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Capitals, Oligarchs and Cats
November 01, 2008

Capitals, Oligarchs and Cats

A review of a new book on the Silver Age, another on a Potato Oligarch, and two children's books, including one about a cat...

Angels, Mafia and Pushkin
July 01, 2008

Angels, Mafia and Pushkin

Reviews of: The Angel of Grozny, Investigating the Russian Mafia, Young Pushkin, The Pearl, and History of Music in Russia from Antiquity to 1800

Storks, Pravda, Bolsheviks and Stalin's Children
March 01, 2008

Storks, Pravda, Bolsheviks and Stalin's Children

A quick review of several worthy books, including a reissue of an Akhmatova classic, a massive tome on childhood under the Soviets, a modern fiction masterpiece, and Laura Williams' new memoir.

Rostropovich, Chechnya and Pushkin
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.

Soviet Images, Baikal and Chekhov
November 01, 2007

Soviet Images, Baikal and Chekhov

Books on Soviet era photography, Lake Baikal, Private Life under Stalin, Chekhov and Literary St. Petersburg, as well as a DVD on Russian prisons.

Russian Worldview, Rafting, and Sophia Tolstaya
September 01, 2007

Russian Worldview, Rafting, and Sophia Tolstaya

We review a new book on Sophia Tolstoy's photography hobby, an excellent translation of Andrei Sinyavsky's book on Russian folk belief, and a great armchair travel book on rafting down one of the world's wildest rivers.

Philsophy and Architecture
July 01, 2007

Philsophy and Architecture

We review Motherland: A Philosophilcal History of Russia, and Russian Architecture and the West, both invaluable books for the Russophile. Plus we note the winner of this year's Rossica Translation Prize. Follow this link for links to purchase books reviewed in this and previous issues.

Spies, Rebels, Ilf & Petrov and a Slynx
May 01, 2007

Spies, Rebels, Ilf & Petrov and a Slynx

A incredible new reference work on spies, an account of the Potemkin mutiny, a 1930s travelogue of the US by two of the greatest Soviet writers, and a novel by Tatyana Tolstaya are the books reviewed this issue. Oh, and several new travel guides as well.

 

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EVENTS FOR RUSSOPHILES

Russian-Language Gallery Tour
February 22, 2022 to February 22, 2032

Russian-Language Gallery Tour

Brooklyn Museum | Brooklyn, NY

Russian-language tour exploring our collection in depth, second Sunday of each month at 1 pm. Free, reservations required

A Few of Our Books

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

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.
Russia Rules

Russia Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
At the Circus

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

Popular Articles

Why Don't Russians Smile?
January 10, 2014

Why Don't Russians Smile?

It is a common trope that Russians never smile. Which of course is interpreted to mean they are unfriendly, gloomy, sullen – positively Dostoyevskian. This, of course, is a complete misreading of body language and cultural norms.

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