February 17, 2017

Our Next Big Thing


Our Next Big Thing
See the Kickstarter Project

When Mikhail Mordasov and I started brainstorming about our next big project, to follow on the success of The Spine of Russia, we kept returning to the fact that 2017 is the 100th anniversary of Russia's revolutions.

And then we hit on it: what if we traveled around Russia, interviewing the keepers of Russia's last 100 years of history? The project would be similar to that undertaken by filmmaker Alex Fegan in his film, Older Than Ireland.

It is amazing to think that, 100 years ago, in 1917, despite the fact that Russia was wracked by revolution, famine, foreign war, and domestic unrest, babies were born, lives were started.

We will search out the people those babies have become, and capture their life stories in a book and documentary. 

The Children of 1917 (that's what we're calling the project) will offer an amazing journey through time, in which together we will learn about the lives of some remarkable survivors: Russians who not only were born in that tumultuous 1917, but who then lived through Civil War, industrialization, collectivization, Stalinism, World War II, the Cold War, Khrushchev, the era of Stagnation, the collapse of the USSR, and the turn of the twenty-first Century. 

Despite all the horrors and difficulties, they grew up, fell in love, created families, raised children of their own. Now they are 100 years old, and we cannot wait to hear the stories they and their family members have to share with us, so that we can share them with you. 

To join with us in this project, visit the blog and consider joining this history-capturing project.

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Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
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A Taste of Russia

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The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
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Bears in the Caviar

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