I found this book deeply troubling, if an interesting glimpse into a byway of history I had no idea about. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian government invited the Americans to set up a Christian University. I’m not clear why they wanted this to happen, but remarkably happen it did with the establishment of the Russian-American Christian University which flourished under the leadership of John Bernbaum for 25 years. It has now closed. The Christian College Coalition had already been looking for ways to forge links with universities in the post-Soviet world and was naturally enthusiastic to take up this invitation. It was a wonderful endeavour for forging American-Russian friendship but to me seemed both misguided and arrogant. Russia is a deeply Orthodox country, so why try to impose a western Christian viewpoint? Why should that hold sway over a Russian Orthodox one? I didn’t find the book inspiring in any way, and in fact found it a troubling read. It seems to take as its starting point that the initiative was a worthy and fully justified one – but was it? I also found the book very dry, reading more like a company report than an entertaining and engaging narrative, and found much of it tedious.

When Communism started to crumble in the USSR, the Christian College Coalition (CCC) started to explore opportunities for student and faculty exchanges with universities in Russia and other Soviet states. Shocking everyone, the CCC found top leaders from Moscow strongly encouraging these exchanges and even asking the CCC to found a Christian university in Russia. Bernbaum shares his experience as an insider and leader in the CCC tasked with leading this initiative. He shares how the CCC formed relationships with Russian university professors, Russian leaders, and where opportunities led from those first days after the Iron Curtain came down until 2018. The road was not always smooth, but he shares the good he’s seen come out of even the bleakest situations. Throughout the book, Bernbaum also gives an up close look at what has happened in Russia politically, economically, culturally, and educationally, and how that affected country, foreign relations, and the programs the CCC was involved in.

This was an amazing, crazy, eye-opening read. It was fascinating and inspiring. It was informative and full of details, but also highly readable. It’s also a unique read in that what started off so promising ended in a way many would label a failure. But Bernbaum has a great perspective and shares several ways that God has used what happened during the highs and lows for good. Besides the crazy stories about a Christian group being welcomed warmly into a previously closed country, I learned so much I didn’t even know I didn’t know about modern Russia and what went on there during the 80s, 90s, up to present times. I was old enough to remember Gorbachev and Reagan’s meetings being in the news, but I had no idea what all was going on in Russia and how radical Gorbachev’s measures were. And I barely knew anything about Yeltsin or Putin besides them being the leadership faces of Russia before reading this. I really appreciate Bernbaum’s respect for the Russian people and understanding of where they were/are. Working cross-culturally and with a binational team can be super challenging, but he talks about working hard to create bridges and respecting both cultures. As an expat, I can tell you that is hard work, but is super important. He never talks about turning Russian education systems into American systems, in fact, he flat out says many times that forcing Russia to turn into America in any area won’t work and isn’t desirable. But he also doesn’t paint everything with a rosy glow, he is brutally honest about pitfalls of both Russian and American ways in various areas. It’s a healthy balance of finding the good, and encouraging change in areas that need it. If you want to better understand why the Cold War was dead and now it is coming back, this is a great read for that. If you like amazing stories of God opening impossible doors, you will like this. And if you like stories about how God opens and then shuts doors, working in ways that are sometimes hard to see, this is good for that too. And if you are interested in working cross-culturally in education, especially at the university level, this should probably be required reading. Highly recommended.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.