Since the invasion of Ukraine and ban on foreign reporters Russia seems to have sunk into an
even deeper shadow than in the darkest times of the Soviet Union. Only by presenting himself as
an historian was Italian journalist Marzio G. Mian able to penetrate the Russian heartland
leading to his groundbreaking cover story for Harpers' Magazine "Behind the New Iron
Curtain." In Volga Blues Russian history and literature inform every step of Mian's revealing
and perilous journey along Russia's most culturally significant river the fulcrum of its
history "the mother." Along with Alessandro Cosmelli his photographer Vlad their translator
and fixer and Katya Vlad's girlfriend Mian manages to gather firsthand accounts from
ordinary Russians. They discuss not only the impact of the war Western sanctions and their
country's isolation but how Russian culture has changed as a result. Stalin is back in favor
Lenin has been downgraded as a "Europeanized intellectual." Newly sophisticated local and
seasonal cuisine is all the rage. People cite centuries-old grievances to explain their fear of
Western invasion as they claim a willingness to accept nuclear apocalypse to save Russian
pride. Talking with contemporary Russian intellectuals entrepreneurs priests widows
mercenaries and pacifists Mian discovers how little the West knows about Russia and Russians.
Deeply distrustful of democracy yearning for the ideological and spiritual purity of the
Orthodox Church betrayed by and fearful of the West and reassured by the brutal fragile
ancient dream of an imperial civilization they make clear that the Cold War has not yet ended.
In visceral prose Mian takes us across the floodplains where the Russian Orthodox faith first
took root where the Soviet empire asserted itself and where the neo-imperial project of
Vladimir Putin's post-Soviet autocracy is currently being consolidated. The result is a
harrowing haunting vision of today's great clash of civilizations-between Russia and the
West-including a United States that at times seems uncannily similar.
