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Swarthmore Magazine - June Issue
I recall the first time I met Alexander "Xander" Blakely. He arrived at my office for advising and regaled me with tales of rafting on the Ob River and trekking by horse and reindeer sleigh in the Siberian winter. He explained his desire to learn Russian, along with his planned major in economics; so I was not surprised when I learned that he spent a semester studying at the University in Novosibirsk in 1991. Several students told me after Xander's graduation in 1992 that he had moved to Novosibirsk because he had fallen in love with a young woman there during his previous visits. Over the next several years, I heard various rumors about Xander's fate—how he was living with his Russian girlfriend in her parents' cramped apartment, how he was importing jeans to support himself, how he was running a successful restaurant in Novosibirsk, and how he was married with three children.
Fortunately, the appearance of Xander's memoir Siberia Bound has cleared up the mystery of his life since 1992. Although it is true that love enticed Xander back to Novosibirsk, the relationship did not last. Nor did he strike it rich as a jeans importer. Rather, he and a Tatar friend built up a mini-empire importing cocoa beans and condoms, all the while gleaning insights into the nature of capitalism and the challenges confronting Russian society as it stumbled through the dislocations of the transition to a market economy. Siberia Bound is a fascinating look at the heady days of the first half of the 1990s, when the frontier spirit captured the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs seeking to make their fortunes in the former Soviet Union.
Siberia also beckoned Xander because he was tired of the material comforts and overabundance of American life. Moreover, he was on a mission to aid in the building of a free market from the detritus of the planned economy of the former Soviet Union. Ironically, he quickly learned that market capitalism was bringing to post-Soviet Russia many of the same problems that drove him from the United States—namely, overconsumption, crass materialism, mindless advertisements, and the ostentatious display of wealth. Xander found that his efforts to apply the training in economics from Swarthmore to the realities of Siberia in the 1990s did not always end the way he expected. As he notes: "For years I had been promoting the market as Siberia's salvation, and now the market had become a monster. So this is what Dr. Frankenstein felt like."
Xander dishearteningly learned that the spirit of unbridled, cutthroat capitalism was alive and well in Siberia. Russia's newly emerging capitalist class did not need lessons on how to take advantage of the market during the poorly regulated transition from planned economy to market capitalism; they already knew how to wheel and deal. He ultimately acknowledged what I had recognized on my frequent visits to Russia at the same time—namely, that the unfettered business practices resembled the robber-baron era of 19th-century America. Despite his realization that capitalism is not the panacea for Russia's problems, Xander nevertheless believes that the free market is preferable to the planned economy of the communist era. By 1996, he had decided that he had accomplished what he had set out to achieve and left Siberia for the United States, leaving Russian entrepreneurs to figure out how to instill a sense of order, legality, and ethics into the workings of the Siberian economy.
A fascinating, coming-of-age story, Siberia Bound is replete with interesting observations of what it was like to experience post-Soviet life firsthand. Xander offers a glimpse of the trials and tribulations of daily life in Siberia some 10 years ago. His vivid and succinct prose also touches on other aspects of Russian life such as the pervasive role of alcohol, the annoying tactics of American missionaries who seemed to be everywhere, the challenges of keeping your clothes clean and fresh, the menace presented by drunken drivers, and the life-threatening nature of falling icicles during the winter thaw. He also offers compelling insights into how Soviet values and ways of doing things affected the conduct of business after communism's collapse.
The importance of personal relationships in cementing deals, not to mention the reliance on threats and violence to conduct business, gave Russia's fledgling market economy a particular flavor for which Xander's economics classes did not prepare him. Just as valuable are the perspectives provided by Xander's various Russian business partners regarding business ethics, the pros and cons of American culture and society, and their hopes and aspirations for a postcommunist Russia. The text is marred by incorrect transliterations, but on the whole, Siberia Bound engages the reader and offers plenty of food for thought.
And by the way, Xander did find true love in Siberia. He married Natasha, a university student from Kamchatka, and they currently live in San Francisco.
 - Robert Weinberg, professor of history
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