Category Results

In 1963, a remarkable, bright, beloved film was released, launching the careers of Nikita Mikhalkov and Georgy Danilya: Walking the Streets of Moscow.

Extract from Anna Akhmatova's "Poem Without a Hero", in which she eulogized the year 1913.

They could not have known it at the time, but they were on the edge of the abyss. Revolution, war, and again war and revolution were just around the corner. But in February 1903, a grand ball was held to commemorate the 290th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

On January 13, 1863, the "eminent poet" Kozma Petrovich Prutkov passed away. Except he never really was alive.

Rumors flew this fall when President Putin stopped taking trips abroad. Just a bout of anxious Kremlinology, or is there something to it?

In response to the US Congress' passage of the Magnitsky Act, Russian legislators are planning a bit of list making of their own.

The head of the CIA and the Russian Defense Minister both fell from grace within weeks of one another, and both because of infidelity scandals. Sounds like a good pretext for a column...

In 1703 Peter the Great founded the first Russian newspaper. This is what it looked like and what it covered.

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

If even gently pressed, I will readily admit to belonging to the Just Do It school of translation. I have never been big on translation theory, not least from fear of suffering the fate of the centipede who, on being asked how he managed to walk with so many legs, promptly fell over.

The movie is almost too silly to discuss, as if Saturday Night Live decided to do a parody, but nobody but the costume-director and scene-making crew were ready. A puppet resembling Keira Knightley plays Anna; although thin, even scrawny, the animators make her look almost human.