Join us at Books on the Rise with Joe Luc Barnes as we take a journey through the former Soviet Union!

About Farewell to Russia:

Snow, concrete, the KGB: that's the cliché of the Soviet Union. But its collapse in 1991 sparked a story at once messier and more compelling than any stereotype. Thirty-five years on, Moscow may brim with champagne bars and blacked-out Mercedes – but what became of the other fourteen states that emerged from its ashes?

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Joe Luc Barnes crossed the former USSR to find out, from the gleaming towers of Azerbaijan to the former gulags of Kazakhstan, tech-hungry Estonia to the minarets of Uzbekistan. Along the way, he finds epic mountains, cobblestoned old towns and storied Silk Road cities – not to mention Georgian wine, Armenian brandy and vodka in industrial supply.

Travelling thousands of miles by rattling platzkart train, hitchhiking, and riding in the white cars mandated by Turkmenistan's dictator, he gathers a chorus of voices: nomads in mountain yurts, TikTok-fuelled activists, small-town taxi drivers and many who still look uneasily over their shoulder for the secret police.

They might have said goodbye to the USSR but can they ever say farewell to Russia? By turns hilarious, angry and heart-stopping, this a deeply human, darkly comic portrait of a region the West still misunderstands – and a warning of what happens when empires break but the habits of empire refuse to die.

Join us at Books on the Rise for a special event with Joe as we uncover what has become of the former USSR...

About Joe Luc Barnes:

Joe Luc Barnes spent six years living in former Soviet countries from 2014, has a Master's in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford and now reports from the region as a journalist in English, Russian and Spanish language media. He has contributed to numerous English language media, including The Financial Times; Nikkei; The Diplomat; and The Times of Central Asia. This includes reporting over the past year from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. He has visited all fifteen former USSR republics since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.

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