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michalhaman's review
3.0
Fajn kniha o kaukazských národoch, najmä tých vnútri Ruska. Klasická absyntovská reportážna literatúra s malými pohľadmi do histórie jednotlivých územín a národov. Dobré, ale nečítalo sa to úplne ideálne.
kamila79's review
5.0
“Planeta Kaukaz” (“The Planet Caucasus”) is the title of the Polish reportage book by Wojciech Górecki, one of the most highly acclaimed Polish reportage authors and experts of the region. He has worked for the Polish Embassy in Baku for several years and afterwards as a political, economic and social researcher on the Northern and Southern Caucasus in Warsaw.
“Planeta Kaukaz” is a collection of vignettes, stories and reports from the author’s travels to regions which rarely feature in the news worldwide: Adygea Republic, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kalmykia, South Ossetia, Ingushetia, Abkhazia, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Dagestan, Adjara, Astrakhan Oblast, Stavropol Krai. I am fascinated by the cultural wealth of these regions and complex identities of peoples who populate them. History has not been kind to nations, which until recently comprised the humongous Soviet Union but were often persecuted, resettled and discriminated against. After the collapse of the USSR numerous conflicts, fuelled by greed, nationalistic tendencies and dreams of power, plagued the region.
Górecki is a phenomenal storyteller, talking about ordinary people and local eccentrics, weaving folk tales with reportage, travelogue with memoir, political news with rumours. I felt like I was sitting with him and some of the most interesting personages in an old-fashioned stone house, with walls covered with handwoven carpets, drinking hot tea and listening to stories, not caring whether it’s facts or fiction I’m being fed. I will never visit the Caucasus but after reading this book there is one place I dream of visiting in my dreams - Khinalug, a tiny mountain village in Azerbaijan, which reminds me so much of Dhankar in Himachal Pradesh, India.
“Planeta Kaukaz” is a collection of vignettes, stories and reports from the author’s travels to regions which rarely feature in the news worldwide: Adygea Republic, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kalmykia, South Ossetia, Ingushetia, Abkhazia, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Dagestan, Adjara, Astrakhan Oblast, Stavropol Krai. I am fascinated by the cultural wealth of these regions and complex identities of peoples who populate them. History has not been kind to nations, which until recently comprised the humongous Soviet Union but were often persecuted, resettled and discriminated against. After the collapse of the USSR numerous conflicts, fuelled by greed, nationalistic tendencies and dreams of power, plagued the region.
Górecki is a phenomenal storyteller, talking about ordinary people and local eccentrics, weaving folk tales with reportage, travelogue with memoir, political news with rumours. I felt like I was sitting with him and some of the most interesting personages in an old-fashioned stone house, with walls covered with handwoven carpets, drinking hot tea and listening to stories, not caring whether it’s facts or fiction I’m being fed. I will never visit the Caucasus but after reading this book there is one place I dream of visiting in my dreams - Khinalug, a tiny mountain village in Azerbaijan, which reminds me so much of Dhankar in Himachal Pradesh, India.
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