“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our friend and colleague, Stephen F. Cohen. …” Click here for: “The Passing of Stephen F. Cohen” – NYU Jordan Center/ Maya Vinokour
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“The blast was over 3,000 times bigger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.” “… [D]eclassified Russian footage [features] the 1961 Tsar Bomba hydrogen bomb test … [of] the largest bomb … detonated on Earth …. a 50-million-ton hydrogen bomb, officially named RDS-220[,] … [set off] late October 1961 … during the height of the Cold War[,] …. 26 feet long […]
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“… Putin forced through a plebiscite to zero out … constitutional limits on his rule. … [H]e can run again, in 2024, for two more six-year terms, until 2036, when he will turn eighty-four. …. Putin could have … move[d] Russia onto a stable path of institutional pluralism. Russia’s would-be democrats … Gorbachev and … Yeltsin, started out … popular […]
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MOSCOW. July 13 (Interfax) – The Russian Orthodox Church condemns racism, but believes that modern people should not bear responsibility for what their ancestors once did. “Those white people who live on earth now cannot bear responsibility for what their ancestors did a long time ago. Nevertheless, when the state authorities of countries apologize for mistakes made in the past, […]
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In her deeply researched new book, Catherine Belton tells a dark tale of … Putin’s rise to power and … 20 years as [Russian] leader …. ‘Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West‘ […]
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Subject: New book: SOVIET JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG – A New History of the International Military Tribunal // Pub. July 2020 Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2020 15:05:20 +0000 From: PAYNE, Sarah <Sarah.Payne@oup.com> Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ffJmId Standard Western accounts of The Nuremberg Trials fixate on key figures like Justice Robert H. Jackson, the U.S. chief prosecutor and Supreme Court judge, as well as […]
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“… Moscow has publicly supported the current U.S.-Taliban peace talks … [yet] has a very different perspective from the U.S. … influenced by geography and history. Russia’s current strategic posture is informed by a long history of relations with Afghanistan and above all … the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979, a strategic and military failure … still fresh in […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, June 22, 2020) Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the KPRF which is the only parliamentary party that has come out against approving the constitutional amendments by referendum, says that Vladimir Putin’s recent actions have been “not simply disappointing but depressing.” In the course of a wide-ranging 3,000-word interview with Anastaya Melnikova of […]
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“A rocket scientist in the Soviet Union, he became a U.S. citizen long after the Cold War ended. ‘I’m not a defector,’ he said. ‘I like this country.’” “Sergei N. Khrushchev … former Soviet rocket scientist … son of Nikita S. Khrushchev … died … June 18 at his home …. He was 84. The Rhode Island medical examiner’s office […]
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The Kremlin has denied it has any territorial claims on former Soviet republics after … Putin appeared to question the redrawn borders of Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union […]
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… The Kennan Institute has selected four 20th century influencers and invites you to take this quiz to see which one you match most closely with. […]
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“In the 80 years since Alexander Alekhine became World Chess Champion in 1927 until Vishy Anand took the title from Vladimir Kramnik in 2007, Russian or Soviet players held the title for all but five years – Max Euwe (1935-37) and Bobby Fischer (1972-75) were the only players to disturb the dominance. … FM Andrey Terekhov looks at those years, […]
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“A new study has revealed … a 14,000-year-old tooth belonging to a close cousin of today’s Native Americans … thousands of kilometers from the landmass that once connected Eurasia and the Americas. … suggest[ing] the Siberian ancestors of North America’s Indigenous peoples were more widespread and mobile …. Sometime about 20,000 years ago, people began to cross the eastern tip […]
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“Largely unseen footage of the funeral and official mourning following the death of Soviet leader Josef Stalin is featured in a new documentary, State Funeral, by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa. It’s being shown on Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. The mourning events were held at factories, on collective farms, town squares, and in […]
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… 75 years ago, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River in Germany at the end of the European phase of World War II. The anniversary prompted current leaders of the U.S. and Russia to transcend … frosty relations … and issue a rare joint declaration ….
