Russia

Dima, Volodya and Alice

May 23, 2011

What exactly is a Russian liberal? Has this species ever been seen in the wild (by which I mean the Kremlin)? In her spot-on analysis of Russia’s ruling tandem in today’s Washington Post, Liliya Shevtsova highlights this question brilliantly: …the transformation of Medvedev into a symbol of reformist hopes has been Putin’s best trick so [...]

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Coming Russian Events

May 18, 2011

For a Russophile, it can be frustrating to find out about an interesting event related to Russia after it has just happened. On the flip side, it can also be rather difficult to find out about new events far enough in advance before they happen, especially events in your area, so that one can attend. [...]

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Review: The Trinity Six

March 15, 2011

I love a good thriller, and so was excited to get this review copy in the mail last month. The premise is interesting, the characters mainly believable, and the well-layered plot drives you along, just not as intensely as I would have liked. I won’t offer any spoilers, but the general idea is that the [...]

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Review: Dacha Idylls

March 8, 2011

Dacha Idylls by Melissa L. Caldwell (University of California Press) Anthropologist Melissa Caldwell admits to having had a hard time convincing professional colleagues that it was “field work” to follow Russians to their dachas, relax with them in the banya, drink tea on the porch and hunt for mushrooms and berries. But, the reality, she [...]

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Review: Molotov’s Magic Lantern

March 5, 2011

Molotov’s Magic Lantern, by Rachel Polonsky Farrar, Straus and Giroux A discovered library once owned by Vyacheslav Molotov, who was apparently an ardent bibliophile, provides the pretext for a string of fascinating forays into Russian history, literature, science and life. Polonsky writes beautifully, in the dense manner of Helprin or Hempel, forcing the reader to [...]

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Review: The Road & More

March 3, 2011

The Road by Vassily Grossman (New York Review of Books) This amazing collection of fiction and non-fiction by one of the 20th century’s most talented and most overlooked writers re-demonstrates that Grossman was a meticulous documentarian of the Russian soul. There is pathos and sorrow here, most notably in “The Hell of Treblinka,” but there [...]

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Review: My Perestroika

March 2, 2011

My Perestroika by Robin Hessman (Red Square Productions) Robin Hessman’s documentary film offers a remarkably intimate look into the lives of five intelligent, average Russians, considering the changes they have lived through over the past 20 years, and how each has all adapted. Her subjects are members of the last generation to grow up under [...]

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