Putin Country
A Journey into the Real Russia
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Narrated by:
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Anne Garrels
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By:
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Anne Garrels
About this listen
Long before the meteor strike, longtime NPR correspondent Anne Garrels had Chelyabinsk in her sights. More than 10 years ago, she began visiting the city in order to understand what life was really like in post-Soviet Russia, beyond the confines of the glitzy Moscow metropolis.
In Chelyabinsk, she discovered a populace for whom the new democratic freedoms were as traumatic as they were delightful. A closed nuclear city throughout the Cold War, Chelyabinsk was thrown into disarray in the early '90s as its formerly state-controlled factories were exposed to the free market. And the next 20 years would only bring more turmoil. The city became richer and more cosmopolitan, even as the forces of corruption and intolerance became more entrenched.
In Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia, Garrels crafts an intimate portrait of the nation's heartland. We meet ostentatious mafiosos, upwardly mobile professionals, impassioned activists, scheming taxi drivers with dark secrets, and beleaguered steel workers. We discover surprising subcultures, like the LGBT residents of Chelyablinsk who bravely endure an upsurge in homophobia fueled by Putin's rhetoric of Russian "moral superiority" yet still nurture a vibrant if clandestine community of their own. And we watch doctors and teachers try to do their best in a corrupt system. Through these encounters, Garrels reveals why Putin commands the support and loyalty of so many Russians, even those who decry the abuses of power they encounter from day to day. Her portrait of Russia's silent majority is essential listening at a time when Cold War tensions are resurgent.
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When Communist Party leaders adopted the one-child policy in 1980, they hoped curbing birthrates would help lift China's poorest and increase the country's global stature. But at what cost? Now, as China closes the book on the policy after more than three decades, it faces a population grown too old and too male, with a vastly diminished supply of young workers. Mei Fong has spent years documenting the policy's repercussions on every sector of Chinese society.
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Best Book Club Discussion Ever!!
- By Rachael W. Schettenhelm on 05-01-17
By: Mei Fong
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This Child Will Be Great
- Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
- By: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The first elected woman president of an African country, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was also listed as one of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes. This evocative memoir recounts Sirleaf ’s childhood upbringing and rise to political power in Liberia. More than a simple biography, Sirleaf ’s account details how she stood firm in the face of physical abuse early in life and carried that strength over into her career as a young economist in Samuel Doe’s regime.
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What a powerfully strong woman!
- By Gary on 10-18-11
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We Don't Know Ourselves
- A Personal History of Modern Ireland
- By: Fintan O'Toole
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In We Don't Know Ourselves, Fintan O'Toole weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society - perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism.
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Relentlessly Negative
- By John on 06-02-22
By: Fintan O'Toole
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Unbowed
- A Memoir
- By: Wangari Maathai
- Narrated by: Chinasa Ogbuagu
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, Wangari Maathai has been fighting for environmental responsibility and democracy in her native Kenya for over 35 years. Unbowed recounts the incredible journey that culminated in her appointment to Parliament in 2002. Despite repeated jailings, beatings, and other obstacles along the way, Maathai created the Green Belt Movement and never relented in her goal to bring democracy to Kenya.
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Amazing story of this woman, but missing something
- By Peter on 06-29-11
By: Wangari Maathai
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North Korea's Hidden Revolution
- How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society
- By: Jieun Baek
- Narrated by: Caroline McLaughlin
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the least understood countries in the world, North Korea has long been known for its repressive regime. Yet it is far from being an impenetrable black box. Media flows covertly into the country, and fault lines are appearing in the government's sealed informational borders. Drawing on deeply personal interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, ranging from propaganda artists to diplomats, Jieun Baek tells the story of North Korea's information underground.
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Worst narration on Audible
- By Jeremy A. Hudson on 03-29-17
By: Jieun Baek
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America: The Farewell Tour
- By: Chris Hedges
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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America, says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.
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Terrible narrator for the book
- By H U Rehman on 10-01-18
By: Chris Hedges
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The Invitation-Only Zone
- The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project
- By: Robert S. Boynton
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, dozens of Japanese citizens were abducted from coastal Japanese towns by North Korean commandos. In what proved to be part of a global project, North Korea attempted to reeducate the abductees and train them to spy on the state's behalf. When the project faltered, the abductees were hidden in a series of guarded communities known as "Invitation-Only Zones" - the fiction being that these were exclusive enclaves, not prisons.
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Over enthusiastic reader!
