- - Most Westerners with an interest in Russia know their dilemma is palpable. This country with the largest land mass has great natural resources in oil, gas, gold, nickel, diamonds, forest products, and on and on. The Russians I know are generous to acquaintances, have strong family ties and love their country. Contrast this with across the board pay far less than much of the worlds employed with similar skills and education. Compared with the West, tuberculosis and HIV Aids are close to epidemic.
- - In a readable and systematic critique, Hill and Gaddy carefully describe Russia's geography and the overpopulation crisis in Asiatic Russia, the coldest of the world's locations. The 39 million Russians living east of the Urals are a tremendous net financial drain on the Russian economy. With clarity, the authors arrive at the solution of relocating over half of this population to warmer, western parts of Russia.
- - The authors also present the enormous problems with such a solution. Russia's leadership barely recognizes the problem and continues to urge population development in Siberia and the Far East of Russia. Moscow is Europe's largest city and the Moscow region is the most prosperous in Russia, but local politicians successfully resist all immigration. All other places in western Russia combined do not have possible employment for even a small fraction of the people the book would relocate.
- - The Siberian Curse has good argument examples included and laid out so they do not detract from the main text. Any reader should also be aware that the Notes provide much additional understanding.
- - Of the many books on Russia I have read in the past six years, only one other provides so much valuable information for the time invested. That is Anne Applebaum's - GULAG: a history - , Doubleday, 2003. When you are ready to understand more about Russia, read these two books.