Norwegian anthropologist, Erika Fatland, travels the entire Russian border in one go, over the course of 8 months in 2016-2017. While the structure of the book is based around interviews and her travel, the bulk of it is historical and political context.
She travels through not only globally-recognized sovereign nations, but also through nations with partial recognition status like Abkhazia (recognized as sovereign only by Russia and its allies), through self-declared breakaway states like Nagorno-Karabakh, and through no man’s lands like the Ili Valley between Kazakhstan and Xinjiang.
At times, her route is unexpected but the excursions are for good reason. For example, once she crosses the border from North Korea to China, she travels south to the city of Harbin–nowhere near the border. But as she walks the underground shopping mall (originally a bomb shelter) noting the mix of Chinese and Russian goods, she describes Harbin’s start as a town for the Russian railway workers, building a shortcut through China for a more direct route to Vladivostok.
The interviews are layered–showing personality and at times, the tragic absurdity of circumstance. One standout is a short interview with a man who woke up one day to realize the border had silently moved overnight and his home was no longer in Georgia, but in South Ossetia–without the proper papers and money.
Because it can be so heavy, Fatland takes the opportunity to lighten the mood where she can. She describes her maritime adventure on the Northeast Passage with a bunch of octogenarian bucket-listers. She successfully lies about her occupation to get a North Korean visa and unsuccessfully tries to ditch her mandatory guides. Her guide in Kazakhstan takes her on a wild goose chase of distractions rather than tell her that the rocket-launch facility tour she was scheduled for would not be happening. She discusses conspiracy theories in Georgia, she hitchhikes in Latvia and accidentally trespasses an Old Believer’s church in Estonia.
She started out asking: what’s it like to have Russia as a neighbor? But the question became one of displacement, homeland, and enduring. Fittingly, she ends her journey in her own homeland of Norway.
Fatland, Erika. The Border: A Journey Around Russia Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway and the Northeast Passage. Translated by Kari Dickson. London: MacLehose Press, 2021.
