This beautifully illustrated booklet narrates a tour that begins in Ukraine and continues along the river system between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The author recounts a rich variety of cultural experiences in Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, as well as an idyllic cruise through northern Russian waterways. A thousand years of Russian history unfolds during the journey. The exquisite city of Kiev, originally a Norse settlement, exhibits cultural influences from the Baltic, Byzantium, and the Russian steppes. Its proud people are rebuilding a country wracked by twentieth-century disasters....