At the beginning of the 19th century, two gentlemen—a refined English lord raised on Greek poetry and an American dreaming of a diplomatic career—set off on a journey to the East. Their journey, which begins as a line drawn on a map, unfolds into a portrait of the Russian Empire—cold, frightening, and impenetrable, where roads are lost in the snow, post stations smell foul, hot meals are served lukewarm, and the journey is interrupted not by stops but by deaths.
This book is the first to be published in Russian: the letters and notes of two foreigners who met by chance in St. Petersburg and traveled together on a route full of dangers and trials. These two perspectives on a single journey are a wonderful way to see the country through the eyes of foreigners and, perhaps, to understand why Russia has simultaneously surprised, exhausted, and fascinated.