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
November 09, 2012 Anna Karenina The First Time In this, the second of two posts on Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, the author recounts his discovery of the greatest novel of all time: "I had never lived a book as I lived Anna Karenina." Film & TV Literature Russia File
November 08, 2012 Anna Karenina Every Day Lev Tolstoy's Anna Karenina has been called the greatest novel of all time. But can one really appreciate it as much in English translation versus the Russian original? Film & TV Literature Russia File
November 06, 2012 Translator Update #2: Tightrope Walking 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 02, 2012 Omens, Blacklists and Vampires, Oh My! While the U.S. was being battered by Superstorm Sandy and the Election of Nattering Negativity this week, a steady stream of odd stories out of Russia caught my eye. Worried they might otherwise get overlooked, I decided to corral them here. Culture Humor Russia File
November 01, 2012 It Takes Guts A recent letter that the editors of Russian Life received from one of its respected readers was directed at Mikhail Ivanov and one of his “Survival Russian” columns. We felt it deserved a longer response than space in the magazine allowed. Politics Russian Life Magazine Russia File