In 1984, Jon Humboldt Gates, having spent two years studying Russian and planning his journey, left his rural home on the California north coast and landed on the shores of the Soviet Far East by ship via Japan. He spent the next eight weeks traveling by rail and automobile through Russia and Ukraine, riding the full length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, driving alone for hundreds of kilometers through Russia and traveling south to the Black Sea. Along the way, he met scores of people from all walks of life, most of whom had never met an American; an old woman with six white geese on a country road who pleaded with him for peace, a 14-year-old boy from Siberia who shared his love for dogs, a man who invited him to plunge into the icy waters of Lake Baikal, a group of musicians in Kyiv (Kiev in 1984) who became the seed of a transnational music project, and an ice cream flavor Baskin-Robbins had never imagined. He formed deep friendships, some that were lasting, others that were celebrated in the moment.

First published in 1988, this second edition is being re-released in the midst of a great tragedy across the frontier of Russia and Ukraine. These events could never have been imagined in 1984. Many of the people in this travelogue are from Ukraine and Russia, and a few from other Soviet republics. No matter where they were from, people across the USSR in the waning days of the nation were universally hopeful for a better world, a peaceful future, and they enthusiastically welcomed a foreign traveler in their midst.