Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin

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Description

The story of western correspondents in Russia is the story of Russias attitude to the west. Russia has at different times been alternately open to western ideas and contacts, cautious and distant or, for much of the twentieth century, all but closed off. From the revolutionary period of the First World War onwards, correspondents in Russia have striven to tell the story of a country known to few outsiders. Their stories have not always been well received by political elites, audiences, and even editors in their own countriesbut their accounts have been a huge influence on how the West understands Russia. Not always perfect, at times downright misleading, they have, overall, been immensely valuable. In Assignment Moscow, former foreign correspondent James Rodgers analyses the news coverage of Russia throughout history, from the coverage of the siege of the Winter Palace and a plot to kill Stalin, to the Chernobyl explosion and the Salisbury poison scandal.

Reviews

Assignment Moscow exposes how the Moscow correspondent has had to adapt to multiple manifestations of censorship, or compete with state-run media, the severity of which has ebbed and flowed with changes in regime. * History Today *
Rodgerss narrative rests on an enormous number of articles in Anglo-American media, books by and about journalists, and his own interviews with many Moscow correspondents. * Foreign Affairs Magazine *
Rodgers retains his focus on the correspondents interactions with Russia and Russians, rather than being sidetracked into discussions of normative values or political controversy. This approach prepares the reader for the conclusion, which celebrates the openness and curiosity of the best Russia correspondents, reminding the reader that what they have just read is a history not of Russia but of how Western correspondents have told Russias stories. Differentiating the two is an important and hitherto neglected task but one that James Rodgers has achieved masterfully. * Journalism *
Reporting from Russia has never been easy; Rodgers vividly captures the changing fortunes of Moscow correspondents over the past hundred years, as they penetrated the mysteries of life in Russia and brought them to our newspapers and screens. Some were duped, some were fellow-travellers or spies; most battled against censors and blank-faced politicians; all have helped to shape our understanding of the worlds biggest country. * Angus Roxburgh, former Moscow correspondent for the BBC, Sunday Times and Economist *
A highly original, engrossing and accessible book, Assignment Moscow stands out among journalistic accounts of Russia for its subtlety, humility and historic scope. It tells the story of British and American journalists who aimed to throw light on Russia from Lenin to Putin, and in the process illuminated the West itself. * Arkady Ostrovsky, Author of The Invention of Russia: The Rise of Putin and the age of Fake News, Winner of the 2016 Orwell Prize *
[Rodgers'] experience has been wisely distilled in this fair-minded, balanced and perceptive exploration of the problems reporters have faced in trying to report from Russia. * British Journalism Review *
Reveals how journalists experiences reporting from Russia for the past 100 years mirrors its changing attitude to the West. * The Journalist *
The author has made a great contribution to clarify a number of important aspects of Russian history, and his work would be of interest to historians, readers interested in understanding the practice of journalism and journalism students. * International Journal of Russian Studies *
Writing about journalism in Russia since the revolution, James Rodgers rightly emphasises that to understand Russia you have to talk to people of all kinds. But he argues that even correspondents who knew the language and the history found it hard to report dispassionately because of official obstruction and their own emotional involvement. * Rodric Braithwaite *
It is hard to believe that in the torrent of books published on Russia each year, that one could come along as original and valuable as Assignment Moscow. One comes to appreciate the service of our reporting men and women in Moscow. For all their fallibilities, without their dedication, we wouldnt have half the understanding of Russia that we have today, imperfect as it will always be. We therefore owe them and especially Rodgers as journalist, teacher, analyst and cataloguer a huge debt. * James Nixey, Chatham House *

Author Bio

James Rodgers was a Foreign Correspondent in Moscow, Brussels and Gaza, working for BBC and Reuters. Since 2012, James has taught Journalism at City, University of London, where he lectures in the History of Journalism, and the Reporting of Armed Conflict.