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An obituary of Yelena Bonner by a fellow dissident.

Reviews of three non-fiction histories (Leningrad, by Anna Reid; Bloodlands, by Timothy Snyder; The Damned and the Dead, by Frank Ellis) and three works of fiction (The Sky is Falling, by Caroline Adderson; The New Moscow Philosophy, by Vyacheslav Pyetsukh; Separate Kingdoms, by Valerie Laken).

The latest from the travel front.

All the news that fits from all across Russia.

Readers comment and correct.

One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Lev Tolstoy made the first of several walking journeys from Moscow to Tula – a distance of nearly 200 kilometers. A pair of Americans retrace the great writer’s journey, in a considerably different Russia.

In her introduction to the next issue of Chtenia (coming in July to a mailbox near you!), Tamara Edelman writes several Russian films set in summer, including a Mosfilm classic I Step through Moscow. "Summer," she writes, "is a time for growing up, a time for educating the senses, for better understanding one's self. It is a time for transformation."

Every Russian learned a few "draznilki" (teases) in childhood. While these usually have cruel intent and may not be something you will use in your Russian, it is good to be able to recognize and understand them.

The summer, a forest north of Moscow is shaping up to be a battleground for environmental activists and construction workers...

For Russians, it is impossible to imagine life without the countless characters from our fairy tales, collected by Alexander Afanasyev, born July 1826.

Many Russians were caught abroad during the August 1991 putsch, including History Editor Tamara Eidelman.