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“The pandemic has derailed Vladimir V. Putin’s plans for a big military parade and a referendum extending his rule – and now knocked out his prime minister – as the Russian leader struggles to find his stride.” “This was supposed to be a moment of triumph for … Putin, a celebration of his grand successes … restoring the Russian state […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michele A. Berdy – April 29, 2020) Michele A. Berdy is the Arts Editor and author of “The Russian Word’s Worth,” a collection of her columns. On Tuesday Pushkin House in London announced its short list of nominations for the 2020 Pushkin House Russian Book Prize. The prize has been awarded annually since 2013 to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 24, 2020) Starting at 4 p.m. on Sat., April 25 until May 9 – Victory Day in Russia – the Russian Ministry of Culture and several other organizations are launching an online marathon to mark the 75 anniversary of the end of the war. On the special site, you can find a tremendous amount […]
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A meticulous account of Vladimir Putin’s consolidation of power in Russia. “… as [Catherine] Belton shows [in Putin’s People], the continuity between the Soviet agency that nurtured … Putin as a young officer, and the security-based behemoths that bestride today’s Russia lies less in institutions than in mentality. … that believes anybody can be turned; that advantage can be sought […]
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Subject: The Devil and Mr. Putin Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 From: Norman Pereira <9ngop6@gmail.com> The Devil and Mr. Putin By Norman Pereira Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Dalhousie University The post-Soviet era presents new challenges for the student of Russian history. It is not difficult to find fault with the USSR over the course of its seventy plus years’ […]
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(Article text ©2020 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Sergei Medvedev, Robert Coalson – MOSCOW, April 21, 2020 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/lenin-at-150-even-without-covid-19-russia-was-set-to-snub-the-soviet-union-s-founder/30568383.html) When the 100th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin’s birth rolled around in 1970, the Soviet Union pulled out all the stops to mark the occasion. Commemorative stamps were printed; coins were minted; medals […]
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(Vladimir Golstein – Facebook – April 14, 2020 – facebook.com/vladimir.golstein/posts/10216416791108118) “Just came across a fascinating set of letters from Chekhov on the occasion of cholera epidemics of 1892. One more proof of what an amazing individual he was. Here is his letter to his friend and publisher, a conservative journalist, Suvorin, written from Chekhov’s Melikhovo estate. …” MELIHOVO, August 1. […]
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“On March 26, IMR launched the “Russia under Putin” project, which includes a timeline of the country’s key political developments over the last 20 years. This factual digest serves not only to refresh one’s memory but also to retrace the Putin regime’s evolution and its modus operandi. IMR’s Olga Khvostunova highlights the key patterns of this regime and explains what […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 27, 2019) When the Berlin Wall fell and the USSR fell apart, it was widely assumed and even stated by Francis Fukuyama that there was “no alternative” to liberal democracy; but the last 30 years have shown that one has emerged, “Feudalism 2.0,” and in Russia first of all, Yevgeny Gontmakher […]
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(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Boris Grozovski- November 21, 2019) Boris Grozovski is a prominent Russian journalist writing about the country’s economy and development. His work has appeared in Forbes Russia, InLiberty, the Moscow Times, the New Times, Vedomosti Daily, penRussia and others. The year 2019 saw numerous signs of Russian society awakening from its post-annexation-of-Crimea slumber. Young people were […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) – The names of the victims of repressions during the Great Terror under Stalin have begun to be read as part of the Returning the Names event in front of the Solovetsky Stone in Moscow. “Today, we have gathered in front of the Solovetsky Stone as a symbol of sorrow, memory, and repentance for the 13th […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 30, 2019) On Oct. 30, 1974 a group of dissidents imprisoned in Soviet labor camps in Mordovia and Perm declared the date the Day of the Political Prisoners in the U.S.S.R. Led by Kronid Lyubarsky, the prisoners put forward a list of demands, which included recognition of political prisoner status; separation of political prisoners […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, October 21, 2019) Left-wing sociologist Boris Kagarslitsky says he is surprised by VTsIOM’s finding that only 25 percent of Russians consider themselves “victims of perestroika,” with the number ranging from 37 percent among those 60 and over down to eight percent among those aged 18 to 24. In his view, Kagarlitsky says, […]
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The European Parliament’s conflation of Soviet Communism and Nazi-Fascism, says more about the present paranoia surrounding populism than it does about the past. This distortion of history should be of grave concern for democrats across the political spectrum. (Opendemocracy.net – Jamie Mackay – October 3, 2019) Jamie Mackay (@JacMackay) is a writer and journalist based in the UK and Italy. […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Paul Saunders – Oct. 1, 2019) Paul Saunders is the chairman and president of the Energy Innovation Reform Project and a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Center for the National Interest. Book Review “The Russia Anxiety and How History Can Resolve It” By Mark B. Smith Oxford University Press, October 2019 [Amazon: […]
