I am grateful to my publisher, Howard Kaminsky, and editor, Maria Guarnaschelli, who found in my diary the value of an ordinary human life and thought it worth publishing. I also express gratitude to my translator, who carefully conveyed the contents and style of the original.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Elena Sukhorukikh Romine was born and raised in Moscow where she worked as a guide and interpreter for Intourist. After seven years she went back to University to earn her Ph.D. in philology, leading to a teaching position at the Institute of Advanced Training in Publishing and Journalism in Moscow. In 1989 she made her first trip to the United States and met the man to whom she is now married. Romine lives with her husband in Southern California where she lectures about the latest developments in Russia and the other states comprising the Commonwealth of Independent States.
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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Boston Public Library
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Elena Sukhorukikh Romine was bom and raised in Moscow. She received her Ph. D. in philology and taught at the Institute of Advanced Training in Publishing and Journalism in Moscow. In 1989 she visited the United States and met her husband. She now lives in southern California, where she lectures about the latest developments in the former Soviet Union.
Jacket photograph of Elena Romine in front of Moscow State University
William Morrow & Company, Inc. 1350 Avenue of the Americas New York, N. Y. 10019
Printed in U.S.A.
“This book succeeds in conveying the experience of Russian living to the Western reader to a degree that is rare in contemporary Russian literature, whether published in [what was] the USSR or in emigration. Romine’s story, it must be stressed, is that of a real Russian woman, in contrast to the unrepresentative viewpoint of Raisa Gorbachev. All in all, this is compelling reading and a very rewarding encounter with a determined modem Russian Woman.”
—Nikolai Dejevsky
“I read the notes of Elena Romine with great interest and pleasure. With all their seeming simplicity they are a very accurate account of our time, of the everyday routine of a member of the Russian intelligentsia at the time of uncertainty and turmoil.”
—Bulat Okudjava
Author of A Taste of Liberty
irty I j
11F2
ISBN O-L.AA-lOMlb-'l