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As Russia readies for its first, post-Yeltsin presidential election, Yeltsin biographer Leon Aron offers thoughts on the Russian leader's legacy.

Joseph Stalin was born December 21, 1879, in Gori, which is now in the Republic of Georgia. His birth name was Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Around 1910, he took on the name Stalin which means man of steel. Iosif is a common Eastern European and Russian spelling for Joseph. Stalin's parents were peasants who, hoping for a better life for their son, sent him to the Gori church run school {1888-1894}.

In February 1582, the Catholic Church, in the person of Pope Gregory the thirteenth, decreed a new, more accurate calendar to replace the Julian calendar, which had been in use since 45 BC. The revision meant dropping 10 days off the year...

Notes on the 1972 ABM Treaty.

The acquisition of a shuba for his wife on their 25th anniversary leads Ivanov down a trail littered with fish and tsars...

Grigory Alexandrov, born 1903, was a pathbreaking filmmaker who enjoyed incredible success and fame for his first three films, but it was a fame he never recaptured.

Eighty years ago, Russia finally adopted the Gregorian calendar. Well, almost. The ROC never got on board and then there is history to deal with, and its difficult 12-day gap.

A look at the history and practice of St. Tatyana's Day, the day each year which students celebrate their studenthood.

A consideration of fashionable foods from Onegin's era, and particularly Russian and French champagnes of a particular vintage.

Russia remains one of America's largest sources of foreign adoption. Now, after more than a decade of cross-cultural adoptions, thousands of children from Russia are bound to begin wondering about their roots. Some, in fact, are already digging.

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.