Let's Do This

As this issue was going to press, the 2018 World Cup was kicking off (pun intended) and Russia won its first match.

While we have covered the event a few times over recent months (in particular the financing and construction woes), you won’t see much coverage of it in this issue, which coincides with the Cup (June-July 2018).

This is largely because of editorial deadlines.

Given printing and mailing timelines, this issue went to the printers the day after the Cup started (June 15) and will be in most homes by the end of the first week in July, when the Cup is closing in on the final rounds.

As a bimonthly, we really have no place or ability to cover current, shorter-term events. They just get ahead or behind us. It’s simply a limitation of our medium.

Well, we are looking to change that.

After much planning and scheming, this month (July) we are unleashing a new Kickstarter project. Its goal is nothing short of creating the most valued, authoritative online resource on Russia in English. Period.

In addition to making available the entire 25 years of content that has been published in Russian Life, we are going to create and publish loads of new content on everything from history to society, travel to language, fiction to current events.

If, that is, the Kickstarter campaign is successful. You may recall this is an all or nothing thing: either we raise the targeted financial goal or we get nothing.

But let me underline this: the goal of this project is NOT to create an online version of Russian Life that replaces the print magazine, but one that supplements and enhances it. Russian Life as a print magazine is going nowhere. Our enlarged online presence will allow subscribers to read Russian Life articles on any device, to access valuable data, to read news, delve into history, and polish up their Russian language skills.

Photo features. Audio lessons. Video. All of that, and more.

Essentially, it is our dream to bring the sort of quality journalism you have come to expect from Russian Life to a new, expanded, and enhanced online presence. To make the most of the digital, online medium.

But of course this sort of thing costs money. And thus the Kickstarter project.

If this is a venture you feel is worth supporting, please hop over to read more about it at newrussianlife.com.

If we are successful, come August, when we put our next issue to press, we will be able to share with you some of our exciting plans for Russian Life Online.