Best book I've ever read about Russia: its history, culture, geography, personality of its people. Includes pen-portraits of major writers, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, et al, set in relevant landscapes. the whole told very much as her own personal experience of living and travelling there.
Strange that other people got so impatient with this wonderful book. ( )

I think some of the unfavorable reviews are due to unmet expectations. This book is really a long, serialized personal essay, which touches on points of Russian history relevant to particular places, whether they be rooms, buildings or towns. It is not in any way a chronological history. The title alone should be enough to indicate a somewhat unconventional book.
I got a lot of pleasure from it, but if the reader doesn't already have a good grounding in Russian history it is not going to much fun. I did learn something about the Decembrists, but that too would not have meant much without an understanding of context. ( )

Moscow is a city with layers and layers of secrets and history. Along with other cities in Russia, there has been a level of impenetrability and this mystic has made them a source of fascination for all outsiders. Rachel Polonsky, a British journalist, was fortunate to live in Moscow for a number of years, and where she lived had previously been home to some the elite of the Soviet era. One of those was Vyacheslav Molotov, a man responsible for condemning hundreds to exile to Gulags and almost certain death. Polonsky discovers that his apartment in the block contains a substantial library full of books, some of which were written by those that he despatched to Siberia and an old magic lantern. This discovery that Molotov was a bibliophile was quite startling inspired Polonsky to voyage find the stories hidden in Siberia, to venture into the Arctic Circle, travel across the steppes and into the forests surrounding Moscow.

This is a book that is full of detail of the people and the events that made the Russia revolution and the grip that the totalitarian state had on the people of Russia. Whilst she ventures far into the past of the country and writes about the complex relationships that had developed from the iron grip that Stalin had on the country, there is not as much on her travels around Russia that I would have liked, though it does give a flavour of contemporary Russia. Her prose is incredibly dense, but this is as much from the subject matter, as it is her style. Definitely a book for those that have a fascination with Russia and its history rather than being a travel book for a wider readership. 2.5 stars. ( )

Molotov's Magic Lantern is now officially in Limbo after languishing there for many moons... though there's some interesting material about Russian cultural history here, the book was too scattered (and too personal) to hold my attention for very long. I may yet return, though, since some of the chapters ahead are about favorite places, including Arkhangel'sk.

How can any true “history and travel buff” fail to enjoy a book traveling into and through the history of Russia? Easily if it as so turgid as this one, full of very extensive quotations from those Russian ‘famous’ writers with their tortured, free-flow of supposedly intellectual heights, never achieved or exceeded it is claimed by their champions, by non-Russian authors. I have never been convinced that they had that much to say in the first place and after manfully struggling through Polonsky’s work, remain deaf and unconvinced.

The premise, reflected in the title, is fascinating. Polonsky has access to Moltov’s library, complete with all the furnishings, books and an antique projector. Apparently able to overcome any revulsion at the man’s murderous crimes against his fellow Russians, the author is allowed to wander through the parts of his life a library reveals, reads his notations and browse through his slides.

When I think what Jan Morris or even Bill Bryson could have done with such material my disappointment in this book grows heavier with regret at such a lost opportunity.