When a professor and police colonel were arrested and charged for printing a book in memory of the victims of Stalinist Terror, many believed officials would soon recognize the absurdity of the case. A year later, however, the Archangelsk affair shows no signs of being dropped. Is it a case of local incompetence, or an order from above, wonders Catriona Bass ?
Was the Crimean War really a crusade or was it motivated more by Russia’s need to have access to the Black Sea? Dominic Lieven reviews Orlando Figes’ new history of the conflict.
Charming old buildings in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, often listed, are being pulled down and the city disfigured. International organisations are pouring grants and loans into rebuilding projects, but there is little accountability and no building control, laments George Nonidze.
Russia’s summer of the wildfires brought about a change in society, says Andrei Loshak. Previously the only possible options for those disenchanted with the system were to take the streets or pack our bags and leave. Now we have another: self-help and self- organisation, much in the spirit of the Anarchist Prince, Peter Kropotkin
Tolstoy died on 20 November 1910, but official Russian celebrations of the centenary have been muted. Rosamund Bartlett asks why. Could it be that the Soviet ‘taming’ of Tolstoy still informs attitudes to him today and might the Orthodox Church have something to do with it too?
What else could possibly be written about Tolstoy? Before reading Rosamund Bartlett’s new biography, Susan Richards did wonder. But the fall of Soviet power has revealed material which allows us to appreciate how vividly his legacy has lived on and how relevant it remains today
The Chekhov house, garden and archive in Yalta is a site of unique international cultural importance. Short of funding, neglected and hit by a hurricane, it faced a gloomy future. A group of British actors, scholars and Chekhov enthusiasts set up the Anthon Chekhov Foundation, which both provided money for urgent repairs and helped to raise awareness of the situation in the international media. The Chekhov House has been saved, reports one of the campaign organizers Rosamund Bartlett.
Government attempts to modernise Russia are doomed because the Russian mindset remains stuck in an unchanging peasant mentality, laments film-director Andrei Konchalovsky. No change will be possible without reloading our spiritual software, but do we want to change?
Yesterday we published one of Robert & Elizabeth Chandler’s new translations of Grossman’s stories, The Road. Today, Robert Chandler writes about these stories and about Grossman’s friendship with Andrey Platonov
Robert Chandler, distinguished translator of Vasily Grossman’s novels Life and Fate and Everything Flows, has now tackled Grossman’s last stories. We bring you his and his wife’s translation of The Road, the tale of a mule wrestling with Hamlet’s dilemma on the long road to Stalingrad
Russia-China
The new year in Russia
Russia's new economy
Russian rights at the crossroads
Beyond the gastarbeiter: post-Soviet migration
Madeleine Reeves (Manchester University, UK) presents the other side of post-Soviet migration.
Regions
Russia's year of elections
Women, tradition and power in the North Caucasus
Project_ID
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
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
oDR at journalismfestival.com
Support our work
Follow oDRussia
Editor's highlights
Partner feature: Global voices
Subscribe to oDRussia Weekly
