July 01, 2009 Gogol 101 In which columnist Mikhail Ivanov impresses upon his son the importance of reading Gogol, sharing several important Gogolisms along the way.
July 01, 2009 Pity the Miliman When Denis Yevsyukov went on a shooting rampage in a Moscow supermarket, it turned public (and presidential) attention toward the most corrupt of Russia's public institutions.
July 01, 2009 Alexander Godunov The god-like ballet dancer Alexander Godunov defected on August 23, 1979. It was a dramatic event, riveting the world for 3 days. And Godunov did not fare so well in the US after his defection.
July 01, 2009 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact In the spring of 1939, world war appeared inevitable. Hitler was on the march in Europe and the Soviet Union was looking to avoid war for as long as possible. By August, Stalin had decide to cast his lot with Hitler...
July 01, 2009 Socialist Realism Socialist Realism, a new art form devised by Stalin and Maxim Gorky, was pronounced to the world as the henceforth official path of Soviet art in August 1934. We look back...
July 01, 2009 Farm Preserves While variety may be the spice of life, it is the simplest food that fosters friendship, especially when it is offered from the heart. Columnist Darra Goldstein remembers her time as a guide at a US Exhibit in Moscow and shares a recipe for salted mushrooms.
July 01, 2009 The Beauty Hunter Anton Alfer has a problem. He is a model scout in the land of models. Fifty percent of the world's top models issue from the former Soviet Union. Alfer has to choose which girls will make it and which won't.
July 01, 2009 Soviet Karelia Eighty years ago, thousands of Finns who had emigrated to America were convinced to return east, to create a new, Finnish homeland in the Soviet Republic of Karelia. Things did not work out exactly as planned.
July 01, 2009 The 1959 Kitchen Debate Fifty years ago this summer, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and American Vice President Richard Nixon sparred before the media, debating the merits of Capitalism versus Communism on the site of the first-ever American Exhibition in Moscow. It set the stage for 40 years of cultural exchanged.