Letters to the Editor

To the Editors:

I love your magazine and especially enjoyed the recent articles on female V.O.V. aviators and feline guardians of the Hermitage. I wonder, have you ever done any articles on motorcycling in Russia? Eventually, I’d like to get a Ural with sidecar so I can take my husband for a ride ... While in Russia, I see many sidecar rigs on village roads. And once even saw an “outlaw” biker gang in St. Petersburg, riding Ural choppers with home-machined custom accessories.

My dad, a convoy captain during WWII, delivered many Lend Lease Harleys and Indians to the northern Soviet ports. Recently I came across a factory storeroom in Ivanovo housing about a dozen vintage American war bikes. This is, of course, a biker’s ultimate fantasy come true! In the same storeroom are even more late 30’s-early 40’s BMW cycles captured from the German army. Looking through the Russian Life archives, I find nothing about motorcycling. May I suggest, perhaps you’d be interested in researching this topic?

Chapulina “Cat” Ramos

  San Diego, CA

Dear Cat:

You are correct. We have not covered this issue, but it is a great idea, and we have added it to our list of prospective articles. Thank you for your input. We value readers telling us what they would like to read about!

– The Editors

To the Editors:

Regarding your St. Petersburg Anniversary Issue cover. You could do better. It is disgusting. Who are the crying horses, anyway? Also, your showing of Lenin, quoting Stalin and less than admirable (and incomplete) description of Ksenya mausoleum are regrettable. Come now, let’s drop communist mentality.

Yours,

Sergej Chernjavsky

  By email

To the Editors:

I read your articles in the latest Russian Life on St. Petersburg with great interest. It was very comprehensive. However, I was disappointed you didn’t mention St. Isaac’s Cathedral, one of the great cathedrals of the world today.

Warren Zabloudil

Burlington, IA

To the Editors:

I have subscribed to your magazine since 1996 and have read every word of every issue from cover to cover! I think you produce an excellent magazine, and I look forward to each issue.

I just wanted to comment, however, on the Jan/Feb 2003 and March/April 2003 editions. They did not seem to have the same level of quality as previous editions. The feature articles on Prokofiev and Muslims in Russia, in particular, lacked the depth and scope of such fine articles as the series on Bulgakov and Tchaikovsky. These latter articles were very well written, combining personal insights about their subjects with historical events that were going on around them at the time, and shaping their work. The result was a fascinating and comprehensive picture of the writer/composer and his time.

The recent articles featured in the last two issues have not had this depth, and have been rather disappointing to read, though not for lack of interesting subject matter ...

As I write this, however, I have just finished the current St. Petersburg issue, which I truly enjoyed. I look forward to the next issue!

Sincerely,

V. Rudenko

by email