Strap on your Skates!

No, you can’t rollerskate in a buffalo herd,

But you can be happy if you’ve a mind to.

All you’ve got to do is knuckle down, do it,

Knuckle down, buckle down, do it, do it, do it.

Roger Miller

By our count, 500 issues of Russian Life and its predecessors (Soviet Life and USSR) have been published since the magazine’s inception in October 1956. Only about 10-20% of magazines launched in the U.S. survive longer than five years, so 500 issues over 48 years is a fairly impressive achievement.

Granted, we can’t take much of the credit for this large issue count. This is actually “only” our 70th issue since we took over Russian Life in July of 1995 – but we’ll gladly take 14% of the credit.

It has been a fun ride, even if often a bit like rollerskating in a buffalo herd.

One of the most fascinating things about running this magazine these past nine years has been to ride the wave of technological change in publishing and telecommunications. Back in 1995, we struggled with slow dialup lines, fax proofing, inferior scanning technology and a large design and layout staff. Now we lean on high-speed digital internet connections, digital proofing and rarely see a piece of film (almost all of our photography is now digital).

Of course, the flip side of this technological change is information overload. In our impatient, media-saturated world, it is quite challenging to create stories worth committing to ink and paper, something that will make readers turn off their TV sets, plunk down on the couch (or the beach or bed) and read, to create something that will transport you halfway around the world without ever having to leave home.

In this issue we have pulled together a very nice mix of buffalos – er, stories. We take you from the Moscow Kremlin, to the heart of Siberia (Tomsk), to oil boomtowns floating on the permafrost, into Russian schools and then toss in a dash of Akhmatova, a few pigs, some porcelain and a little Hussar Beef. And that is far from all!

We hope you enjoy these stories as much as we liked pulling them together for you. As always, please let us know what you think about how we are doing, and what we can do to keep making the magazine better and better.

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Meanwhile, it is time for a shameless plug of our forthcoming Taste of Russia Festival this September. If you live anywhere between Philadelphia, Buffalo, Montreal and Maine, you should plan on visiting us on September 17-18 in central Massachusetts. The mountains there are beautiful, and there will be wonderful entertainment, vendors, an art show, animation film fest (featuring the films mentioned in our recent article), concert and VIP Dinner & Vodka Tasting. And let’s not forget the tshirts!

Check out the ad for the event on page 3, and keep an eye on the event website (www.tasteofrussia.org) for the latest information; you can also sign up for the dinner and concert from the website, and find links for lodging. We hope to see you there!

Knuckle down and enjoy the issue!

Paul Richardson