Reportage, comment and analysis from Russia's backstage

A wave of panic hits Sakhalin

Ksenya Semenova 18 March 2011
The tragedy of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami has produced chaos on the island of Sakhalin. What little information is available is regarded with suspicion. Ksenia Semyonova monitors the mounting panic.

Pioneers, Lenin and the gingerbread men: letter from Orenburg

Elena Strelnikova 17 March 2011

Over the last 20 years the teaching of history has changed dramatically in Russia. Today’s children seem not to know or care very much about their country’s past. Elena Strelnikova wonders how well they are being taught in school.

Kitchen stories: a letter from Chelyabinsk

Alexander Valiyev 10 March 2011

As a particularly harsh winter comes to a close, Alexander Valiyev reflects on recent developments in Chelyabinsk, West Siberia. While the authorities gained a lot, increasing their grip on the power vertical by canceling local elections, it was, as ever, the little man who came off worse...

Mangoes can’t buy you love: letter from Orenburg

Elena Strelnikova 21 February 2011
External factors like the Internet, post-Soviet economic upheaval and the availability of exotic fruit have given young Russians a different system of values and approach to life. Mother of three Elena Strelnikova gives a wry overview of parenting in provincial Russia.

Friends and neighbours: religious harmony in Tatarstan?

Oleg Pavlov 4 February 2011
In a world riven by the conflict between Christianity and Islam, the Republic of Tatarstan offers a heartening example of centuries of peaceful coexistence, even though the Caucasus with its religious and ethnic problems is not far away. Long may it last, hopes Oleg Pavlov.

Russian regional elections: business as usual

Elena Strelnikova 17 November 2010
Voting at the recent local elections in Orenburg Oblast was listless and perfunctory. Voters don’t know the candidates, who in their turn make no attempt to remedy the situation, so why should people turn out to vote for them? Elena Strelnikova tries to make sense of the election process

Outcasts — inmates of the Black Eagle

Ekaterina Loushnikova 27 October 2010
In Stalin’s time there were nearly a hundred GULag camps in Ivdel. Today, the maximum security penal colony FBU-IK 56 survives in their place. Ekaterina Lushnikova travelled there to speak to the inmates — some of Russia’s most hardened criminals.

A lesson for Luzhkov? Tatarstan’s Shaimiev shows how to cling on to power

Oleg Pavlov 8 October 2010
In March 2010, Minitimer Shaimiev, the two-decade figurehead of Tatarstan, resigned when prompted by the federal centre. It was the end of an era, locals thought, yet eight months on the Tatar President has yet to leave the building. Oleg Pavlov wonders whether obedient subordination and quiet diplomacy has allowed Shaimiev to avoid the fate of his opposite number in Moscow, Yuri Luzkhov

Down on the farm: a history lesson in Kazan

Oleg Pavlov 20 September 2010
Stalin’s collectivization of agriculture in the USSR in the 1930s led to famine, repression and widespread family tragedy. Oleg Pavlov visited a school in the capital of Tartarstan to find out how this period is being taught now

Oryol: when the ‘new nobility’ turned terrorist

Elena Godlevskaya 13 September 2010
The sleepy city of Oryol has erupted in terrorism. Investigations revealed how frustration at the state of Russia led security officers — the new nobility as their former boss calls them — to join the Oryol Partisans. Is this a one off or part of a wider movement?

Laid low by the heat

Elena Strelnikova 20 August 2010
The Russian heat wave has been going on for weeks. From her dacha Elena Strelnikova gives a wry account of officials on freebies, water shortages and the catastrophic effects of the lasting heat on fruit, crops, milk yields and life in the Orenburg Region in general.

Summer days at the dacha

Elena Strelnikova 30 July 2010
In theory, Russians can holiday abroad these days. In practice, most can't afford it. Still, there are the pleasures of summer days at the dacha. But what with falling water levels and paying beaches, things aren't what they used to be. It's hard work too, growing vegetables, grumbles Elena Strelnikova

Teaching History in Orenburg

Elena Strelnikova 4 May 2010

Against a backdrop of an ever increasing politization of the Soviet past, journalist Elena Strelnikova returned to her old classroom. Her fly-on-the-wall account shows the contentious debates played through the eyes of 14-year-olds.

Parroting history

Elena Godlevskaya 23 April 2010
History teaching has fallen victim to politics in Russia. Educational standards are falling and children are not being taught to think. They learn that Russia is great, but not the reasons why. Could this be because it is easier to run a nation of naïve, illiterate people who do not know their history?

Life and death of an independent newspaper in Oryol

Elena Godlevskaya 1 March 2010

In 2004, some local journalists in Oryol founded an independent newspaper ‘for those who want the truth’. Although it sold well, members of staff were subject to threats, bribes, attacks and arson. Still, it lasted four years.

Winter Storm in Tatarstan

Oleg Pavlov 27 January 2010
Jobs are scarce, pension rises mediocre and the local authorities have even taken away the Christmas trees. But despite the disquiet, appetite for protest in Tatarstan remains low, says Oleg Pavlov

Fleeced. A letter from the Russian provinces

Elena Godlevskaya 6 January 2010
Corruption has always been part of Russian life, and the Oryol region today just offers a rather extreme example, says Elena Godlevskaya. Some of the main perpetrators have been named, but the punishment being meted out to them is a joke.

Perm blaze sets Russia alight

Elena Strelnikova 21 December 2009
The recent catastrophic fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm grabbed national headlines. Local authorities all over Russia are suddenly having to get their act together, says Elena Strelnikova

Panicking about swine flu in Orenburg

Elena Strelnikova 9 December 2009
The region is gripped by swine flu panic, much of it orchestrated, in the opinion of Elena Strelnikova. But every cloud has a silver lining – we’re all having unscheduled holidays

Life with a Heart Complaint

Elena Godlevskaya 26 November 2009
Life in Oryol has changed little since Ivan Turgenev wrote about it 160 years ago, though the villages he described are disappearing. Earlier this year President Medvedev removed the governor who had been in place for 16 years and some of his officials are now on trial. The resulting snap elections may well benefit the communist party, says Elena Godlevskaya

Regions

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Russia's year of elections

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Privatizatsiya, twenty years on

Russian economy: trying to please people doesn’t help, Dmitry Travin

Privatisation, but no private property, Andrei Zaostrovtsev

Is corruption in Russia's DNA?, Pyotr Filippov

The Russian banking system: between the market and the state, Pavel Usanov

Russia’s crony capitalism: the swing of the pendulum, Vladimir Gelman

Russian reforms, twenty years on. Introduction to the series, Dmitry Travin

Women, tradition and power in the North Caucasus

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The new year in Russia

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Russia's new economy

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Project_ID

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Russia-China

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Russian rights at the crossroads

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Beyond the gastarbeiter: post-Soviet migration

Madeleine Reeves (Manchester University, UK) presents the other side of post-Soviet migration.

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The Russian media

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