Moscow was a dreary place when Roustam Tariko arrived in 1979, at age 17, from a small village in far-away Tatarstan. He saw food shortages, homelessness and rampant alcoholism. "Everyone was afraid about everybody and everything," he recalls. Yet Tariko also saw excitement and opportunity. He rode the city's Metro for hours, observing the throngs in their daily lives. He took classes to prepare for enrollment at a Moscow college. He cleaned streets in return for an apartment in the center of town.
展开▼
