Imperium

A personal, detailed exploration of the almost unfathomably complex Soviet empire at the point of collapse. Kapuściński begins with his own childhood memories of the postwar Soviet occupation of Pinsk, in what was then Poland's eastern frontier, and takes us up to 1967, when, as a journalist just starting out, he traveled across Siberia and through the Soviet Union's seven southern and Central Asian republics, territories whose individual histories, cultures, and religions he found thriving even within the "stiff, rigorous corset of Soviet power." Between 1989 and 1991, he made a series of extended journeys through the disintegrating Soviet empire, and his account of these forms the heart of the book. Bypassing official institutions and itineraries, he traversed the Soviet territory alone, from the border of Poland to the site of the most infamous gulags in far-eastern Siberia, from above the Arctic Circle to the edge of Afghanistan, visiting dozens of cities and towns and outposts, traveling more than 40,000 miles, venturing into the individual lives of men, women, and children in order to understand the collapsing but still various larger life of the empire. Imperium is a galvanizing narrative deeply informed by Kapuściński's limitless curiosity and his passion for truth, and suffused with his vivid sense of the overwhelming importance of history as it is lived, and of our constantly shifting places within it.--From publisher description.

First encounters (1939-1967). Pińsk, '39 ; The Trans-Siberian, '58 ; The south, '67 -- From a bird's-eye view (1989-1991). The third Rome ; The temple and the palace ; We look, we cry ; The man on the asphalt mountain ; Fleeing from oneself ; Vorkuta--to freeze in fire ; Tomorrow, the revolt of the Bashkirs ; Russian mystery play ; Jumping over puddles ; Kolyma, fog and more fog ; The Kremlin : the magic mountain ; The trap ; Central Asia : the destruction of the sea ; Pomona of the little town of Drohobych ; Return to my hometown -- The sequel continues (1992-1993).