Better by Half

International Women’s Day, March 8, is still a rather important holiday in Russia. Not only was its celebration in 1917 a catalyst for the fateful February Revolution of that year, but it lived on to accrete all manner of meaning and significance in Russia: celebrating the equality and importance of women, while adopting many of the trappings of Valentine’s Day, where men gift the women in their lives with flowers and candy.

So when Natalia Beskhlebnaya pitched us on the idea of a story on Russia’s women diplomats (page 30), it seemed a natural that we would slot it into our March/April issue.

None of the other feature stories in this issue are explicitly related to women or women’s issues. Yet most all of the very qualified and capable individuals who staff, write, translate, edit and generally support this magazine happen to be women. We certainly don’t need a made-up holiday to celebrate or acknowledge their contributions, but I’ll take any excuse I can to give a shout out to their talents and wisdom.

And so it is with great sadness that we note the passing of one of our treasured contributors. In January, Natalia Gogolitsyna, editor of our popular Uchites language learning section, passed away suddenly while battling a difficult illness.

I became acquainted with Natalia a decade ago, when I came across an article she had written on untranslatable Russian words. I felt this needed to be developed into a book, and she eagerly took on the task, creating a title that to this day is one of our most popular books. She took over as the editor of the Uchites section in early 2016, and the column in this issue is her last.

Our hearts go out to her family and close friends. She will be missed.

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Just before this issue was going to press, we also sent to the printers the book we created for our Children of 1917 project, for which myself, Mikhail Mordasov, and Nadya Grebennikova traveled over 20,000 kilometers throughout Russia and Eastern Europe interviewing individuals born in 1917.

Resilience, the book that resulted, is, I feel, the most important book we have published in our company’s 27-year history. This is because through it we capture and convey stories that would otherwise have been lost to history. They are the life stories of ordinary but extraordinary individuals, and together they are reflective of the tumultuous century Russia endured from 1917-2017.

They are also largely the stories of women – 19 of our book’s 22 “heroes” are women – since, over the past century, war, revolution, work, and of course vodka, have all had a disproportionately negative impact on the life expectancy of Russian men. So it is appropriate that the book will ship on or around March 8.   

May we celebrate those around us each and every day, regardless of holidays, age or gender. And may you enjoy this issue, created by people who love capturing, curating, and conveying stories about the world’s largest country.