Among the Russians: From the Baltic to the Caucasus Book

An OK travel book that in hindsight is less about the Russians and more a set of postcards of life in the late Soviet Union.

Thubron managed to travel individually as a one-man group. He drove a fair part of his journey and was able to stay at camp-sites, occasionally he took internal flights. What struck him was the size of the country, alien to anyone from Western Europe and the sameness of material life that gave the country a strong feeling of blandness and an irrepressible desire on the part of locals to buy his jeans or admire the interior of his Morris Minor.

Really this is more of historical interest now, not so much because of changes in Russian life so much as the country is much more open (potentially) to foreign visitors. Thubron was much more limited in the places that he was able to go and the routes that he was able to travel by than a contemporary traveller need be and perhaps that contributes to the melancholy tone of wandering around concrete tower blocks and dismal zoos full of masturbating monkeys, I think he almost liked Estonia, but maybe I am misremembering. He meets a Russian woman blissfully happy under the spiritual guidance of a Hindu sage (presumably via correspondence), Thubron doesn't much care for that either as it smacks of pure escapism!