January 01, 2013 Walking the Streets of Moscow In 1963, a remarkable, bright, beloved film was released, launching the careers of Nikita Mikhalkov and Georgy Danilya: Walking the Streets of Moscow.
January 01, 2013 Anna Akhmatova - 1913 Extract from Anna Akhmatova's "Poem Without a Hero", in which she eulogized the year 1913. Literature
January 01, 2013 An Evening to Remember They could not have known it at the time, but they were on the edge of the abyss. Revolution, war, and again war and revolution were just around the corner. But in February 1903, a grand ball was held to commemorate the 290th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.
January 01, 2013 Kozma Prutkov On January 13, 1863, the "eminent poet" Kozma Petrovich Prutkov passed away. Except he never really was alive.
January 01, 2013 Kremlincare Rumors flew this fall when President Putin stopped taking trips abroad. Just a bout of anxious Kremlinology, or is there something to it? Health
January 01, 2013 Blacklist Wars In response to the US Congress' passage of the Magnitsky Act, Russian legislators are planning a bit of list making of their own.
January 01, 2013 Goats, Ribs and Suitcases The head of the CIA and the Russian Defense Minister both fell from grace within weeks of one another, and both because of infidelity scandals. Sounds like a good pretext for a column...
January 01, 2013 The News that Peter Saw Fit to Print In 1703 Peter the Great founded the first Russian newspaper. This is what it looked like and what it covered. History
November 21, 2012 Translator Update #3: Making Sausage If even gently pressed, I will readily admit to belonging to the Just Do It school of translation. I have never been big on translation theory, not least from fear of suffering the fate of the centipede who, on being asked how he managed to walk with so many legs, promptly fell over. Products
November 19, 2012 Anna Karenina: The Puppet Version The movie is almost too silly to discuss, as if Saturday Night Live decided to do a parody, but nobody but the costume-director and scene-making crew were ready. A puppet resembling Keira Knightley plays Anna; although thin, even scrawny, the animators make her look almost human. Culture Film & TV Literature Russia File
November 17, 2012 Plagiarism, Perevody and Propaganda Two stories out of Russia this weekend reinforced the stereotype that Russian entities (a) don't respect copyrights, yet (b) do value propaganda. Literature Politics Russia File