September 01, 2003 Vegetarian Disses and Disguises A veritable salad of linguistic phrases based on vegetables to spice up your Russian.
September 01, 2003 Heirs to Gagarin Russia can truly be proud of the wilderness areas it has preserved. But cordoning off these areas is one thing. Securing them for the future is another thing altogether.
September 01, 2003 Calendar Items in Brief Short takes on some historical dates with anniversaries during this issue's publication period.
September 01, 2003 King David On September 30, celebrated violinist David Oistrakh, one of the founders of the Russian violin school, would have turned 95.
September 01, 2003 Venichka's Poem Venidict Erofeev is one of the most brilliant figures in contemporary Russian literature.
September 01, 2003 Where East Becomes West Last year, we sent St. Petersburg writer Ilya Stogoff to the opposite end of Russia in the dead of winter. It did not improve his mood. But he did have some interesting experiences. This, his first of four installments on his travels throughout Russia's Far East, is a fun read. Travel
September 01, 2003 Russia Goes to the Polls Nikita Khrushchev once said, "Politicians are the same everywhre: they promise to build a bridge even where there is no river." As political observer Natasha Yefimova shows, there have been surprisingly few promises made or platforms pronounced in the run-up to this December's Duma election. The reasons for this are quite interesting.
September 01, 2003 Kalmykia: Reviving the Dusty Plain A huge expanse of desert and grassy plains, this southern Russian republic has an austere beauty all its own. Of course there is also Chess City and the horse races...
September 01, 2003 Defending Russian Nature Over the last century, Russia has created a system of preserves -- zapovedniki -- where wilderness holds sway and humans are rarely allowed. It is the world's largest system of strict nature preserves. We meet some of the heroes quietly working to preserve these zapovedniki, despite miserly allocations from the government.
September 01, 2003 Miracles on a Shoestring The Russian Space Program has enjoyed a remarkable string of successes and firsts over the past half-century. But, since the fall of the USSR, it has been forced to adapt to new, more commercial realities. We sent Nick Allen to Baikonur, the main Russian launch site, to report back on how the program is fairing.
