We heard about the USSR every scary day of my young life and then, suddenly, it was gone. Out of the news. Poof. Threat vanished and nobody in America is interested any more in that part of the world.

Or so the Powers That Be seemed to think. Not Lawrence Scott Sheets. He was out there, dodging bullets in the local wars that flared up all over the former USSR after its demise, and visiting with the locals, and just looking around at the new world that was emerging out of the chaos.

This book is a fabulous look at that new world. One more case of I Wouldn't Want to Go There Myself, so thank you, Mr. Sheets, for sharing all these stories. ( )

Starts strongest with his first impressions of St. Petersburg ca 1991, Grozny and Georgia. Tapers off thereafter with more summary discussion of other among the many problems of post Soviet republics. ( )