An affectionate portrait of Russia and its people

Few countries in the developed world have had such a turbulent history as Russia has over the past century. In that time the Russian people have seen an unjust system of aristocracy and feudalism toppled by the Bolshevik revolution, replaced by a repressive communist regime, overthrown by another popular revolution that led to a few years of relative freedom, until the advent of a leadership which some may say closely resembles the old Soviet one-party state.

Journalist and author Helen Womack, who lives in Filey, was a witness to many of these events as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow for Reuters news agency and The Independent during the 1980s and 90s and has written a memoir of her 28 years covering Russian affairs. The Ice Walk – Surviving the Soviet Break-up and the New Russia is based on articles written since her arrival in Moscow in 1985, just as Mikhail Gorbachev came to power.

Now freelance and dividing her time between Yorkshire, Russia and Australia, Womack decided to write the book after a period of time down under. “I started feeling rather homesick for Russia,” she says. “In fact, I spent a day in floods of tears – and I realised how much I missed the place. Also I think I was trying to understand some things about Russia myself.”

The book works both as a fascinating socio-political historical document, as well as an affectionate, engaging extended journal of living life among ordinary Russians for nearly three decades. What comes across most strongly throughout is the love and respect that Womack feels for the Russian people and their warmth, humour and tenacity in the face of at times overwhelming hardship.

Womack has seen many changes take place during her time in Russia, mostly positive, but says that a lot has remained the same.

“Today, as long as you have money, you can buy pretty much what you like – I can remember completely empty shops in Moscow,” she says. “Russians can travel anywhere and go on the internet, but lots of things haven’t changed – the corruption, for example.”

She says in the book that Boris Yeltsin’s biggest mistake when he was in office was not dismantling the KGB (now renamed the FSB) as it paved the way for the current administration, headed by former KGB agent Vladimir Putin, and an uneasy atmosphere where freedom of speech and outspoken opponents are not always tolerated.

High profile cases such as the murder of campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya outside her Moscow home in 2006 and the poisoning of exiled Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in the same year are just part of the picture. “Around 40 Russian journalists have been killed in recent years, including one of my own students,” says Womack. “There is growing opposition to Putin but the regime is going to have to self-destruct or be overthrown. He is still relatively young, so I think we have got him for quite a long time to come.”

The book also features touching personal elements including sharing her memories of meeting and falling in love with Costya (who she married in 1987) and getting to know the friends who are still very much part of her life today. Despite Russia’s ongoing social and political difficulties, Womack’s obvious affection for the place is undimmed. “There are so many wonderful things about it,” she says. “Russia is very dark on the outside but there is an inner light in the culture, art and music and within the people, their conversation and their friendship. Their friendship is worth gold.”

The Ice Walk, £12.99 www.melrosebooks.co.uk

Russia from 1985 to 2013

1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1988 – Gorbachev is the first president of the Soviet Union.

1991 – Boris Yeltsin is elected as the first president of the Russian Federation.

1999 – Yeltsin resigns, leaving the presidency in the hands of the then prime minister Vladimir Putin.

2006 – Anna Politkovskaya, campaigning journalist and outspoken critic of Putin, is murdered; Alexander Litvinenko is poisoned.

2012 – Members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot are jailed for performing an anti-Putin protest song in Moscow.

2013 – Putin introduces new laws including fines for unsanctioned protests, stiffer libel penalties, wider definition of treason and restrictions on websites.