Customer Reviews
Thoroughly enjoyable - By: maximus, 15 Sep 2008 
For those of us who won't be able to go to all the places that Jonathan Dimbleby (JD) travelsin the vast Russian country, this series provides some very interesting insights, facts, views of landscapes, people, cities & the enormous range of cultures & lifestyles & much more. I really enjoyed this & will look forward to watching it again & again. JD has a real grasp of people & humanity & communicates with peoplein such apparent ease that you wish you were travelling with him on this epic journey & to get to see all the places. Also there is a lot of honestyin the way the program is presented & it is far from a glossy travel documentary - it does give the impression that what you see is exactly what you get.
Enjoyable but Superficial - By: GeeJayBee, 07 Jul 2008 
I must say that although I enjoyed this DVD set, I was ultimately dissapointed. It is much too short to give more than a brief glimpse of lifein such a huge & varied country.
That aspect of Russia does come across. It is MASSIVE. However the structure, basically a meandering "journey" turns what could have been a highly informative & important series into little more than a travelogue. It ends up as a sort of Michael Palin Does Russia, endless shots of views from train windows & meetings with "ordinary Russians" with stilted conversations through interpreters.
I think this was a missed opportunity for us to learn a great deal more about one of the most important countriesin the world & one which is going through monumental changes.
Another thing that was done really poorly was getting across the geography & history of Russia. I think a little time at the beginning to set the stage as it were would have put a lot of what followedin context.
I don't think this is a watch again DVD & I would recommend renting rather than buying as it is only about 4.5 hrs longin total.
Ignore the poor reviews! - By: Francis Webster, 03 Jul 2008 Ignore the poor reviews! Jon Foster's review for Amazon is spot on.To say that JD needs a psychiatrist is very childish.
poor ambition - By: Bella Stone, 18 Jun 2008 
I am reallyin a big dilemma - should I bye the dvd, or not? The same question applies to the book - a real brick with an enormously high price. But lets talk about the movie first. After seeing some episodes on the bbc, I became quite curious, thought the real way to see Russia is not via a film. Go there, live there, meet people there, watch Russian films, read Russian books, music, etc. Although I am not a Russian, I speak Russian language & I spent quite a lot of timein USSRin the 80s. I now miss Russia & that is why I do my best to learn everything about this great country on the news, TV, films, etc. I think Jonathan's "Russia" had the ambition to intrigue the public. It did it to certain extent. Well it was all, I am afraid .
boring - By: AnB, 17 Jun 2008 Dimbleby shows nothing but himself. Most of the time he explains his feelings. God, this man needs a psychiatrist!
This is not a documentary but rather a story of Jonathan Dimbleby himself with Russia as a background (any country could be there, I would prefer China).
One more note - present day Volga tatars have nothing to do with mongols or tatars from Mongolia. Volga tatars are descends from bulgars, the people of mixed origin of finno-ugrs & turkic populations. Well, this is just an illustration of the deep knowledge of Mr. Dimbleby about Russia :)
