Notebook

In Brief

Mail to Moscow in a day

Express mail giant Federal Express has begun offering next-day delivery service between Moscow and the US, flying to and from Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport five times a week. The company is using its own Boeing 727-200 and is the first express mail company to provide such a service, according to company officials. By using its own plane, FedEx will be able to handle larger or more dangerous cargoes, which are restricted when using most other carriers. If all goes well, Moscow could become the hub of the company’s Eastern European operations. This would help Vnukovo’s attempt to boost its international airport status.

Holocaust museum gets secret files

The Russian government recently gave thousands of documents detailing Nazi war crimes to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. The documents, which number between 10,000 and 15,000 pages, were handed over to the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow. The documents themselves were taken from the archives of the Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB.

War loot exhibit at the Hermitage

St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum has unveiled an exhibit of old European drawings salvaged from a Red Army vault. The exhibit, entitled Master Drawings Revisited: Treasures from Prewar German Collections, includes drawings from such masters as Paul Cezanne and Francisco Goya. The exhibition has been described as a ‘discovery’ for art lovers everywhere — many of the pieces were largely unknown even before the war. Many paintings, watercolors, and sketches in the collection came from the same vault as ‘war booty’ paintings that caused an uproar when they were displayed last year. These works were all believed to have been destroyed in the war. The exhibition will run until March 30, 1997.

Vending machine mania

The first Coca-Cola vending machines accepting paper money have been installed in one of Moscow’s metro stations. They offer a range of Coca-Cola libations for the price of R3,000 (55 cents). People queued up for a mere glimpse of the new technological marvels at their official unveiling. The machines are a vast improvement on the old Soviet-era machines that sold spritzes and provided a single glass for all comers. Coca-Cola Refreshments Moscow, which owns the machines, has said it plans to install machines in every Moscow metro station.