The Madness of Moscow

I love the cover, it's very attractive. The Madness of Moscow is a cheeky, amusing, and enlightening look at a British journalist's sojourn into living for a while in Moscow. Johnston never reveals any dates for the time period he resided in Russia. He entertains readers with the foibles of Russian life and dating Russian women. The two hilarious, albeit rather gross, stories involve he Russian "plumbers", and the aftermath of the author's hernia surgery. Do not say must to reading this entertaining tale.

The author, a 40-something British journalist, takes a job in Moscow with Russia Today TV. That alone sounded interesting, but throw in his interest in the whole "Russian bride" phenomena, and it really appealed to me!
Johnston discovers that life can be strange as a black man in Russia. He finds racism, as well as "a strata of young Russian adult males who were deeply nationalist, bordering on fascist'. He also found growing tensions between the nationalists and young migrant workers from Central Asia and the Caucuses. I found his observation that "in times of economic crisis, it's the migrants who get the blame for everything when things go wrong, especially when it comes to unemployment", to be spot on for those of us in the United States also. (Dare I say that our current president has taken this Russian tactic and applied it to his own political strategy? But, there was no collusion, of course!).
The author writes about how the Russians feel about "the West". He found that Russians are concerned "about saving face. They do not, above anything else, want to appear weak-from an apartment landlord, right up to the President. Weakness is not an option, and haggling is seen as a sign of weakness". He describes talks with Russians about how they felt about Boris Yeltsin, and how, "when he was in charge, there was complete chaos in the streets", "there were gangs, shootings, mafia, and complete lawlessness and fear on the ground". He describes, despite all his faults, "Putin's rise to power brought the one thing which Russians revere above all else-stability". One young lady explains that she craves "all the good things from the West as well, it's just that the spectre of instability haunts the Russian psyche like nothing else".
Part of the book I really enjoyed was reading about the author's experiences with dating in Russia. Some of them were hilarious! I liked his observation that "any preconceived cliches I had garnered over the years about Russian women, were turning out to be basically true - many did seem pretty much hooked on the idea of getting married to Western guys, and real quick. This was strangely disappointing, but the truth is the truth, and there you have it".
The ending of the book explains how the author see the Russians. It's a very thoughtful section, and the author wraps it up very well. I won't give the ending away, but I will say it's worth your time to read it.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for a fair review. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it, and learned a great deal from it. Give it a try!

A very readable and relatable book about living in Russia as a foreigner. While the book wasn’t super political, it seemed timely. I thought the bits about dating were a little awkward but cute.