July/August 2006

From the Editor

Readers comment and correct.

The latest from the travel front.

All the news that fits from all across Russia.

Ivan Kupala is the annual celebration of Summer Solstice. It has deep roots in Russia's pagan past, and is making a comeback.

Russia's first (actually, technically its second) circumnavigator was an fearless explorer who often put up with some difficult diplomats, like Nikolai Rezanov.

The founding of the first public library on the campus of Moscow State University was a momentus event for lovers of books and knowledge. The library's history echoes that of the nation.

Every foreigner knows the word "babushka" before they even start studying Russian. But it takes some study (or this column) to plumb the depths of meaning hidden in this word.

For centuries, the Don Cossacks guarded Russia’s borders, fought its enemies, explored its nether reaches. Fiercely independent and the source of much historical controversy, these warriors are an inalienable part of Rus.

To the West, another Cossack, Bogdan Khmelnytsky, forged the nation that became Ukraine, in the process binding it to its larger, eastern neighbor.

In the first of a two-part series, we explore the villages, geysers, volcanoes, flora and fauna of Russia’s wildest peninsula.

They betrayed their country and helped the Soviet Union get the bomb. But this couple never became famous, like the Rosenbergs. Perhaps that is because they got away, almost...

This modern tale of two hapless village drunks and their run-in with the Russian justice system could be taken out of Chekhov. But, sadly, it is non-fiction.

Ryabina is the stuff of Russian song and folklore. Here, it is the focus for this issue's snowball berry red recipe...

A review of Ivan's War, A Writer at War, Putin's Russia, and River of No Reprieve. Follow this link for a quick link to purchase any of these titles.

As we note in our Notebook lead this issue, the Russian government is on a fast track to making the ruble fully convertible. For our PostScript, we review the history of the ruble's decline and fall, with attractive graphs!