Ivan the Terrible has gone down in Russian history as a symbol of unbridled cruelty and unlimited power. But times are changing. In Putin’s Russia, people are finding positive qualities in this…
Category: Life
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Alexei Navalny’s Posthumous Memoir ‘Patriot’ Shortlisted for Pushkin House Book Prize 2025
“Let’s face it,” wrote Alexei Navalny, shortly before his murder in prison, “If a murky assassination attempt using a chemical weapon, followed by a tragic demise in prison, can’t move a book, it’s hard to imagine what…
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When Kitchens Became Factories in the Soviet Union
The Soviet factory kitchen invented in the 1920s was supposed to be a breakthrough into a bright future — a future where women were not oppressed in the kitchen and where beautiful and free people…
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Remembering the War: Grigory Baklanov and a ‘Life, Twice Given’
My father, the Jewish Russian writer Grigory Baklanov (born Friedman in 1923), was 17 when in June 1941 the Nazis invaded the U.S.S.R. Although too young to be drafted and exempt from active duty by his employment, he managed to enlist…
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Bondianna: Anna Chapman’s Spy Memoir, Real and Imagined
Anna Chapman (nee Kushchenko) briefly enjoyed the international spotlight when she was arrested in New York and later exchanged in a a large spy swap.
In June 2010 Anna Chapman and nine others were arrested by the FBI for failing to…
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‘The Baton and the Cross’ by Lucy Ash Shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2025
“If there is no God, everything is permitted,” wrote Dostoyevsky. “The Baton and The Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin,” the first book by former Moscow correspondent Lucy Ash, explores the provocative…
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Wrap Anything in Dough and Call it a Pie
Pirogi (pies) have always held a place of honor on the Russian table. Fish pies have come down to us from ancient times barely influenced by foreign culinary traditions, making them a truly national…
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Howard Amos’ ‘Russia Starts Here’ Shortlisted for Pushkin House Book Prize 2025
“Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire” is Howard Amos’s debut book, but it doesn’t read like one. That’s not surprising. He is a seasoned journalist and editor who has…
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What’s in a Name? Everything if Your Blinis are Called ‘Benderiki’
Do you think you know everything there is to know about pancakes and blinis? Well, think again; here’s something you might not have heard of. No one knows if Stepan Bandera liked this dish, but today…
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Exiled Electronic Duo AIGEL Crashes the Dancefloor With ‘Killer Qız’
It’s murder on the dancefloor.
In the propulsive opening track to exiled electronic duo AIGEL’s new album, vocalist Aigel Gaisina inhabits the role of a DJ whose beats kill a “fool old man” on…
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