In the Ruins of an Empire: We Who Could Make Russia Great Were Trampled into Ground Again

What happens when the country you believed in disappears - and the new one betrays the hopes you fought for? Igor Kokarev lived through Stalinism, Khrushchev's Thaw, Brezhnev's stagnation, Gorbachev's Perestroika, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's brief democratic opening, and its return to authoritarian rule under Vladimir Putin. In the Ruins of an Empire is both a personal memoir and an eyewitness history of a generation that believed Russia could become free. Kokarev's life carried him from Odessa and the Soviet merchant fleet to the world of cinema, sociology, civic activism, and international cooperation. During Perestroika and the turbulent years that followed, he became deeply involved in efforts to build grassroots democracy, independent civic institutions, and stronger ties between Russians and Americans. He worked with filmmakers, intellectuals, activists, foundations, and community leaders who believed that a different Russia was possible. For a time, it seemed they might succeed. They did not. This book asks how that hope was lost - and what the failure of Russia's democratic experiment can teach us now. Personal, political, and often painfully intimate, In the Ruins of an Empire is the testimony of a man who spent a lifetime crossing the boundaries between two worlds: Soviet and American, authoritarian and democratic, hope and disillusionment. A Russian life from Stalin to Putin - and the story of a democratic future that almost happened.