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Fifty years ago this October, the world walked to the brink of nuclear holocaust, looked over the edge, and stepped back. This is the account of one actor in that frightful drama, someone who dared to take a stand and may just have ended up saving the planet.

The assassination attempt on Lenin on August 30, 1918, was used as the pretext for the launching of the Red Terror, a wave of repression and killing aimed at wiping out the Bolsheviks' opponents, real and imagined.

On the world's worst nuclear disaster prior to Chernobyl, when, in 1957, nuclear waste exploded at the Mayak plant in Ozyorsk. The damage has yet to be fully recognized or accepted.

It gave birth to the greatest novel ever written, brought down Napoleon, reshaped Europe, led to the end of serfdom, the invention of terrorism, and, eventually, the end of tsarism. It was tremendous folly, horrific hubris and astounding heroism. And it happened 200 years ago this fall. We turn to people who lived through the War of 1812 for their first person accounts.

On rising and falling television stars, the TV ban on activist Ksenia Sobchak, and international support for Pussy Riot.

On the recent spate of screw-tightening measures by the Russian government.

On the founding of the first Russian railroad, between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. Service began October 30, 1837.

The three women - Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich & Nadezhda Tolokonnikova - on trial in Russia for "hooliganism" for their punk rock performance in Savior's Cathedral, made long closing statements last week. While people can debate the women's tactics, it is excruciatingly difficult after reading their statements to doubt that the women are serious, thoughtful and extremely articulate critics of authoritarianism in Russia.

The latest from the travel front.

Readers comment and correct.

We have an ambitious, exciting new publishing project, so we are turning to you, our Tribe of Russophiles and bibliophiles, to partner with us.

In early June, a noisy, colorful band landed in Manhattan: Thirty Russian authors, two dozen publishers, as many journalists, and half as many organizers.