March 01, 2004 Putin Held Hostage With his reelection a sure bet, President Vladimir Putin is poised to begin his second Kremlin term. We turned to a noted satirist and opposition activist to find out what he projects for Putin 2.0.
September 01, 2002 Putin's Russia On the occasion of President Vladimir Putin's 50th birthday, we look back at how far Russia has come since January 1, 2000, and where it appears to be going.
November 01, 2011 Putin is Dead! Long Live Putin! A round up of political jokes and jabs being bandied about in the wake of Putin's announcement that he will be running for the presidency again.
April 08, 2023 Defector Reveals Kremlin Paranoia A defector offers insights into the daily life and paranoia of Russia's president.
February 22, 2000 Yeltsin's Surprise Resignation On New Year's Eve, 1999, while many braced for a possible Y2K disaster, Boris Yeltsin resigned as president of the Russian Federation leaving a little known prime minister in charge.
January 27, 2004 Putinlovefest Russia's March presidential election was exciting for about 5 minutes, when there was talk amongst "opposition" candidates of boycotting elections, to deny Putin an electoral minimum, bringing a constitutionally mandated end to his presidency. But, by minute 6, a prominent democrat had defected and enough wacko candidates were popping up in the wings to guarantee the required 50% voter turnout. Now we are ensured a Putinlovefest of unprecedented proportions. Stay tuned...
May 23, 2011 Dima, Volodya and Alice What exactly is a Russian liberal? Has this species ever been seen in the wild (by which I mean the Kremlin)? In her spot-on analysis of Russia's ruling tandem in today's Washington Post, Liliya Shevtsova highlights this question brilliantly...
February 01, 2010 Little Golden Calf Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors. Fiction
February 01, 2010 Fish This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration. Literature Fiction
June 01, 2016 Driving Down Russia's Spine The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. Nonfiction
October 31, 2024 Far & Away ~ Tales from Rural Russia 33 original stories about modern (and not so modern) life in rural Russia. Fiction
May 01, 2015 Bears in the Caviar Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of. Nonfiction
January 09, 2017 Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution. History War Nonfiction
May 01, 2011 Marooned in Moscow This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s. History Nonfiction
December 01, 2011 Faith & Humor A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life. Religion Fiction
February 01, 2009 Survival Russian Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words. Culture Language Reference Language Learning Nonfiction
March 05, 2018 Resilience: Life Stories of Centenarians Born in the Year of Revolution Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history. Nonfiction
November 26, 2013 Moscow and Muscovites Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. Culture History Nonfiction
October 01, 2013 The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers. History Literature Fiction
