Earlylands in Conversation - Ep. 29 - Journalist and Author Howard Amos on Daily Life in the Real Russia

We’ve spent multiple episodes discussing the Ukrainian perspective on Russia’s brutal war. For this episode we shift our focus to a look at how the average Russian views not only the war, but more broadly life in Putin’s autocratic state. Our guest is the journalist Howard Amos, whose book Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire, tries to understand life in modern Russia not by looking at the high politics and motivations of the Putin regime, but instead what life is like in the Pskov region of Russia, an economically struggling area that encompasses the country’s frontier with the Baltic states. The book has received wide acclaim, with Foreign Affairs stating that, “Amos sketches Pskov’s residents with deep interest and sympathy, yet without condescension or sentimentality.” And The Times of London notes that, “Few westerners venture into this tragic, frustrating world, separated from the hurly-burly of Moscow or St Petersburg by chasms of experience and expectation. Even fewer would be able to describe it as well as Amos.”Books Mentioned in the EpisodeHigh Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia's Haunted Hinterland by Tom ParfittOwls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan SlaghtBlack Earth City by Charlotte HobsonStork's Nest by Laura Lynne Williams