Meier, a journalist who covered Russia for Time from 1996-2001, ventures outside the Kremlin for this portrait of Russia and of the lives of typical Russians since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He travels South, North, East and West to war-torn Chechnya, the industrial northern city of Norilisk, forgotten Sakhalin, and progressive St. Petersburg. An insightful portrait much in the spirit of David Remnick's Resurrection.  (RUS236, $15.95)