Jill Dougherty's 'My Russia' is part memoir, and part dive into episodes of Russian and Soviet history and current events. It's a mix of history, political science, and reporting/journalism. There are numerous strengths to having direct anecdotes about Dougherty's experiences and interactions with Soviets and then post-Soviet Russians/Ukrainians, etc., especially when contextualized with larger socio-economic, political, or diplomatic events taking place in parallel. For those unfamiliar with Soviet/Russian history, this is a readable dive into some of the more critical events from the past decades that the author was witness to or was able to interview those involved in the decision-making process. There are, however, numerous weaknesses. This is someone close to the events and people they are interviewing and writing about which reduces the ability to offer a more objective take and commentary on the historic episodes in question. Moreover, based on the limited bibliography, this is someone fully entrenched (understandably so) in journalism and political science rather than history. Thus much of the reasoning Putin and his regime have been using to explain and attempt to justify their actions are missing. Even numerous political scientists who have been writing on Russia, like Richard Sakwa, are missing from the bibliography. So this volume will be of limited use for those familiar with the past thirty-five years of Russia's post-Soviet history, and less useful for those looking at anything beyond an eye-witness account of interactions with the Soviet Union and Soviet citizens by a student participating in study abroad opportunities.

This was such an interesting read and a great insight into what it was really like inside the USSR and Russia in the past decades. Putin is such an enigma today and the choices he and the Russian government have made in the past decade or so have seemed so unbelievable to those of us watching, but this book helped to shed a little bit of light on that. There were occasionally parts that got a bit repetitive, especially since the book jumped around in time, so sometimes we'd cover something multiple times even using the same quotes, but other than that I really enjoyed this book.