20

20

exactly 20 years ago, on March 11, 1990, in a crumbling hi-rise apartment block about a 30-minute drive from the Kremlin, myself and another American expat, David Kelley, officially founded this company. I seem to recall that we toasted the occasion with bottles of Heineken and that Bruce Hornsby’s The Valley Road was playing on a portable CD player.

Hardly an auspicious or glamorous beginning. But two decades on, after weathering coup attempts, economic crises, numerous office moves and two name changes (from Russian River Trading Company to Soviet Information Services, finally to settle on Russian Information Services), we are still plunking along (David has since semi-retired to a horse ranch out west).

We began with the intent of publishing books and maps for business travelers to Russia. By 1993, we had branched out into newsletters (on travel and business) and a mail order book catalog. And then, in 1995, we purchased Russian Life, the successor publication to Soviet Life. Since then, the magazine has increasingly become the center of our business, yet that has not stopped additional branching out (it may even have encouraged it), into calendars, festivals, vodka taste-offs and now fiction.

Through it all, I have had the honor of working with some great staff, gotten to know hundreds of really talented freelance authors, illustrators and photographers, and had the privilege of sharing my passion for all things Russian with tens of thousands of customers who are also Russophiles. Thank you all!

Yet a special thanks is due to Professor Malcolm Gilbert, who first ignited my passion for Russia, setting in motion the events that led to this company’s founding and this magazine’s publication. So it is very appropriate that he agreed to write the Post Script column for this issue, and doubly so given his intimate knowledge of, and frequent visits to, Russia over the last four decades. Na zdorovye, Malcolm!

fifteen years ago, in the sixth issue of Russian Life we published, our cover story was on an up-and-coming private Russian orchestra that was taking the world by storm. Today, the Russian National Orchestra is widely recognized as one of the best in the world. And so we return to feature them in considerably greater depth, on the occasion of their 20th anniversary this year. I mention this by way of full disclosure, for it has been our pleasure and honor over the past 10 years to provide tour, publication, website and fulfillment support services to the RNO via the Russian Arts Foundation.

Meanwhile, we also offer four other features in this packed issue, from a timely look at Russian involvement in Afghanistan, to pieces on 1000-year-old Yaroslavl and slightly younger Riga, to a story on what archaeologists have been digging up beneath the Moscow Kremlin.

Enjoy the issue, share it with a friend (they can also request their own free sample issue online), and thanks for riding with us for part of this journey.

Here’s to the next 20 years!