Life is permeated with loss, even in the easiest of circumstances. Perhaps few events can feel more tragic than to lose one’s language, family, and community. Yet through all the loss, there is the will to survive and hope for a brighter future. The Other Russia preserves the full weight of this human drama, in all its sorrow and resilience.