November 01, 2006 The Barefoot Shoemaker Despite having some of the world's largest oil and gas reserves and being a huge energy exporter, Russia faces the prospect of energy shortages this winter and many winters to come.
November 01, 2006 Leaving with Style What do you do when you are a forty-something translator and forced to attend a Madonna concert?
October 25, 2006 Notes from Underground [Editor's Letter for the Nov/Dec 2006 issue. By Paul E. Richardson]The day after Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated (see page 9), I was editing this issueâ??s story on Dostoyevsky (page 50) and happened to read Vissarion Belinskyâ??s infamous 1847 letter to Nikolai Gogol. The public reading of this letter (to a handful of friends) was a main reason for Dostoyevskyâ??s conviction for subversion. This famous excerpt attracted my attention: Russia File
October 25, 2006 Tiger by the tail In the November/December 2006 issue of Russian Life, we have an interesting article about recent events in Kondopoga, by Russian security expert Marina Latysheva. In the article, Latysheva asserts that certain persons of influence may have sought to exploit the events in Kondopoga. The conflict was not an ethnic backlash at all, Latysheva said, but all about local residents' battling against a t Russia File
October 17, 2006 Matryoshka - Soul of Russia The history and traditions surrounding matryoshka; Russian nesting dolls; Russia's most sought after folkart souvenir. Russia File
September 01, 2006 The Bering Strait The "discovery" of the Bering Strait happened well before Vitus Bering passed through its icy narrows.
September 01, 2006 Dmitry Shostakovich A short biography of the composer whose life was continually challenged by the Powers That Be.
