Published: 01 July 2010
by DAN CARRIER

THE hangover was so strong, so vile, so bad, that the salty water in a jar of pickled cucumbers came as a welcome refreshment: it was all Ivy Stone could find in the fridge in her Moscow apartment, and she took deep draughts  before collapsing back into bed. Suitably refreshed, she tried to work out exactly what had happened to her the night before.

Ivy is the lead char­acter in a new novel by Holloway-based writer Amy Spurling, her alter ego who has travel­led to Russia and it’s former satellite republics to complete a PhD on the life of the Colorado beetle.  

The book, which Amy calls neo-chick lit, is the product of her 20-year love affair with all things relating to the USSR. 

It started in the immediate years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Amy spent a gap year working in Moscow at the turn of the 1990s: she studied Russian at university, which meant a further year in the country with intensive language classes.

And she found life in the former Soviet Union not just educational and stimulating, but fun. With the USSR still warm in its grave, and rampant capitalism yet to make its mark, Amy found herself falling in love with the country. With her own flat in Moscow, she found socialising easy: “Young people did not really have anywhere to go, so they socialised at home and met around kitchen tables,” she says. 

She spent 10 years after completing her degree in Moscow, further east in Uzbekistan and also south, in Georgia. There were plenty of English-language papers she would write for, including titles that dated from the Soviet era.

“It was a great place to work – you could be a big fish. People were extremely welcoming to foreigners – they wanted to see you,” she recalls. “They wanted to hear about England; they were so interested in me.”

Amy kept a diary and wanted to use some of her experiences to write fiction – so, influenced by Bridget Jones, she created Ivy Stone. Ivy’s adventures include dalliances, Jones-style, but her book is also a crash course in what life is like behind the former Iron Curtain. And while the novel takes Ivy from one vodka binge to another, Amy has helpfully provided a mini companion guide to accompany the book that takes you on a whistle-stop tour through some of the odder facts of life in Russia and Georgia.

She kicks off with a quick tour of a Soviet-style flat. “Most of them are coming up to their 40ths,” she declares. She turns her attention to living accommodation, speaking of the “Khrushchevka,” which she describes as “a common species of apartment block, which take their name from the 1950s and 1960s Communist Party First secretary Nikita Khrushchev. Millions of these concrete five-storey, no-lift semi-prefabs were rushed up, towards a Soviet future of every family in their own flat and out of a life of shared kitchens and bathrooms.

“Although Khrush­chevkas rescued many from overcrowding and slums, they were an endless source of humour,” Amy says.

With paper-thin walls, Amy notes that one ex-pat occupant described the experience as “less a living space and more an interactive installation”.

She also praises the Russian’s ability to get on with things, make do, recycle. TV aerials are made out of bent forks, while Amy marvels at their flare for ingenious ways to save space: bikes are stacked behind the telly and they have ceil­ings that boast cupboards. 

As well as advice as to how to cook classic Rus­sian and Georgian dishes, there is a run-down of the many Russian words for snow, and vital pointers on how to shop. 

Perhaps for Ivy, the most telling advice is the on what to eat with your vodka. The idea is to have something – anything – “to take the mind off the explosion going on in your head”, says Amy, and she offers a recipe for salted cucumbers, whose briny water provides her fictional self with an automatic hangover relief, more instant than the water from taps as it often has to be boiled first. 

She trumpets what she defines as a key national characteristic: the ability to get on with others. “People think of the former Soviet Union as a dour place,” she says. “Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a lot of joy there. They love crazy, wild fun times. Friends act as a social security structure – it is a deep bond. Because they feel they cannot rely on the state, people look out for each other. There is a sense that they are all in it together, and it makes friendships very valuable.” 

• My Soviet Kitchen: Ivy’s Guide to life in the Ex-USSR. By Amy Spurling. 
Roast Books £14.99. info@roastbooks.co.uk www.amyspurling.com