November 01, 2023 Notes from the Front Navalny's last word, history's continued revision, and a foreign correspondent's perspective Dissent Education History Political Prisoners Politics Statistics
August 15, 2023 Notes at the Front More poignant and brave “last words” of dissenters, and a look at one popular place (again) of exile. Dissent Politics Russians Abroad War
April 28, 2023 Last Words Some poignant and brave “last words” of dissenters, and some notes about the resurgence of denunciations. Dissent Espionage Internet Politics War
October 15, 2022 Notes at the Front Conviction of a journalist, regional dissent, and voices raised against the war. Dissent Journalism Media News War Women
July 15, 2022 Injustice The outcomes of political trials in Russia are mostly preordained, but activists have learned to use them as a way to speak out. Dissent Law War
March 01, 2022 QR Codes, Tretyakovs, and Airports News, states, quotes and notes from around Russia. Art Economy Government Internet
March 01, 2022 Invading Ukraine, Then vs. Now A comparison of Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014 vs. the invasion of all of Ukraine in 2022 (written two weeks prior to the invasion) Government History Military War
March 01, 2022 Twenty Years in a Siberian Gulag Excerpt from a newly published memoir, an autobiographical account of an engineer swept up into Stalin's Gulag. History
January 01, 2022 Erasing Memory The government wants to close down Memorial, while at the same time not be seen as the sort of repressive state that brought about the need for a Memorial. Lose-lose balancing act. Government NGOs Politics
January 01, 2022 Statues, Beer, and Prison Heads Our bimonthly roundup of news on Russia most others missed. Culture Environment Law Moscow
January 01, 2022 The Gambler Wife An excerpt from the new book, The Gambler Wife, a glimpse into the life and motivations of Dostoyevsky's very successful wife. History Literature Women
November 01, 2021 News and Readings from Russia The latest news and developments from Russia that may not have made it into the New York Times. Culture Environment Regions Travel
February 28, 2022 to February 23, 2032 Free Russian Language Guided Tours Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY Russian-speaking guides conduct tours of the museum's highlights every Monday at 11 am. Art Exhibit
September 13, 2023 to February 04, 2024 Komar and Melamid in America Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University | New Brunswick, NJ The joint work of the well-known Moscow-born American artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, who worked together from 1972 to 2003. Art Exhibit
September 22, 2023 to January 21, 2024 Spirituality in Eastern Christianity Museum of Russian Icons | Clinton, MA An exhibition of photographs by Alain de Lotbinière. The 26 images were taken during the course of several trips to Northern Macedonia, Serbia, and Russia, as well as during visits to sites in Turkey and Egypt. Art Exhibit
February 22, 2022 to February 22, 2032 Russian-Language Gallery Tour Brooklyn Museum | Brooklyn, NY Russian-language tour exploring our collection in depth, second Sunday of each month at 1 pm. Free, reservations required Art Exhibit
Fearful Majesty This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia The very word Siberia evokes a history and reputation as awesome as it is enthralling. In this acclaimed book on Russia’s conquest of its eastern realms, Benson Bobrick offers a story that is both rich and subtle, broad and deep.
Murder and the Muse KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
The Samovar Murders The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Resilience ~ The Russian Version (Переживем) Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
The Moscow Eccentric Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
White Magic The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Bears in the Caviar Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Marooned in Moscow This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Resilience: Life Stories of Centenarians Born in the Year of Revolution Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
Jews in Service to the Tsar Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
May 07, 2015 The Most Useful Russian Inventions What do radio, television, the periodic table, and helicopters have in common? Russians were involved in developing all of them – and more! Reference Science Russia File
February 24, 2023 Russia's Year of Horror After a year of horrific war, why does a magazine like Russian Life continue? Why not simply wash our hands of it and walk away? Culture History Journalism War Russia File
September 07, 2021 Using Laughter to Cope These eight outstanding Soviet comedies show some of what has made Russians laugh over the past century. Most are still watched today. (First in our new series on learning about Russia through its films.) Culture Through Film Russia File
March 07, 2022 Russian Life Takes a Pause As the world reels from the horrific, criminal events being perpetrated in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, the Russian state, and the Russian military, all of us who nurture a love for Russian people, their culture and history, have been heartbroken. It is not easy to remain a Russophile when suddenly, all across the globe, the adjective “Russian” has become toxic. News Russia File
August 22, 2020 Sad Smiles and Kremlin Corruption Recounting a 2008 meeting with activist Alexei Navalny, before he rose to prominence. Government Politics Russia File
February 20, 2014 Russian Genealogy A comprehensive listing of resources, online and off, for researching your Russian roots, courtesy of Ginny Audet. History Reference Russia File
