Echoes of a Native Land: The Russia Question Hosts Serge Schmemann

The Russia Question is a book talk series devoted to all things Russia, hosted by Russian program director at Fordham University (LC) Prof. Michael Ossorgin, with generous support from the Orthodox Christian Studies Center.
This episode features an illuminating conversation with New York Times Editorial Board Member and Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter Serge Schmemann as he takes a retrospective look at his acclaimed memoir Echoes of A Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village, released in 1999 just as Putin was rising to power. We will discuss how the current Russo-Ukrainian War reflects the historical turmoil that scattered banished Russians across the globe following the Bolshevik Revolution, about which Schmemann has written at length.
Schmemann’s poignant memoir is a deeply moving meditation on his complex relationship with Russia across distance and time. This captivating work of non-fiction explores culture, faith, and the delicate threads of identity - a must-read for those seeking a connection to their roots. Born in Paris after his family fled The Soviet Union, Schmemann grew up steeping in Russian heritage. Through vivid vignettes of his Years as a New York Times Correspondent in the Soviet Union, familial legends, and ancestral voices, he pieces together fragments of a severed identity. Interwoven with the powerful stories of his grandparents, Schmemann contemplates the indelible imprint of the language and culture of a "native land" ” in which he was not raised. Visits back to an unfamiliar homeland after the Soviet collapse further complicate Schmemann’s tenuous link to Russia. Ultimately, in elegant prose, he explores the poignant meaning of homeland for émigrés who carry ephemeral yet enduring echoes of their native land within.