[ Kirja-arvio ]
Everything you wanted to know about Russian banya culture Ethan Pollock: Without the Banya We Would Perish. A History of the Russian Bathhouse. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford, 2019. ISBN: 9780195395488
For those Finnish Sauna Society enthusiasts who wish to better understand our Russian banya brothers and sisters on a deeper level, this book is a must-read.
P
ollock’s book is well referenced with excellent indexing, which is very helpful for those doing quick research on various eclectic banya and sauna topics, such as sauna diplomacy. Referenced in the book is President Martti Ahtisaari’s 1997 sauna meeting with Yeltsin when the Russian president was able to proclaim to the press: “I used a Russian birch switch to spank
the president well”. The book does not reference the Finnish press or Finnish diplomatic archives related to the 1997 Ahtisaari/ Yeltsin sauna meeting or the Kekkonen/Khrushchev sauna meetings. Additionally, a key Russian-American banya research topic missing in the book is the open question: Did the ethnic Finns who managed the Russian American company bring sauna or banya culture to Russian Alaska? The title of the book is somewhat misleading. The last sentence on the book’s inside cover flyleaf is a more representative title: Through the communal bathhouse, “Without the Banya We Would Perish” provides a unique perspective on the history of the Russian people.
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