January 2, 2002 Newsletter

Author: Linda DeLaine
Website: RL Online
Department:
Page: 0   ( 0) pages

Summary: Trivia quizzes, 'Lessons of October,' Khruschchev, new topical resources . . .

RUSSIAN LIFE'S
RUSSIAN CULTURE GUIDE NEWSLETTER

By Linda DeLaine, Editor
January 2, 2002

WHAT'S NEW

New Resources:

Adoption
Collection of sites offering information on adopting from Russia.

Charitable Organizations
Various international non-profit groups and organizations whose goal is improve the quality of life in Russia.

Orthodox Icons
History of iconography from Byzantium to Russia; images of several ancient icons.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Russian Trivia Quizzes
Introduction to a series of interactive quizzes about Russia's history, events and people.

Leon Trotsky
Complete English text of Trotsky's "The Lessons of October."

The Genius of Shostakovich
No musician in the 20th century has been more judged for what he wrote--versus what he composed or performed--than Shostakovich. We asked one of the participants in the controversy surrounding the prolific composer's biography to fill us in.

Nikita S. Khrushchev
The political life, attempted reforms and ultimate fall of Stalin's successor. Khruschchev is known for de-Stalinizing the Soviet Union, but, also, for the Cuban Missile Crisis and failed, near impossible reforms within his own country.

End of an Era
A look back and the life of former president Boris Yeltsin shortly after his unexpected resignation on December 31, 1999.

Siberia's Iron Road
Russia's Trans-Siberian Railroad is the world's longest rail line. This article, written on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the line's founding, takes a brief look at the amazing history of this 5700 mile-long iron road...

Favorite 'Russian Life' Back Issue: Jan/Feb 2000
Russian Santa Claus, Karl Bryullov, Masha Makarova, Perm, Secret Santa Story . . .

REGULAR FEATURES

Russian Culture Update
Your Update page includes special on-line features such Time Photo Essays, Russia Journal Lifestyle reports, current ruble rate and more. As always, this page is your source for daily headlines, OP/ED, sports and business news.

Today in Russia's History - January
Key events in Russian history for the month of January.

Archived Newsletters
If you missed a previous Russian Culture Guide newsletter, they are all archived for you here!

PARTING THOUGHTS

* If you are wondering what happened to the spiral notebook border and fancy fonts . . . in these times of Internet viruses, worms, etc., many folks have set their email clients to not receive embedded graphics, special fonts and so on. For this reason, I have decided to send this newsletter in plain text so as to be certain to accommodate everyone.

* The Trotsky text spotlighted this week is the first of what will be several complete on-line texts this year. All of this material is in the public domain and can be found elsewhere on the web. The problem is, many sites place an entire book on one web page making it difficult to read on-line. I am endeavoring to break up such texts into several readable pages, enabling the reader to bookmark where they left off and return later to read more of the text. Each time a text is completed and uploaded to the site, it will appear on the homepage and in the 'Spotlight' section of this newsletter.