Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village Book PDF, ePub eBook

Join our eBook service for unlimited books & audiobooks. Get a free 7 day subscription! ↓↓↓↓↓


Book Descriptions:
Tracing the lives of his Russian forebears, Serge Schmemann, Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times, tells a remarkable story that spans the past two hundred years of Russian history.

First, he draws on a family archive rich in pictorial as well as documentary treasure to bring us into the prerevolutionary life of the village of Sergiyevskoye (now called Koltsovo), where the spacious estate of his mother's family was the seat of a manor house as vast and imposing as a grand hotel.

In this village, on this estate--ringed with orchards, traversed by endless paths through linden groves, overseen by a towering brick church, and bordered by a sparkling-clear river--we live through the cycle of a year: the springtime mud, summertime card parties, winter nights of music and good talk in a haven safe from the bitter cold and ever-present snow. Family recollections of life a century ago summon up an aura of devotion to tsar and church. The unjust, benevolent, complicated, and ultimately doomed relationship between master and peasants--leading to growing unrest, then to civil war--is subtly captured.

Diary entries record the social breakdown step by step: grievances going unresolved, the government foundering, the status quo of rural life overcome by revolutionary fervor. Soon we see the estate brutally collectivized, the church torn apart brick by brick, the manor house burned to the ground. Some of the family are killed in the fighting; others escape into exile; one writes to his kin for the last time from the Gulag.

The Soviet era is experienced as a time of privation, suffering, and lost illusions. The Nazi occupation inspires valorous resistance, but at great cost. Eventually all that remains of Sergiyevskoye is an impoverished collective.

Without idealizing the tsarist past or wholly damning the regime that followed, Schmemann searches for a lost heritage as he shows how Communism thwarted aspiration and initiative. Above all, however, his book provides for us a deeply felt evocation of the long-ago life of a corner of Russia that is even now movingly beautiful despite the ravages of history and time.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village by Serge Schmemann

From reader reviews:

David Guyton:

This book untitled Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village to be one of several books that will best seller in this year, here is because when you read this reserve you can get a lot of benefit in it. You will easily to buy that book in the book store or you can order it by way of online. The publisher in this book sells the e-book too. It makes you quickly to read this book, as you can read this book in your Smart phone. So there is no reason for your requirements to past this book from your list.

Ramona Wegener:

A lot of people always spent their own free time to vacation or maybe go to the outside with them loved ones or their friend. Are you aware? Many a lot of people spent many people free time just watching TV, or perhaps playing video games all day long. If you want to try to find a new activity here is look different you can read the book. It is really fun for you. If you enjoy the book which you read you can spent 24 hours a day to reading a guide. The book Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village it is rather good to read. There are a lot of those who recommended this book. These people were enjoying reading this book. If you did not have enough space to create this book you can buy the particular e-book. You can m0ore simply to read this book from a smart phone. The price is not very costly but this book offers high quality.

Garnet Veach:

Is it you who having spare time in that case spend it whole day by means of watching television programs or just telling lies on the bed? Do you need something new? This Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village can be the reply, oh how comes? A fresh book you know. You are therefore out of date, spending your time by reading in this completely new era is common not a geek activity. So what these textbooks have than the others?

Jennifer Powell:

A number of people said that they feel weary when they reading a guide. They are directly felt this when they get a half parts of the book. You can choose the actual book Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village to make your reading is interesting. Your own personal skill of reading proficiency is developing when you such as reading. Try to choose easy book to make you enjoy you just read it and mingle the idea about book and studying especially. It is to be initially opinion for you to like to available a book and read it. Beside that the guide Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village can to be your new friend when you're experience alone and confuse with the information must you're doing of this time.