January 01, 2008 Six Years That Shook the World In which we look back at the heroes and Herods of the era of perestroika, tracking many of them down, to see where life has taken them these last 20 years.
January 01, 2008 The Jewish King of the Samoyed He was a Jew who fled Portugal, failed at business in Hamburg and ended up in Russia. So of course he was the logical choice to become Peter the Great's new King of the Samoyed.
January 01, 2008 Confessions of an Illegal He lived secretly in the West under deep cover, working in offices, at dry cleaners, as a trade representative. He gathered intelligence deemed critical to the Soviet state. Now, he's talking to us.
January 01, 2008 Blackened Sea A sea storm in the Strait of Kerch sank or damaged a total of 12 ships in November, killing six sailors and releasing over 3000 tons of fuel oil and 6.5 thousand tons of sulfur into the water...
January 01, 2008 Art and Destiny A look at the life and achievements of Igor Moiseyev, and its uncanny parallels with that of Leni Riefenstahl.
January 01, 2008 Rostropovich, Chechnya and Pushkin A review of recent books on Mstislav Rostropovich, Chechnya and the future of Russia, plus a new translation of Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter.
December 19, 2007 Putin Selected as Person of the Year In a previous post and VPR commentary, I related how my friend Boris in Moscow speculated that, after the December Duma election, Russia would hold a national referendum and appoint Putin Tsar. Apparently TIME magazine beat Russia to the punch. Politics Russia File
