Editor's choice of books about Russian folklore and folktales.

Last Thursday, after several days of skirmishes and confrontation in the breakaway region of Ossetia, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced a unilateral cessation of hostilities. Hours later, however, Saakashvili ordered his armed forces to undertake a full-scale assault on Ossetia...

This morning, Vermont Public Radio called to interview me about Solzhenitsyn's legacy and his life in Vermont. I had just interviewed his wife, Natalya Dmitrievna, while in Moscow in May. We had planned to run that interview in our Nov/Dec issue, to coincide with what would have been the author's 90th birthday. But now we will push it up and run it in our Sep/Oct issue, which goes to press this week. 

Translator Constantine Rusanov has crafted these wonderful English versions of 11 of Maximilian Voloshin's poems. They are reprinted here with permission. The copyright to the English versions remains with Mr. Rusanov. To see the English translations alongside the original Russian, download <a href="http://www.russianlife.net/pdf/voloshin.pdf">this PDF file</a>.

Review of The New Cold War, The Magical Chorus, Angel of Vengeance and The Silencing. Plus a look at two fine new language learning books.

The secret transcript (in Russian) of Joseph Brodsky's show trial in a St. Petersburg court, at which he was sentenced to 5 years (later reduced to 18 months) of hard labor in the North. Short portions of the transcript are often cited, but this full transcript offers a vivid look at the Kafkaesque Soviet system of justice.

Learn about the varied life of this Russian writer, born to nobility and author of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina".

Find out what this son of peasants turned Premier of the Soviet Union had to do with an upper class writer and his epic novel.

Editor's choice of books concerning Russia's health.

The quantity of great Russian literature titles and translations is virtually endless.  Here are a few favorites from the editor.

This 60-year-old piece of fiction by Ilf and Petrov is a our seasonally-appropriate Literary Insert.

The serf system in early 19th century Russia and writer, Nikolai Gogol.