"After two and a half years as NPR's Moscow bureau chief, David Greene travels across the country -- a 6,000-mile journey by rail, from Moscow to the Pacific port of Vladivostok -- to speak with ordinary Russians about how their lives have changed in the post-Soviet years. Reaching beyond the headline-grabbing protests in Moscow, Greene speaks with a group of singing babushkas from Buranovo, a teenager hawking 'space rocks' from last spring's meteor...

"Lisa Dickey traveled across the whole of Russia three times -- in 1995, 2005 and 2015 -- making friends in eleven different cities, then coming back again and again to see how their lives had changed. Like the acclaimed British documentary series Seven Up!, she traces the ups and downs of ordinary people's lives, in the process painting a deeply nuanced portrait of modern Russia. From the caretakers of a lighthouse in Vladivostok, to the Jewish community...

A detailed chronicle of the collapse of the Soviet Union is told through a series of episodes and vignettes to explore personal, political, and historical contributing factors as well as its ongoing repercussions.