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January 01, 2019

Reaching for the Stars

“What have you done to my magazine?!”

This is what I imagine you thinking (or saying) as you pull Russian Life from you mailbox in late December or early January.

At first you may not be certain this is the same publication, given that the logo is rather different. And the shape is all wrong. It used to be tall and thin; now it is short and squat!

Change can be disorienting.

But take heart. Look to the right and you will see the same familiar names. And on the contributors page there are familiar faces (notably Managing Editor Maria Antonova, smiling despite the -40˚ weather in Yakutsk). Then leaf through the issue and you will start to see that more is the same than has changed. And that actually some of the changes are intriguing, even pleasant.

With time, as you survive it, change becomes comforting.

In fact, we have been talking about this change, toward a “New Russian Life,” since last year, and we have thinking about it for far longer. We ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in July to fund a complete revamp of our online publication, which goes hand-in-hand with the changes you see in the print magazine.

The goal of our print magazine changes was to shift the magazine’s emphasis ever so slightly away from the temporal. Our magazine should be something you look forward to receiving every other month, something you want to slow down and spend some time reading. So we have added more things that fit that intention, things you likely will not find elsewhere.

And please note that all the news items, quotes, travel notes, etc. that we used to have in the front of the magazine have not gone away. They have merely packed up and moved over to our online publication, where the information will still be fresh when you read it (for free). So bookmark russianlife.com and visit it once a week for the latest. And be sure to sign up for our weekly e-letter, The Russia File.

You can now also subscribe to the magazine online at different levels. At the most basic level, you will be able to enjoy the content of the print magazine online via any web-compatible device – no app required! Take a step up, and you will be able to search, access, and read our entire archive of magazines, dating back to 1995, through our souped-up site. You will also be able to manage your subscriptions and account securely online.

But of course all this internet-ification doesn’t mean you can’t call or write us the “old fashioned way,” to order a book or renew a subscription. We love taking your calls, and we love hearing what you think about what we are doing. This is, after all, your magazine.

So please enjoy it, and don’t hesitate to tell us what you think of the changes. But also please recognize that this very much a work in progress. We will never stop tweaking.

Tags: journalismhistoryrussian life

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About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

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73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955

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