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Odyssey Moscow

One American's Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State

Michael Calvey

$32.99

Paperback

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English
The History Press Ltd
19 March 2026
It is dawn on Thursday, 14 February 2019, and armed FSB agents are raiding Michael Calvey's Moscow apartment.

He is being arrested for a crime that never happened.

Twenty-eight years earlier, Calvey – a newly graduated, aspiring Wall Street hotshot – made a short trip from America to the recently collapsed USSR to look at potential investments. Sensing huge opportunity, he soon based himself in Moscow, where he lived through the 'Wild East' years and went on to build several billion-dollar funds – earning enormous returns for Western investors as Russia opened up to international business. He gained a reputation that would lead to Bloomberg describing him as 'a legend in the Russian market, with a reputed aversion to any kind of foul play'.

But now, he finds himself thrown into Moscow's notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison on charges trumped up by local business rivals. As the White House and Kremlin argue about his incarceration, Calvey is caught in a Kafka-esque trap, denied access to evidence proving his innocence.

Odyssey Moscow is the story not just of Michael Calvey, but of how Russia's era of hope and aspiration finally died, and how light can be found in the darkest of places.

AUTHOR: Michael Calvey was a Founder and Co-Senior Partner of Baring Vostok, a private equity firm recognized for its early investments in several innovative and highly successful companies, including Yandex, Tinkoff, and Kaspi. Living in Moscow for almost three decades, he learned the language, married a Russian woman and forged an unmatched network of personal and business contacts. Today, he is Chairman of Baring Ventures, which sold all its Russian assets after Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and now focuses on other international markets. He is a US citizen living in Switzerland and the UK.

20 colour illustrations
By:  
Imprint:   The History Press Ltd
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   218g
ISBN:   9781837050277
ISBN 10:   1837050279
Pages:   272
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Unspecified

Michael Calvey was a Founder and Co-Senior Partner of Baring Vostok, a private equity firm recognized for its early investments in numerous highly successful companies. Living in Moscow for almost three decades, he learned the language, married a Russian woman and forged an unmatched network of contacts. Today, he is Chairman of Baring Ventures, which sold all its Russian assets after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and now focuses on other international markets. He is a US citizen living in Switzerland and the UK.

Reviews for Odyssey Moscow: One American's Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State

""A brilliant new memoir.""--Spectator 'A riveting tale of betrayal and lawlessness by the Russian Government, told by the most successful US investor in Russia. Calvey narrates an incredible story of creating a thriving business in Russia and with Russians over decades that is laid waste by the Kremlin. His harrowing experience in recent years - an innocent man caught and punished in the Russian criminal justice system - is told with clinical and chilling detail.' -- Ambassador John Sullivan, US Ambassador to Russia 2020-22


  • Winner of Independent Publishers Book Awards Gold Medal for Autobiography 2025

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