Over The Hill

This summer marks 30 years we’ve been publishing Russian Life. The cover image above is the first issue we published, back in July 1995. It was thin, published in haste (we naively believed we could publish monthly), and frankly we had no idea what we were getting ourselves in for.

But it has been an amazing ride, through recessions, coups, countless trips to God knows where throughout Russia, and living and learning about this country’s fascinating culture, history, geography, and customs.

It has always been a long odds gamble – a print magazine in English for people (mostly Americans) interested in Russia. Yes, we found readers and followers, but it has never been lucrative. And once Russia started invading its neighbors and willfully plunged itself back into international pariah-dom, it has become barely a break-even venture (using a “very generous and irrational calculation of break-even,” as my bookkeeper put it).