The author gathered pictures from many journeys through the former Soviet Union, in the final stage of its existence and during the shaping of a new social and political order. He watched the former republics regain their independence, and saw the birth of new states, the struggle for identity, the return of deported peoples and the departures of those looking for a better life. At the time he did not realise he was witnessing events that would turn out to be symbols of the collapse of a state built on tyranny and unimaginable human suffering. Out of the dust raised by that fall rose the picture of a new empire. The volume appeared only a few months after the Russian attack on Ukraine.