In the early 1990s, Moscow was remaking itself in real time-new money, old fears, shifting rules, and a daily life that could turn overnight. When Rick Furmanek accepted a one-year contract to help build an American-style business center inside a Russian hotel, he assumed the hardest part would be the work.
He was wrong.
From a chaotic, bewildering bureaucracy to relentless shopping lines, life without hot water, and learning which "rules" were real-and which were negotiable-Rick, his wife Robin, and their two small children discovered that survival in Moscow depended on patience, relationships, and a willingness to adapt. Along the way, they met unforgettable people: drivers who
became friends, neighbors who became family, and ordinary Russians navigating an extraordinary era with grit, humor, and pride.
Carefully refined for clarity and flow while preserving the original events, voices, and hard truths, this revised and updated edition returns you to a Moscow where nothing felt stable-not the streets, not the rules, not even tomorrow. What began as a one-year assignment became a daily education in survival: navigating overcrowded metros and shifting laws, watching
the line between ordinary life and danger blur, and learning to trust a handful of people in a city that rarely made trust easy.