Howard Amos: Russia Starts Here EDINBURGH

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and extensive travel, Howard Amos' book, Russia Starts Here, presents a bottom-up portrait of modern Russia through Pskov Region that lies on the border with NATO and the EU. Once a thriving centre of trade and cultural exchange, Pskov has been shaped by Russian, Nazi, and Soviet rule. Today it is one of the poorest, and most rapidly depopulating parts of Putin’s Russia, and a key source of recruits for the war in Ukraine. Amos explores these deprived Russian heartlands through the stories of, among others, politicians, priests, historians, orphans, doctors, and soldiers.