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Excerpt from a newly published memoir, an autobiographical account of an engineer swept up into Stalin's Gulag.

In which Russia discovers old frescoes, a lost grave, and a new PM. Among other news.

Pavel Bazhov, Russia's greatest modern fabulist, had a complicated and eventful life.

If these walls could talk. The history and horror of one of the most epic construction projects of the Soviet era.

In which we review books on empire and disasters.

In cooperation with the “Lived” Project, Arzamas selected personal diary entries written immediately before their authors were arrested during the Great Terror. Almost all of these diaries were kept in the FSB Archive – the principal source of information for historians working on the events of 1937 – 1938.

Eighty years ago, the Kremlin towers acquired their first stars, gleaming with gold and diamonds. But meticulously collected records show that on those same days, people were being arrested and sentenced across the country. On this Day of Memory for Victims of Political Repression, we recall a few of their names.

William Ryan’s second book featuring MVD Detective Alexei Korolev, The Darkening Field, was released on January 3, 2012. Russian Life Publisher Paul E. Richardson interviewed Ryan about the genesis for his character and the challenges of situating a novel in Soviet Russia.