Reluctant Farewell

An American Reporter's Candid Look Inside the Soviet Union
Reluctant Farewell

A Newsweek correspondent who was expelled in 1982 after just 14 months in Moscow, Nagorski traveled around the country looking for news rather than relying on official sources.

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Nagorski, who was Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief from May 1981 until August 1982, joins a growing body of correspondents such as Michael Binyon ( Life in Russia , LJ 5/1/84) and Kevin Klose ( Russia and the Russians , LJ 3/1/84) who have chronicled their experiences within and their impressions of one of the most enigmatic societies. Nagorski differed from most of his colleagues in his ability to speak Russian, his eagerness to travel outside the major cities, and his willingness to meet all sorts of Soviet citizens: academics to dissidents to black marketeers. He also was the first American reporter expelled by the Kremlin since 1977. An extremely readable and personal account of one journalist's struggles with a markedly different tradition.

Wall Street Journal

This book is the moving, well-written story of what happened when a reporter refused merely to copy the pictures painted by Kremlin officials, and tried instead to lift the censorial dropcloth that conceals much of Soviet life. This effort to find out about the man on the street was the sort of… ...read more

Kirkus Reviews

Behind the Iron Curtain through the eyes and ears of an intrepid Newsweek reporterthis portrait of a society in a straitjacket is highly recommended for those who want to learn more about the enigma that is Russia.

Newsweek

a deceptively short book that tells us a great deal about the Soviet Union, the press and how each covers the other.

The Washington Post

Reading Nagorski, it is easy to develop an unseemly sympathy for the poor souls charged with keeping the lid on the naturally gregarious spirit of the Russian peopleit is precisely Nagorskis sense of justice that drove him to move so far off the beaten track, and that enables him to dig up the… ...read more

Publisher's Weekly

Vibrates with echoes of a Russian adage that a pessimist is a well-informed optimist. Curious, sensitive, a touch idealistic yet pragmatic, Nagorski interpreted his role in the U.S.S.R. as having a moral dimension beyond professional responsibilities interesting and instructive.

Foreign Affairs

John C. Campbell
Newsweek's former Moscow correspondent reports on his 14-month tour of duty in the Soviet Union (1981-82), cut short when he was unceremoniously expelled. That outcome should have been no surprise, as he was a "problem" from the start in the eyes of his Soviet hosts, consorting with dissidents,… ...read more

The Times, London

Very rewarding his descriptions are minor classics of Russian reporting.

Library Journal

Nagorski differed from most of his colleagues in his ability to speak Russian, his eagerness to travel outside the major cities, and his willingness to meet all sorts of Soviet citizens: academics to dissidents to black marketeers. He also was the first American reporter expelled by the Kremlin… ...read more