Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People

Russia is a country in transition. It is a land of exotic treasures with a culture rich in world-famous artists, writers and musicians. It is a swiftly modernizing economy yet still a place of corruption, suppression and secrecy, trying to shake off its recent, bloody past of Communist dictatorship. Russia may no longer be seen as a rival to America, but with control over a huge portion of the world’s non-renewable energy resources, it is a rapidly rising energy super-power. Yet, shrouded in myth and ice, it is little understood by the rest of the world.

Travelling thousands of miles, Jonathan journeys from Kaliningrad in the west to Provideniya in the east to discover modern Russia. Passing through some of the most extreme landscapes on Earth, several climates and seven time zones, he visits places “spectacular, infamous, secret” that witnessed defining moments in Russia’s extraordinary history. Caught between Asia and Europe, the people of this vast landmass are as diverse as the landscape they inhabit, their ethnic mix a product of Russian expansionism.

In his book and the television series it accompanies, Jonathan looks at how the past has shaped the present and attempts to explain what modern Russia means to her people now.