Volcanoes and Empires

The USSR’s abrupt termination on December 25, 1991, was the most significant international event of the last half of the twentieth century. Not only was a huge empire dissolved with the stroke of a pen, the entire world order – which for 50 years had been focused on the bipolar competition of ideology, economics and military might – was turned upside down.

Yes, there were tortuous, painful and deadly repercussions to follow, from Armenia to Estonia, from Georgia to Central Asia (to say nothing of Yugoslavia and Afghanistan), but given the magnitude of this global shift, we can count our blessings that far more destructive forces were not unleashed, willingly or otherwise.

And yet, for all the changes we have seen over the past two decades, for all the summits, reset buttons, elections and reforms, it is surprising how little has changed. Russia has yet to achieve a truly democratic parliament (or presidency), an independent judiciary, a healthy free press, nor a robust, mixed economy. And U.S.-Russian relations, while vastly improved, still have far to go. There is still Jackson-Vanik, an ABM treaty gone AWOL, restrictive travel and work visa systems, and a fretful unwillingness to take a united stand for free and open societies (witness recent loggerheads in Syria, Iran and Libya, for instance).

And yet… of course so very much has changed.

Even 20 years ago (had we been publishing this magazine then), in 1991, we could not have run a story about a couple of Norwegian adventurers traversing the wilds of Kolyma (page 28). That region, infamous as the worst of the gulag zones, was still off limits not just to foreigners, but to most Russians.

And who would have thought, 20 years ago, when Russia was one of the largest recipients of U.S. and EU foreign aid (including the famous “Bush’s chicken legs”), that one day professional American basketballers would be streaming to Russia – for the money?! Reading that story (page 44), I was reminded of the hundreds of “fellow traveler” Americans who fled joblessness during the Great Depression to work in Soviet factories (only, in most cases, to be swiftly overcome by the difficult circumstances and repressive political environment).

Elsewhere in this issue, we travel to Karelia, Baikal, Denver, the Black Sea, and to a quaint tea and ice cream café in Moscow. And then there is the fascinating story (page 22) of how a volcano in southern Peru, Huaynaputina, erupted at 5 p.m. on February 19, 1600, with such force that it led to famine in Muscovy and, quite possibly, changed the course of Russian history. A stark reminder, as if we needed one, of how no part of our globe is too distant to have rather unexpected repercussions close to home.

Enjoy the issue.