Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia

Overview

David Remnick's Resurrection offers a sweeping, vivid account of Russia's convulsive passage from Soviet superstate to fragile postcommunist experiment. Through a reporter's eye and a novelist's ear, Remnick traces the political, economic, and cultural shocks that defined the 1990s, portraying a nation alternately hopeful and traumatized as it sought a new identity. The title captures a paradox: the attempt to bring something back to life while creating something wholly different.

Historical Context

The narrative begins amid the unraveling of Soviet authority under Mikhail Gorbachev and moves through the dramatic year of 1991, the emergence of Boris Yeltsin as a forceful, chaotic leader, and the wrenching reforms of the early post-Soviet years. Rapid privatization, "shock therapy" economics, and the collapse of social safety nets produced both a tiny class of new wealth and widespread impoverishment. Political institutions proved brittle, nationalism and regional conflicts intensified, and the state's monopoly on violence weakened, setting the stage for crises that would define the decade.

Narrative and Key Figures

Remnick populates his account with an array of vivid personalities: reformist politicians and discredited apparatchiks, media figures reinventing public discourse, oligarchs who seized vast resources, and ordinary citizens navigating dramatic dislocation. He revisits defining moments such as the 1991 coup attempt, the 1993 constitutional showdown in Moscow, and the chaotic 1996 presidential campaign that pitted Yeltsin's precarious incumbency against a resurgent Communist challenge. These scenes are rendered with detail that illuminates the stakes and the human costs of rapid change.

Themes and Analysis

Central themes emerge around the tension between aspiration and disorder. "Resurrection" interrogates what it means to hope for democracy while living through economic collapse and institutional decay. Remnick probes how notions of freedom collided with the realities of hunger, corruption, and dislocation, and how Western prescriptions for market reform often produced social injury as much as prosperity. The book frames the 1990s as an era of experimentation whose moral and political ambiguities would shape Russia's future trajectory.

Reporting Style and Sources

Remnick brings the strengths of long-form journalism: immersion, eyewitness detail, and sympathetic yet critical observation. His prose is both reportage-driven and reflective, combining interviews, on-the-ground scenes, and historical summarization. The work relies on conversations with a wide cast of actors and on a journalist's attunement to cultural currents, producing an account that feels immediate and textured rather than purely analytical.

Impact and Relevance

Resurrection serves as a crucial contemporary portrait of a formative decade, valuable for readers seeking to understand how the 1990s paved the way for subsequent consolidation of power and the recalibration of Russian identity. The book anticipates many of the tensions that would later crystallize under new leadership: resentment over lost status, the entrenchment of elite networks, and the vulnerability of democratic practices in the face of economic and security crises. Its balance of narrative urgency and thoughtful skepticism makes it a durable resource for anyone studying the messy birth pangs of post-Soviet Russia.