June 06, 2009 Finding Russian Adventures A guide, with links, to adventure travel in Karelia and beyond. Travel Russia File
May 05, 2009 Must See Films, Must Read Fiction In our 100th issue, we have a long feature, "100 Things Everyone Should Know About Russia," with loads of factoids, notes, lists and essays. We figured our list of the "must read" fiction and "must see" movies would be a bit contentious (and certainly foreshortened). So we are posting the lists here for reader comment and supplementation... Culture Film & TV Literature Russia File
March 20, 2009 Happy Birthday Nikosha Gogol! Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol is one of Russia's greatest and yet least appreciated writers. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author of Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and other classics, said that "we all came out of Gogol's Overcoat." What he meant is that Gogol was completely unlike any Russian writer who preceded him, and that all Russian literature that followed was indebted to him. Humor Literature Russia File
February 20, 2009 Afghanistan: A Second Chance? Thirty years ago, in 1979, the Persian Gulf was a tinderbox. On January 16, following months of uprisings, the Shah of Iran was overthrown. One month later, it looked like Afghanistan’s turn. The Soviet-backed thugs running the country had imposed radical social reforms, sparking a civil war and threatening pro-Soviet rule... History Int'l Relations Politics Russia File
January 20, 2009 US News & World Report: Learn Russian! US News and World Report recommends: "Why not get ahead of the geopolitical curve and study Russian?" Language Russia File
January 14, 2009 Independence Day In most countries, Independence Day conjures up images of grand celebration, fireworks, family get-togethers, parades and so on. These celebrations commemorate the declaration and establishment of sovereignty by a colony or nation occupied and governed by another nation. This is not exactly the case with Russia's Independence Day. History Holidays Russia File
January 06, 2009 Gas Tussle Sometimes it can be hard to get at the facts. And given that the western media went way down the wrong road on the recent Georgian crisis, one is inclined to be skeptical of coverage on the current Russia-Ukraine gas spat. Environment Int'l Relations Russia File
January 01, 2009 Chtenia 5: Literal Poem Translations Literal translations of poems from issue 5 of Chtenia. Literature Russia File
December 09, 2008 Found Email I get so much spam trash, that today I decided to harvest a line or two from each spam I got (well, the PG or less ones) and shuffle them together into a found poem. Trash into art? Not quite. But something... Humor Russia File
November 14, 2008 Chekhov Complete On-line Texts Complete texts, in English, of several Chekhov short stories. Literature Russia File
October 30, 2008 How to Fail at Business While Remaining Truly Russian Saw an entry from Stanislav Mishin's Mat Rodina Blog, when it was posted to Johnson's List. A superb and well-argued summary of several things Russian business people need to attent to if they want to do business with the West. Business Humor Russia File
