Walking the Tempests

A journey to the grim Soviet hospitals and new Russian sex clinics, old communal apartments and shaky new suburbs. The author visits decaying Soviet schools and new private academies, families living in toxic industrial towns and ballet masters trying to preserve their art. She interviews working people trying to cope with Mafia thugs, girls looking for a rich husband, and couples looking for an apartment. She also attends a murder trial, watches black marketeers plying their goods, and listens to priests trying to rehabilitate their church which has been suppressed by the communist government.