"After two and a half years as NPR's Moscow bureau chief, David Greene travels across the country--a 6,000-mile journey by rail, from Moscow to the Pacific port of Vladivostok--to speak with ordinary Russians about how their lives have changed in the post-Soviet years. Reaching beyond the headline-grabbing protests in Moscow, Greene speaks with a group of singing babushkas from Buranovo, a teenager hawking 'space rocks' from last spring's meteor shower in Chelyabinsk, and activists battling for environmental regulation in the pollution-choked town of Baikalsk"--Provided by publisher.

After two years as NPR's Moscow bureau chief, David Greene traveled 6,000 miles across Russia by rail, from Moscow to the pacific port of Vladivostok. Along the way, he interviewed everyday Russians to discover how their lives had changed in the post-Soviet years. Despite being a nation with elections and prosperity, oppression and corruption continue to flourish. Greene investigates how the people of 21st-century Russia look at both the past and the future.