{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324111038?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1324111038","authors":["Marzio G. Mian","Alessandro Cosmelli","Elettra Pauletto"],"book_id":"9781324111030","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781324111030","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781324111030.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","description":"Winner of the Estense Prize A risky undercover reporting trip along Russia’s great mother-river, the Volga, reveals the tortuous history and frightening current fantasies of a nation. Since the invasion of Ukraine and ban on foreign reporters, Russia seems to have sunk into an even deeper shadow than in the darkest times of the Soviet Union. Only by presenting himself as an historian was Italian journalist Marzio G. Mian able to penetrate the Russian heartland, leading to his groundbreaking cover story for Harpers’ Magazine , “Behind the New Iron Curtain.” In Volga Blues , Russian history and literature inform every step of Mian’s revealing and perilous journey along Russia’s most culturally significant river, the fulcrum of its history, “the mother.” Along with Alessandro Cosmelli, his photographer; Vlad, their translator and fixer; and Katya, Vlad‘s girlfriend, Mian manages to gather firsthand accounts from ordinary Russians. They discuss not only the impact of the war, Western sanctions, and their country’s isolation, but how Russian culture has changed as a result. Stalin is back in favor, Lenin has been downgraded as a “Europeanized intellectual.” Newly sophisticated local and seasonal cuisine is all the rage. People cite centuries-old grievances to explain their fear of Western invasion, as they claim a willingness to accept nuclear apocalypse to save Russian pride. Talking with contemporary Russian intellectuals, entrepreneurs, priests, widows, mercenaries, and pacifists, Mian discovers how little the West knows about Russia and Russians. Deeply distrustful of democracy, yearning for the ideological and spiritual purity of the Orthodox Church, betrayed by and fearful of the West, and reassured by the brutal, fragile, ancient dream of an imperial civilization, they make clear that the Cold War has not yet ended. In visceral prose, Mian takes us across the floodplains where the Russian Orthodox faith first took root, where the Soviet empire asserted itself, and where the neo-imperial project of Vladimir Putin’s post-Soviet autocracy is currently being consolidated. The result is a harrowing, haunting vision of today’s great clash of civilizations—between Russia and the West—including a United States that at times seems uncannily similar.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781324111030","publication_date":"20260120","publisher":"WW Norton","slug":"volga-blues","subtitle":"A Journey Into the Heart of Russia","title":"Volga Blues"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS032000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL031000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Nationalism & Patriotism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL060000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian & Post-Soviet Politics","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}],"hint":[],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS032000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL031000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Nationalism & Patriotism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL060000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Russian & Post-Soviet Politics","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Russian History","score":1,"slug":"russian-history"},{"label":"Nationalism & Patriotism","score":1,"slug":"nationalism-patriotism"},{"label":"Russian & Post-Soviet Politics","score":1,"slug":"russian-post-soviet-politics"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Russian History","Good for fans of Russia","Good for readers who enjoy Russian History and Nationalism & Patriotism."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Bruce Berglund"],"book_id":"9781637277485","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781637277485.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":15.8185,"title":"The Moscow Playbook","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781637277485"},{"authors":["Svetlana Alexievich","Bela Shayevich"],"book_id":"9780399588822","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780399588822.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":14.8097,"title":"Secondhand Time","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780399588822"},{"authors":["Friedrich Engels","Michèle Barrett","Tristram Hunt"],"book_id":"9780141191119","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141191119.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":13.9743,"title":"The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141191119"},{"authors":["John Lewis Gaddis"],"book_id":"9780143038276","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780143038276.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":13.0374,"title":"The Cold War","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780143038276"},{"authors":["Fareed Zakaria","Simon & Schuster Audio"],"book_id":"9780393239232","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780393239232.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":12.9653,"title":"Age of Revolutions","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780393239232"},{"authors":["David Hoffman","David E. Hoffman"],"book_id":"9780307387844","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780307387844.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":11.8417,"title":"The Dead Hand","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780307387844"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:world history"],"label":"History","score":0.9238,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political science"],"label":"Science","score":0.2945,"slug":"science"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:world history"],"label":"World","score":0.2022,"slug":"world"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political science"],"label":"Political","score":0.1549,"slug":"political"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political philosophy"],"label":"Philosophy","score":0.1142,"slug":"philosophy"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: History, Science, Political.","Reading lane: Russian History and Nationalism & Patriotism.","Publisher: WW Norton."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":176,"goodreads_reviews_count":26,"quality_score":0.8767}}