July/August 2007

Two hundred years ago this summer, Russia and the U.S. first established diplomatic relations.

Readers comment and correct.

The latest from the travel front.

All the news that fits from all across Russia.

A look at how film is falling into service of the State.

When Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko met for their famous 18-hour meal in the summer of 1897, they could hardly have known they would change theater forever.

Anna Filosofova was born in 1837 and lived in 1912. She was one of Russia's first and most successful feminists.

Russia went to war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877 for what it thought were noble reasons. Yet, in the end, it turned out the usual way. A look back at that era, with contemporaneous accounts by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

There are good neighbors and there are bad neighbors. In this linguistic diversion, we peer under the hood for useful phrases in dealing with either sort.

Nestled between the mountains and the sea, this unassuming harbor town was for sixty years the capital of Russian America. Today, 140 years on, there is still a strong Russian imprint in this former colonial outpost.

Igor Stravinsky was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. And, though he lived most of his life in France and the U.S., he was Russian to the core. This year is the 125th anniversary of his birth.

Just under a century ago, a nefarious pest migrated (thanks to war and industrial farming) from the southwestern U.S. to the Russian heartland. Ever since, potatoes – a staple in the Russian diet also brought from the Americas – have been under siege.

Vladimir Nabokov was a multi-faceted genius. Gifted in lepidoptery, chess, translation and criticism, he was also one of the best writers of the 20th century – in both Russian and English.

After fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution, a handful of Russian émigrés sought to build a utopian artistic community in southern Connecticut.

A crime is committed in Laura's village by some wandering gypsies. So her husband takes the law into his own hands...

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.

A wonderful recipe for shortbread almond cookies, which just happen to have a Cold War history to them.

We bid farewell to the First President of Russia, with some pithy and fascinating quotes from those who knew and claimed to know him.