[Commlist] New Book: Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin To Putin

Rodgers, James is pleased to announce that his book /Assignment Moscow: 
Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin 
<https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/assignment-moscow-9780755601158/>/ has 
now been published by I.B. Tauris.


    About Assignment Moscow

The story of western correspondents in Russia is the story of Russia's 
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 countries-but 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.

Anyone interested can read more in an article I recently published on 
The Conversation 
<https://theconversation.com/from-lenin-to-putin-russias-turbulent-history-as-told-by-the-foreign-press-142213>, 
and there are some reviewers’ comments below.

Best regards,

James Rodgers

“/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/*

“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 world's biggest 
country.” – */Angus Roxburgh, former Moscow correspondent for the BBC, 
Sunday Times and Economist/**//*

“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/**//*

“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/**//*

“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 wouldn't 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/*

James Rodgers, PhD

Reader in International Journalism

Associate Dean, Global Engagement (Arts and Social Sciences)

City, University of London

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/assignment-moscow-9780755601158/ 
<https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/assignment-moscow-9780755601158/>


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