Travels with a hungry bear : a journey to the Russian heartland

Summary: This journey into the Russian countryside heads right for the heart of the Russian character. In this extraordinary work of reportage Mark Kramer gives us the most intimate portrait we have yet had of a people who have been hidden from us for most of a century. His story begins in the waning days of Communism, as Gorbachev shines the spotlight of perestroika on the failing empire's moribund collective-farm system. Kramer, on an assignment for the New York Times Magazine, sets out to discover why a nation blessed with an eleven-time-zone stretch of fertile land still suffers from shortages and rationing. Travels with a Hungry Bear chronicles the ungainly struggle of the Soviet nation to feed itself.