The Intimate Diary of a Russian Woman: My Search for Meaning in the Midst of My Country's Upheaval

An educated, middle-class Russian woman discusses her feelings about the world amid her country's political upheaval

This 1988 diary of a middle-class Russian woman, ending with a trip to New York City from which, apparently, she did not return home, is an unmitigated bore. Romine, now married to an American and living in Southern California, presents herself as a middle-aged "single" on a frantic quest to meet "him"; her advertisement for herself notes that she is "not badly built," has "rather beautiful" hands and a smile that "looks good." But on the down side, she is "not one to be calm and happy if there's an excuse to do a little suffering." Daughter of a scientist and raised in a household with a maid, this member of the nomenklatura continued to enjoy a certain comfort as an adult, teaching at a publishing-journalism school in Moscow. But we learn virtually nothing about Romine's obviously untaxing work, for she is more intent on gossiping about her romances, her disagreeable first husband and her friends' love affairs and miserable marriages. A journal of a Russian woman's everyday life would be of great interest, if written by someone less egocentric than Romine.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The dying days of Communism--as observed by Russian ‚migr‚ Romine, whose anecdotal but perceptive account traces the pervasive disaffection, cynicism, and mixed emotions that marked that dramatic time. Relatively privileged by Soviet standards, 30-ish and divorced Romine, a former Intourist guide and teacher who'd obtained her Ph.D. in philology, had been able to travel quite widely before the advent of Gorbachev--but always under official auspices. Perestroika now meant that she could go alone; this journal begins with a trip to Munich in 1988 and recollections of others, and ends with her departure for her first visit to the US. These journeys, like so much else within the Soviet Union, required tireless persistence, great humor, and numerous useful friends--Romine quotes an old Russian saying, ``Better to have a hundred friends than a hundred roubles,'' especially in a country where money has lost its significance. It is a land where colleagues come to work not to teach but to arrange shopping forays, eat the cafeteria food, and socialize; where a friend, suffering from insomnia and sent to recover in a real ``Psycho Ward,'' is tempted to stay because he ``felt almost like a free man in a free society.'' It is also a country in which fear perverts the closest of friendships, as revealed when Romine describes a visit shamefacedly made to Andrei Sakharov, a beloved friend of her late father's, to apologize for his silence during Sakharov's troubles. Yet Romine's feelings are ambivalent, and often despairing, as she also notes her close family ties and warm friendships, and the strong appeal of Russian culture--though not strong enough to keep her from moving to southern California. One of those personal records, refreshingly idiosyncratic and frank, that does more to foster understanding than any number of more ponderous and ambitious studies. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This intensely personal diary covers the period June 1988 through July 1989, when perestroika was still evolving. Personal crises (the death of Romine's father, her divorce) evoke memories of childhood visits to Kaluga and childhood dreams unfulfilled. Friends and their personal problems, the politics of her job, perks like the canteen, and the difficult problems of travel within the USSR--not to mention getting permission and going abroad--all depict a nonfunctional society ripe for change. Romine does not discuss larger national politics but shows how the daily grind wears down Russians emotionally. What she has seen of life in the West is sharply contrasted with Soviet reality. On a trip to the United States in 1989, Romine married an American and now lives in California. Unlike accounts that have focused on the political aspects of recent Soviet events, Romine's concentrates on the touching human story. Recommended for general collections.
-Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.