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This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

The domino revolutions in the Middle East got me thinking about the word “Arab,” along with some other less-than-politically-correct Russian colloquialisms. 

In less than a year, Russia will go to the polls to vote for president, and the winner – for the first time – will be awarded with a six-year term. 

Ask any Russian, “When did the War begin?” – just “the War,” not the Civil, First World, Chechen, or Afghan War – and the answer will be automatic: June 22, 1941.

In the spirit of making the Olympic Games in Sochi a truly national event to unite the Russian people, the Sochi organizers last year launched a contest where artists could submit entries to be chosen as the official Olympic mascot.

There is a marvelous photograph taken by Yevgeny Khaldei in Bulgaria in 1944. Soviet troops, having just entered the capital of Sophia, are looking in amazement at a monument to Alexander II in the city’s main square. 

On May 11, 1791, one of the most extravagant and sumptuous parties of Catherine the Great’s reign was held in the Tauride Palace, the St. Petersburg residence of Prince Grigory Potyomkin. 

Each year on June 13, Holy Spirit Day, Holy Trinity Monastery in upstate New York celebrates its annual feast day, opening its doors to the public. The largest spiritual center for the Russian Orthodox faith outside Russia, the monastery played an important role in preservation of Orthodoxy during the Soviet era.

Since Soviet Russia began domestic production of trucks and automobiles, the road rally has been a venerated pursuit. Yet, interestingly, Russian road rallies are not about winning a race, but finishing a quest.

As a festival in Moscow brings together virtuoso guitarists from across Europe, the traditional Russian seven-stringed form of the instrument is enjoying a renaissance… in America.

Eastern Crimea was a center for partisan activity during the Great Patriotic War. In honor of the May Day holiday, we trek through this wild realm along the Black Sea.

The 12th installment of our Uchites insert uses the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Russia as its theme.