Witness to Disintegration

The first Fulbright Scholar at Kazan State University in the Tatar Autonomous Republic, Hixson, who teaches history at the University of Akron in Ohio, and is the author of George F. Kennan: Cold War Iconoclast , wanted to experience the society ``from the bottom up.'' So, during his 10 months in the former Soviet Union, from October 1990 to July 1991, he ``went native.'' Or so he thinks. Like the people among whom he lived, he may have suffered from the defitsit (lack of goods), but with a monthly salary of 705 rubles, which allowed him to shop in the private sector, and with his American passport, which permitted him to jump to the front of the queues at the state stores, he was less taxed than his colleagues, whose monthly salaries averaged 300 rubles. Hixson's biggest problem, however, seems to have been with women. As he tells it, he had a dreadful time disengaging from female pursuers who viewed him as a ticket to the West. Sounding smug and self-congratulatory, Hixson remains self-absorbed throughout this memoir, even as he discusses rationing, the people's turn toward religion and the racism he found. (May)