Current Moscow Time: 13:02:0918 May 2013
The world’s biggest country, in a magazine. Since 1956.
Russian Life: Nov/Dec 2009
Cover: Julia Valeeva
7: Dam Disaster
Russians have learned to fear August, and this year it delivered the Sayano-Shuchenskaya dam disaster, which could be a harbinger of things to come.
Note Book
15: Plyuschenko Returns to the Ice
After a three-year absence, Olympic champion Yevgeny Plyuschenko is staging a comeback.
:: Translation by Mikhail Ivanov
Sports
21: The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Editor Tamara Eidelman reminisces about how little the Berlin Wall was part of Soviet life.
:: Translation by Nora Favorov
Russian Calendar
24: Alexander Vasiliyevich Kolchak
Thirty years ago, the name "Admiral Kolchak" was only mentioned in negative terms; today it is exactly the opposite. Neither interpretation gets it right.
:: Translation by Nora Favorov
Russian Calendar
26: 12 Angry Peasants
In November 1864, Alexander II introduced jury trials to Russia. It had countless unintended effects and led to a 70-year hiatus in the practice, only recently resurrected.
:: Translation by Nora Favorov
Russian Calendar
30: Marital Squabbles
Where we examine the linguistic conventions of sparring with one's spouse.
:: Illustrations/Images by Victor Bogorad
Survival Russian
32: Winter Holidays
A colorful mix of pagan and Christian traditions influenced 19th century rural Russian Zimniye Svyatki (Winter Holidays). While many of these traditions did not survive the 20th century, they nonetheless tell us much about Russian culture today.
:: Illustrations/Images by Julia Valeeva
Features
40: Lighthouse Master
Where we visit a craggy outpost in the White Sea, meet a colorful lighthouse keeper and get a taste of real solitude and self-reliance.
:: Translation by Susanna Nazarova
:: Illustrations/Images by Natasha Beskhlebnaya
Features
48: Bolshoi Troubles
The massive reconstruction of Moscow's iconic Bolshoi Theater has been underway for four years and looks to stretch for another two. Some question if anything original will be left of the landmark when it finally reopens in 2011.
Features
52: Travels with a Patriarch
An official visit to the Solovetsky Islands in the retinue of the Patriarch offers an intimate glimpse at the resurgence of the Orthodox Church.
:: Translation by Paul E. Richardson
:: Illustrations/Images by Nikolai Gernet
Religion & Spirituality
54: Tsarina Elizabeth
"Elizabeth couldn't take her eyes off herself," wrote historian Vasily Klyuchevsky. Indeed, Peter the Great's narcissistic granddaughter (born 300 years ago this month) was infamous for being a tyrannical fashionista.
:: Translation by Leigh Mosley
Features
60: TableTop Agitprop
A look at how Soviet propaganda made it onto people's plates.
Cuisine
62: Terror, Pushkin and the Beatles
Reviews of In the First Circle, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the documentary How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, and four other books: There is no Freedom Without Bread!, by Constantine Pleshakov, Brief Lives: Alexander Pushkin, by Robert Chandler, Privet Amerika, and Terrible Tsarinas, by Henri Troyat.
Under Review
64: The Powers that Bully
When governments or their agents bully citizens, it is everyone's responsibility to speak up.
Post Script
65: Uchites 06
The sixth edition of our Uchites language insert, sponsored by Russkiy Mir Foundation, takes off on our story about a White Sea lighthouse keeper to explore antonyms, verb and adjective declensions, and offers a murder mystery puzzle.
Language