LEADER 04828cam a2200349 a 4500003 hubpceuo 005 20220912150948.0 008 930921s1994 nyu 000 0deng 010 93037048 020 0679426191 : |c$24.00 040 DLC |cDLC |dDLC |dhubpceuo |bEnglish 041 1 eng |hpol 043 e-ur--- 050 00 DK29 |b.K313 1994 082 00 914.704/854 |220 100 1 Kapuściński, Ryszard, |d1932-2007 240 10 Imperium. |lEnglish 245 10 Imperium / |cRyszard Kapuściński ; translated from the Polish by Klara Glowczewska. 250 1st American ed. 260 New York : |bA. A. Knopf, |c1994. 300 x, 331 p. ; |c25 cm. 520 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 He begins with his own childhood memories of the postwar Soviet occupation of Pinsk, in what was then Poland's eastern frontier ("something dreadful and incomprehensible...in this world that I enter at seven years of age"), and takes us up to 1967, when, as a journalist just starting out, he traveled across a snow-covered and desolate 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, Kapuscinski 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 (where "nature pals it up with the executioner"), 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. Bringing the book to a close is a collection of notes which, Kapuscinski writes, "arose in the margins of my journeys" -- reflections on the state of the ex-USSR and on his experience of having watched its fate unfold "on the screen of a television set...as well as on the screen of the country's ordinary, daily reality, which surrounded me during my travels." It is this "schizophrenic perception in two different dimensions" that enabled Kapuscinski to discover and illuminate the most telling features of a society in dire turmoil. Imperium is a remarkable work from one of the most original and sharply perceptive interpreters of our world -- galvanizing narrative deeply informed by Kapuscinski'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. 580 Donation of Anatole Shub 600 10 Kapuściński, Ryszard, |d1932-2007 |xTravel |zSoviet Union. 651 0 Soviet Union |xDescription and travel. 880 |6245 942 |2ddc |cBK 952 |00 |10 |2ddc |40 |6914_704000000000000_854_KAP |70 |8GEN |9160775OSA |bOSA |d2022-09-08 |eShub |l0 |o914.704/854 KAP |r2022-09-08 |w2022-09-08 |yBK |cGeneral Stacks 920 01 xY6vnbYJ 992 01 914_704000000000000_854_KAP |bQYV_SZVZZZZZZZZZZZZ_RUV_FPA 966 |cIn the Research Room