Product Description

Can the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe adjust to the demands of capitalism and adapt to the cultural shift it requires? The collapse of the Russian economy suggests not, but Vitali Vitaliev reveals a population defiant and colourful in the face of, sometimes, terrible hardship.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #942265 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The miseries of life under Communism were such that most intelligent people took to drink--not just to the odd social glass, but to mad obsessive drinking of the sort that leads less to hangovers than to falling asleep on frozen streets. Exiled journalist Vitaliev, no stranger to the bottle himself, took on the task of finding whether alcoholic consumption had continued at Soviet levels in the newly capitalist former Soviet bloc. A purist in his pursuit of plainest of plain vodkas, he gallantly consumes Czech beer and Bulgarian wine and meditates extensively on the mentalities that go with different sorts of drinking--he is equally and entertainingly rude about lager louts and wine bores. The book is also a farewell to alcohol--Vitaliev, already suffering from a stomach ulcer, decided after all this that perhaps drinking was simply a bad idea. And, as he journeys around Central and Eastern Europe, people in bars tell him stories--it is perhaps above all in these casually told and not wholly relevant funny stories that he puts together most convincingly his picture of a world that has got out from under an oppressive system without really knowing what comes next. --Roz Kaveney

From the Publisher
Travel-Writing of the Soul
One Could assume that with the collapse of Communism, Eastern Europeans would drink less than before. Surely democracy can offer many more means of escape than alcohol? After all there are high quality consumer goods, a free press, foreign travel … even the spice Girls? The reality however is very different.

In BORDERS UP! Vitali Vitaliev travels to Hungry, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania in an attempt to find out why drinking in post-Communist Eastern Europe has increased dramatically since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why is it that countries once ruled by a strong hand are now, ruled by strong drink?

Staggering from the beer halls of Plzen to the wine cellars of Romania, Vitali volunteers himself for all the wines, beers, and spirits on offer, everything from Nicolae Ceausescu’s favourite tipple (as naff as he was), to gold flaked vodka and a ‘healing’ Hungarian liqueur with crippling side-effects.

In a bottle-and-soul opening journey, Vitali discovers a post-Communist population increasingly contemptuous of the values imported from the West: of rampant capitalism embodied by fast-food and Michael Jackson tours, but also a population vigorously defiant in the face of hardship. As well as exploring the damage to societies ruled by alcohol, where death or vodka may be the only escape.

BORDERS UP! Is full of wit, insight and compassion for people who have suffered far worse than a hangover.

Vitali Vitaliev was an award-winning journalist in the former Soviet Union, who became know in the UK through his appearances as the Moscow correspondent on Clive James’ Saturday Night Clive. Hounded out of the USSR by the KGB in 1990, he was granted Australian citizenship and lived there until 1992. Since coming to England has made several TV travel documentaries, written for The Spectator, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph and has been a regular roving reporter for BBC Radio 4. His previous books include Special Correspondent, Little is the Light, Dateline Freedom and Dreams On Hitler’s Couch. He now is working on an examination of the differences between America and Russia in the new century.

Customer Reviews

Intoxicating stuff
Extraordinarily funny account of travels in Eastern Europe, seen through the bottom of a vodka glass. Vitali, a former Soviet Journalist of the Year who was expelled from the USSR, is a wonderful raconteur and has the true humorist's genius for illuminating darkness with laughter.

Drunken view distorted by the bottom of a glass
The Economist once wrote that some communists are nostalgic for a time when poverty & injustice were more equally distributed.

Vitaliev does not refer to any statistics to back up his central thesis - that the citizens of Central Europe are as miserable now & drink as much as they did under Communism. This is either because he could not be bothered, or that he did not like what they told him.

I have worked in the region for the last 10 years and the truth is that the people in Poland, Czech Rep. & Hungary earn more & drink less than they did before 1989. Most importantly they are now free to read what they like. Including books such as this.

Thousands died in Central Europe to achieve their freedom from the tyranny of Soviet rule. They deserve a better book than this.

His ulcer must knack.
This book makes me thirsty. It makes me want to taste wines, and to slam neat vodkas and talk politics.

Vitaliev's experiences with the wretched Australians are amusing. I always wanted to go to the Oktoberfest, so when I get round to it I'll get heavy on the avoision of these beings.

Yes, avoision is a word. As in tax avoision.

Vague memories come back of the Clive James show, although can't quite remember what Vitali said, but remember James squishing his face up and getting a real kick out of the name of his Moscow correspondent, only just managing to say it without imploding.