Through a confluence of events, it turned out that this issue of Russian Life, which marks the magazine’s 45th year, is about some of the “icons” of Russian culture.

Always, whether the journalism is good or bad, there are legions of unrecognized “heroes” slogging it out in the trenches, never to be recognized in the headlines or bylines.

The news spread like a virus. I was infected by a nonchalant email from another local Russophile, Myranda. “Thought you might be interested,” the email said, “since it is in Montpelier.”

There is an interesting history behind the picture (taken by Valery Bliznyuk, who we profile on page 18) on the cover of this issue.

On the passing of a friend and colleague, Helen Boldyreff Semler, a valued member of this magazine’s Advisory Board.

In Russia, liberty, democracy and capitalism have all gotten a bad reputation. This is largely thanks to the greedy, short-sighted actions of the first wave of Russia’s reformers.

When we study this or that great Russian writer or composer, we tend to look at them as a singular phenomenon. But none was an island.

It has been said that a successful invasion is the one that goes unnoticed until it is too late to resist. The Russian Invasion of America is in full swing.

Interestingly, both Tchaikovsky and Savior’s have been surrounded by controversy since well before both rose to prominence in Moscow 117 or so years ago.

After a decade marked by coup attempts, parliament sieges, wildly optimistic economic programs, cabinet reshufflings and Caucasian wars, boring is good.

On March 10, 1990, in a dingy, ninth-story apartment in Moscow’s seedy northern outskirts, two grizzled American expatriates hatched a business plan.

It would be fascinating—if it were not so scary—to watch how fast Russians have fallen in line to support their new prime minister, Vladimir Putin.