Black Square

2016-08-18 Russia (Federation)

Author : Sophie Pinkham
Release : 2016-08-18
Genre : Russia (Federation)
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 515/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Black Square by : Sophie Pinkham

Download or read book Black Square written by Sophie Pinkham. This book was released on 2016-08-18. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'When I first lived in Ukraine, I was preoccupied with its ideas of the past and future. Once Maidan started, there was nothing but the present; every hour held the possibility of transformation, and of terrible violence...' After leaving university in 2004, Sophie Pinkham moved to Siberia to volunteer for the Red Cross, tackling the rising AIDS crisis by folding origami tulips. Over the next decade, she travelled and worked across the post-Soviet world, from Lake Baikal to the Black Sea, at a time when the young countries of the region were struggling to define their new identities. Black Square is a multidimensional portrait of a period of tumultuous change, and of a generation that came of age after the fall of the USSR, only to see protestors shot on Kiev's main square, Crimea annexed by Russia, and a bitter war in eastern Ukraine. We meet a charismatic doctor fighting the AIDS epidemic even as he struggles with his own drug addiction; an iconoclastic artist with a penchant for public nudity; and a Russian-Jewish clarinettist agitating for Ukrainian liberation. With a deep knowledge of the literature and legends of the region, and a keen outsider's eye for the dark absurdities of post-Soviet society, Black Square delivers an indelible impression of a region, and a world, on the brink.

Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine

2016-11-01 Political Science

Author : Sophie Pinkham
Release : 2016-11-01
Genre : Political Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 988/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine by : Sophie Pinkham

Download or read book Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine written by Sophie Pinkham. This book was released on 2016-11-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A distinctive writer’s fascinating journey into the heart of a troubled region, tracing the origins of the war that is now tearing Europe apart. Each time Ukraine has rebuilt itself over the last century, it has been plagued by the same conflicts: corruption, poverty, and, most of all, Russian aggression. Sophie Pinkham saw all this and more during ten years in Ukraine and Russia, a period that included the Maidan revolution of 2013–14, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the ensuing war in Donbass. With a keen eye for the dark absurdities of post-Soviet society, Pinkham presents a dynamic account of contemporary Ukrainian life. She meets—among others—a charismatic doctor helping to smooth the transition to democracy even as he struggles with drug dependence; a band of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian hippies in a Crimean idyll; and a Jewish clarinetist agitating for Ukrainian liberation. These fascinating personalities, rendered in a bold, original style, deliver an indelible impression of a country on the brink. Black Square is necessary reading for anyone who wishes to learn the roots of the current Russo-Ukrainian war and the stories of the people who live it every day.

Black Square

2016-11-15 Travel

Author : Sophie Pinkham
Release : 2016-11-15
Genre : Travel
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 97X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Black Square by : Sophie Pinkham

Download or read book Black Square written by Sophie Pinkham. This book was released on 2016-11-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A distinctive writer’s fascinating journey into the heart of a troubled region, tracing the origins of the war that is now tearing Europe apart. Each time Ukraine has rebuilt itself over the last century, it has been plagued by the same conflicts: corruption, poverty, and, most of all, Russian aggression. Sophie Pinkham saw all this and more during ten years in Ukraine and Russia, a period that included the Maidan revolution of 2013–14, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the ensuing war in Donbass. With a keen eye for the dark absurdities of post-Soviet society, Pinkham presents a dynamic account of contemporary Ukrainian life. She meets—among others—a charismatic doctor helping to smooth the transition to democracy even as he struggles with drug dependence; a band of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian hippies in a Crimean idyll; and a Jewish clarinetist agitating for Ukrainian liberation. These fascinating personalities, rendered in a bold, original style, deliver an indelible impression of a country on the brink. Black Square is necessary reading for anyone who wishes to learn the roots of the current Russo-Ukrainian war and the stories of the people who live it every day.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia

2020-08-04 Travel

Author : Sophy Roberts
Release : 2020-08-04
Genre : Travel
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 308/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Lost Pianos of Siberia by : Sophy Roberts

Download or read book The Lost Pianos of Siberia written by Sophy Roberts. This book was released on 2020-08-04. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “melodious” mix of music, history, and travelogue “reveals a story inextricably linked to the drama of Russia itself . . . These pages sing like a symphony.” —The Wall Street Journal Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies, and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell. Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos—grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. How these pianos traveled into this snowbound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers, and exiles. Siberian pianos have accomplished extraordinary feats, from the instrument that Maria Volkonsky, wife of an exiled Decembrist revolutionary, used to spread music east of the Urals, to those that brought reprieve to the Soviet Gulag. That these instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle. The Lost Pianos of Siberia follows Roberts on a three-year adventure as she tracks a number of instruments to find one whose history is definitively Siberian. Her journey reveals a desolate land inhabited by wild tigers and deeply shaped by its dark history, yet one that is also profoundly beautiful—and peppered with pianos. “An elegant and nuanced journey through literature, through history, through music, murder and incarceration and revolution, through snow and ice and remoteness, to discover the human face of Siberia. I loved this book.” —Paul Theroux

Ukraine

2018-08-15 History

Author : Karl Schlögel
Release : 2018-08-15
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 20X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Ukraine by : Karl Schlögel

Download or read book Ukraine written by Karl Schlögel. This book was released on 2018-08-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ukraine is a country caught in a political tug of war: looking East to Russia and West to the European Union, this pivotal nation has long been a pawn in a global ideological game. And since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 in response to the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests against oligarchical corruption, the game has become one of life and death. In Ukraine: A Nation on the Borderland, Karl Schlögel presents a picture of a country which lies on Europe’s borderland and in Russia’s shadow. In recent years, Ukraine has been faced, along with Western Europe, with the political conundrum resulting from Russia’s actions and the ongoing Information War. As well as exploring this present-day confrontation, Schlögel provides detailed, fascinating historical portraits of a panoply of Ukraine’s major cities: Lviv, Odessa, Czernowitz, Kiev, Kharkov, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, and Yalta—cities whose often troubled and war-torn histories are as varied as the nationalities and cultures which have made them what they are today, survivors with very particular identities and aspirations. Schlögel feels the pulse of life in these cities, analyzing their more recent pasts and their challenges for the future.

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