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Russian Life: Sep/Oct 2009

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7: After I Leave, I'll Send You a Cup of Joe Maria Antonova
Where we look at the impact and impressions of Vice President Joe Biden's speech dissing Russia and its place in the world, just days after President Obama left Moscow and the "feel-good summit" with President Medvedev.
Note Book

19: Khrushchev visits the US Peter Carlson
Where we follow along on Nikita Khrushchev's magical mystery tour of the US in 1959...
Russian Calendar

22: Sophia's Failed Coup Tamara Eidelman
Peter I and Sophia (his elder step sister) should not have been at odds. They both carried out some of the same sorts of reforms. But you can only have one tsar...
Russian Calendar
:: Translation by Nora Favorov

25: Andrei Platonov Tamara Eidelman
Andrei Platonov was born to be a Bolshevik. And also one of the 20th century's greatest writers. He soon broke with the Party and had a tortured relationship with his art. He died in poverty.
Russian Calendar
:: Translation by Nora Favorov

28: Milky Ways Mikhail Ivanov
Fallen in the milk lately? Everyone does. Apparently some more than others. Like Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, for example.
Survival Russian
:: Illustrations/Images by Victor Bogorad

30: Moscow to Vladivostok Peter Aleshkovsky
Few trips anywhere in the world rival the Trans-Siberian Railway. A six-day, seven-night, 9250 kilometer-long trip across the girth of the world’s largest country, it is also, as novelist Peter Aleshkovsky found, a trip into Russia’s past.
Features
:: Translation by Alexei Bayer :: Illustrations/Images by Eugene Petrushanskiy

42: Baron Shafirov's Finest Hour Lev Berdnikov
Baron Peter Shafirov was a little-known hero of Russian diplomacy who also happened to be a Jew converted to Orthodoxy. He helped guide statecraft under Peter the Great, was richly rewarded and, later, soundly vilified, his in-and-out-of-favor career reflecting the tumultuous times in which he lived.
Features
:: Translation by Nora Favorov :: Illustrations/Images by Yuri Reuka

50: The Hotline Paul E. Richardson
In which we explode yet another myth. The Washington-Moscow Hotline does not employ glowing red telephones and is actually very rarely used. Yet it is still a fascinating institution, one apparently designed to sidestep common human shortcomings.
Interview
:: Illustrations/Images by Evgeny Parfyonov

55: Warm Music of Uryanhai Karina Klimenko
The mountainous, remote region of Tuva tends to be known for just two things:?postage stamps and throat singing. We take up the latter in our visit with four internationally renowned throat singers from Tuva, to find out what makes them tick... and sing.
Features

60: Southern Comforts Darra Goldstein
Boris Kustodiev's "Merchant's Wife at Tea" is the takeoff point for a discourse on revolution, nobility and fine food, in this case Rogaliki - Walnut Crescents.
Cuisine

62: Spies, Shostakovich and Gagarin's Grandson Paul E. Richardson and Stanislav Shvabrin
Reviews of the film Gagarin's Grandson, the PBS series Keeping Score, as well as the books The Lost Spy, Spymaster, Everything Flows, A Hero of Our Time and Trotsky.
Under Review

64: Paratrooper's Day Mitya Aleshkovsky
August 2 is Paratroopers' Day. Which means lots of striped-shirted guys bathing in Moscow fountains...
Post Script
:: Illustrations/Images by Mitya Aleshkovsky

65: Uchites 05 Susanna Nazarova and Evgeny Dengub
The fifth edition of our Uchites language insert, sponsored by Russkiy Mir Foundation, uses the life and work of Andrei Platonov to develop vocabulary, explore verb aspect and several issues of grammar.
Language