July 01, 2012 Catherine Ascends; Peter Falls We read history through the eyes of the victors, and in June 1762, the victor was a German-born princess newly ascended to the throne with her husband, Peter III. To history she became known as Catherine the Great.
May 27, 2012 Publishing... Flipped! It is conventional wisdom that old-fashioned, ink and pulp publishing is in its death throes. But what if there were a way to "flip" the publishing model in a manner that preserves what is good, adopts what is new and useful, and filters out what is harmful and useless? I think we have found a way... Literature Russia File
May 01, 2012 Commanding Heights This issue’s lead story almost made me sick. I’m not a fan of high places, and some of Vadim Makhorov’s thrill-seeking photos made me feel a bit vertiginous and queasy. They are that good.
May 01, 2012 Secrets of the Northern Wind The Russian North is rich in superstition and mysticism. Monsters... UFOs... shape-shifters... dwarves living underground... There seems no end to the stories. Regions
May 01, 2012 Painting Hidden Worlds A visit with Maria Kachanova, a young icon painter striving to create works of art in keeping with this centuries long tradition.
May 01, 2012 A Wealth of Literature Our review shelves were overloaded this month, necessitating more and shorter reviews. There is both great fiction (Scar, by the Dyachenkos; The Twelve Chairs, by Ilf & Petrov; The Time of Women, by Elena Chizhova; 50 Writers) and non-fiction including two Putin-focused histories and a remarkable look inside Soviet era labor camps.
May 01, 2012 A Magic Tablecloth One of the most vivid images in Russian fairytales is that of the skatert-samobranka, a self-spreading (and self-cleaning) tablecloth. We consider this magical mystery and offer a recipe for delightful pirozhki.
May 01, 2012 Cinema in the Round Before IMAX, before 3-D movies, there was Cinema in the Round. Come with us on a visit to the world’s longest functioning cinema of its type, where films are shown simultaneously on 11 massive screens.
May 01, 2012 Japan's White Russian Hurler There is not a single Russian-born player in the American Baseball Hall of Fame. Yet if the tide of history had flowed just a bit differently, Victor Starffin might well have ended up in Cooperstown alongside Ruth, Gehrig, Killebrew and Mays. Sports