- By AJW on 02-14-16
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Capitalism
- A Ghost Story
- By: Arundhati Roy
- Narrated by: Vaishali Sharma
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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From the poisoned rivers, barren wells, and clear-cut forests, to the hundreds of thousands of farmers who have committed suicide to escape punishing debt, to the hundreds of millions of people who live on less than two dollars a day, there are ghosts nearly everywhere you look in India. India is a nation of 1.2 billion, but the country's 100 richest people own assets equivalent to one-fourth of India’s gross domestic product.
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Courageous Reporting
- By Doug - Audible on 03-31-15
By: Arundhati Roy
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Inside Scientology
- The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
- By: Janet Reitman
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Scientology, created in 1954 by a prolific sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world's fastest-growing religion, with millions of members around the world and huge financial holdings. Its celebrity believers keep its profile high, and its teams of "volunteer ministers" offer aid at disaster sites such as Haiti and the World Trade Center. But Scientology is also a notably closed faith, harassing journalists and others through litigation and intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of government to further its goals.
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My cup of tea.
- By MWMcCabe on 08-09-11
By: Janet Reitman
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Unnatural Selection
- Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
- By: Mara Hvistendahl
- Narrated by: Tamara Marston
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Lianyungang, a booming port city, has China's most extreme gender ratio for children under four: 163 boys for every 100 girls. These numbers don't seem terribly grim, but in 10 years, the skewed sex ratio will pose a colossal challenge. By the time those children reach adulthood, their generation will have 24 million more men than women. The prognosis for China's neighbors is no less bleak: Asia now has 163 million females "missing" from its population. And gender imbalance reaches far beyond Asia....
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Interesting idea but...
- By Seth P Dow on 07-30-15
By: Mara Hvistendahl
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New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
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My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
What listeners say about Putin Country
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-10-17
Very Insightful
I was fortunate to travel to a few places in that area during the nineties. It's sobering to hear about the changes that have come about since then. I've always admired the reporting of Anne Garrels when she covered Russia for NPR. This is a must read to understand the mood in Russia today.
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- adrian
- 07-08-18
Informative
Balanced insight from a diverse collection of Russian citizens broadly ranging in backgrounds.The real Russia.
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- Brendan
- 08-01-16
Insight amid repetition
It's always interesting gaining a perspective into the lives of those different than us. Russians are certainly amongst those who have lived markedly different lives.
Anne Garrels spent years in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk getting to the heart of the "Real Russia." The results are fascinating but eventually feel a bit repetitive. More or less everyone we hear from has had the same experiences. Tales of corruption, shakedowns, and brutality abound.
Interesting - even if Russia's tourism board is bound to hate it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- TheBeez
- 05-04-20
disjointed
Unfortunately, the book sorely lacks a strong coherent unifying thread. It's just a collection of vignettes. The Long Hangover had better writing and did a far better job at using vignettes on individuals to tell a compelling story. It's ok but I cannot recommend this book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Steve Adams
- 08-09-17
Great insight into Russia
Fantastic book. Ms Garrels does an excellent job of narration on this multi faceted, if not disturbing look at life under Putin, as well as an overview of how many thousands of lives have been affected and shortened because of wanton disregard for human life in the old Soviet Union.
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- Corinne Parker
- 03-07-22
comprehensive cross-section of modern Russia
Examines the intricate lives of many Russian people, exemplifying societal changes since the fall of the Soviet Union.
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- Cynthia
- 05-22-24
Fascinating and illuminating
I was on the fence about actually buying this book, but im so glad that I did! Once I started, I couldn't "put it down" or stop listening. Even understanding that this comes from one perspective, I was drawn in and fascinated by this glimpse into a country that we often don't get to see or understand in the USA. I also liked the style of the narrative through stories and interviews with actual people living in the area. I would definitely recommend this book.
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- Olivia
- 03-23-16
Awesome
This audiobook (read by the author) was very interesting and informative. I was captivated the whole way through, never bored. I loved hearing the stories of the Russians in this book and learning a bit about how they think, it's a great insight. I'm recommending this book to my friends & family.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Ronald
- 10-08-16
Tedious writing on an interesting subject
Any additional comments?
I remain very interested in what is happening in Russia and how its people are handling the changes since the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Putin. However, this book was a struggle for me to finish. The author correctly chose to focus on an out of the way city, but I found her reporting excessively detailed and minute. For me, there were just too many details about poorly educated people trying to live their lives. This book could have been half as long but better edited and made more of an impact.
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1 person found this helpful
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- R. L. Elam
- 09-16-23
Great insight into what is happening in Russia today
After reading this you have to ask yourself which way Russia is heading. They tossed off communism, ending the Cold War but what do you call what is happening now? My sympathies to the Russian people. I hope they can sustain their transformation toward a more open society. This book is an invaluable read for Western readers who, maybe for the first time, get to see inside Putin’s Russia. It was for me a real eye- opener.
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