Still Going for Gold For the first time since 1912, and the third time ever, there will be a Russian national team at the Summer Olympic Games. Shorn of socialist ideology and a win-at-all-costs attitude to their sports, its members have an uphill struggle to maintain the USSR's supremacy of recent years.
Soyuz and Apollo Dock in Space When cosmonauts and astronauts linked up in space, it represented far more than a technological achievement.
Kaluga's Rocket Scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the father of Russian space travel. A quirky, half-deaf teacher, he inspired generations with his idealistic views of the age to come.
The Heroines of Nagano A recap of Russia's victories in the 1998 Winter Olympics and profiles of the women who led the Russian team in its successes.
To Bathe or Not to Bathe Our neighbor Kalkan has probably been clean and sober only a dozen times in his life. The last time he bathed in a barrel of water warmed in a wood stove he came down with a bad cold and vowed never to do it again.
Bath Day in Sheshurino “On Saturdays, smoke drifts over the village. The banyas are being heated.” Let’s go!
Poets and Steam Where we review two books by and about poets, and one about banyas. All are highly recommended.
