- subtitled Love and Death under Soviet Rule
A collection of mostly short comics based on things he has seen and people he has talked with when travelling in both Russia and the Ukraine. Some devastating stories about the Holmodor in the Ukraine during the 30s and well as some vignettes highlighting the poverty and desperation in current Ukraine. The Russian section focuses on a variety of moments in recent Russian history - Chechnya and the Chechen war, the brutality and corruption of the Russian armed forces, the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the deportations of kulaks during Stalin's time. I think it works very well precisely because of the shortness of each aperçu.
The Chechen/Politkovskaya section in particular, gives you a sense of the difference in social and political culture in Russia. It is portrayed as a system of relations based entirely on power and the ability to oppress, to use that power on those weaker. And it runs right from the top down to the bottom, where you find the Chechens and other immigrants from former Soviet Central Asian countries. A form of racism that mirrors the structure in the the U.S. with blacks. Perhaps not so pervasive socially but certainly with the endless police shootings, a mirror image in some ways of the modus operandi of the Russian Special Forces. I was thinking Igort should do a similar travel book of a trip around Black U.SA. and portray some of the stories he could gather there...
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