"Imperium" is the story of an empire: the constellation of states that wassubmerged under a single identity for most of the twentieth century - theUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics. This is Kapuscinski's vivid,compelling and personal report on the life and death of the Sovietsuperpower, from the entrance of Soviet troops into his hometown in Polandin 1939, through his journey across desolate Siberia and the republics ofCentral Asia in the 1950s and 60s, to his wanderings over the vast Sovietlands - from Poland to the Pacific, the Arctic Circle to Afghanistan - inthe years of the USSR's decline and final disintegration in 1991.