Memoirs of a Russianist, Volume I

About the Book

While engaging for the general reader thanks to its candid narrative of a life’s path along an unusual career that took its author to remarkable destinations in Eurasia, this book will be especially welcome to specialists in the history of the Soviet Union/Russia during the last quarter of the 20th century because of its wealth of diary entries constituting two-thirds of the text. These capture the mindset of the author and his interlocutors at all levels of society. The book also will be useful to business school students and those embarking on careers in Emerging Markets, where the challenges of maintaining one’s footing can be formidable and where the fastest moving objects in FMCG companies may be the managers themselves. For those who believe that disruptive technologies are something new, the author’s discussion of his choices among industries for employment or to perform consultancy will be enlightening.

About the Author

Gilbert Doctorow holds a Ph.D. in Russian history from Columbia University and is a fluent Russian speaker. He spent most of his professional life in corporate business with a focus on Russia. The Memoirs direct attention to two periods when his perch afforded him a rare opportunity to observe and interact with the people and institutions shaping economic, cultural and social life there, 1976-80 and 1989-2000. In the first period he was a consultant taking senior executives from some of America’s best known corporations to negotiations in Moscow with Soviet end-users over turnkey manufacturing projects. In the second period he was the corporate executive planning and running ongoing operations, including as expatriate general manager on the ground.

Doctorow has authored five books of essays. He also has participated in expert forums devoted to international affairs and appeared in Russian domestic political talk shows on all national channels.