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“Russia is historically prone to internal collapse … shown by numerous examples from both the imperial and Soviet periods. … usually tak[ing] place as Russia rests on the laurels of recent military victories while internal economic and social troubles grow. … the best way to deal with Russia is to keep intervention to a minimum and wait for its internal […]
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(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Tony Wesolowsky, Matthew Luxmoore – August 22, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/molotov-ribbentrop-what-do-russians-know-of-key-wwii-pact/30123950.html) It’s an anniversary few in the Kremlin, or elsewhere in Russia for that matter, are keen to talk about — let alone remember in some way. Eighty years ago, on August 23, 1939, […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, August 10, 2019) “Societies which experience historical traumas, need anesthesia an psychotherapy, sociologist Roman Abramov says. That often takes the form of nostalgia for “‘the good old times,’” which in the Russian case for many but far from all was the period of Brezhnev’s rule (https://iq.hse.ru/news/301388060.html). “Waves of nostalgia became a frequent […]
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“… Putin has moved to annex former Soviet territories, orchestrated cyberattacks on foreign infrastructure and rolled back domestic democratic protections …. [I]n reality, Russia today is much weaker than either the Romanov Empire, which lasted from 1613 to 1917, or the Soviet Union. Russia’s biggest problem is internal: … fail[ing] to produce a national identity … encompass[ing] its entire population. […]
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“Russians cannot tell good from evil. Many people were shocked when a large majority of Russians named Stalin ‘the greatest Russian.’ In 1988, 8% of the citizens of the Soviet Union deemed Stalin acceptable. In 2016 the dictator’s approval rating among Russians was 54%, and in 2018 his support had increased to 70%. … researcher … Andrey Kolesnikov, explains … […]
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“The Kremlin raised the possibility of changing Russia’s Constitution after a top lawmaker proposed bolstering parliament’s powers, in a move that could help to extend … Putin’s rule. … constitutional amendments, including allowing parliament a say in forming the government, received ‘a widespread response’ and are ‘a matter for discussion,’ Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters …. Putin in 2024 […]
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“… In these 11 stories … Dr. Osipov, a Russian cardiologist, fiction writer and playwright, regards the field of medicine as though it were a hapless production of a surrealist play. … [T]he borders between hope, delusion and dishonesty are hazy and heavily trafficked. … Dr. Osipov is a master of dramatic irony, wringing bittersweet humor from what the reader […]
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“… Anders Aslund … in ‘Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy‘ … [casts Putin] as a patriarchal overlord … handsomely reward[ing] those loyal …. creat[ing] a new elite of friends, former co-workers and relatives. What’s less clear is what, if anything [can be done about it]. … [A]naly[zing] the last 15 or so years of Putin’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 24, 2019) A majority of Russians believe that the Soviet system took care of the common man and woman, according to a recent poll by the independent Levada Center pollster. Russia has seen an upward trend in positive opinions about the Soviet Union in recent years, with nostalgia toward it hitting a 14-year high […]
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“… At nearly 1,000 pages Stalingrad is slightly longer than its sequel. … Grossman places an earlier focus on the Shaposhnikov family and friends … their lives … thrown into disarray by the impending Battle of Stalingrad. Hitler’s huge offensive on the Eastern Front has driven Soviet forces into a prolonged retreat. Stalingrad … on a clifftop by the Volga […]
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(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – May 31, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/landing-at-pushkin-putin-decree-assigns-russian-airports-the-names-of-cultural-figures/29974519.html) It’s already pretty hard to travel to Russia without hearing the name of the beloved 19th-century poet Aleksandr Pushkin. Now it may be impossible, if you fly into Moscow. President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree attaching the […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, May 27, 2019) A major political crisis in Russia is “inevitable,” Valery Solovey says, not because of the economic crisis but because of “a qualitative change in the mass consciousness” of Russians who once again have come to believe that radical changes are no longer precluded and that if they are so […]
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(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Matthew Luxmoore – MOSCOW, May 25, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/flouting-law-in-nostalgia-s-name-russia-s-growing-movement-of-soviet-citizens-/29962523.html) Konstantin Vyatkin has never acknowledged the Soviet collapse. “For the past 28 years I’ve tried to live in this country called Russia,” he says. “But in my heart I still live there, in the […]
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“Q: Most narratives of post-Soviet Russia emphasize a break between Yeltsin and Putin. …. But your book[, “Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War,”] stresses that there are continuities …. [A.] I see these two periods as successive phases in the evolution of a single system. … the core differences are really matters of […]
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“… Victory Day is undoubtedly Russia’s most important, most grandly celebrated, and most political holiday. … not observed … immediately following the Second World War, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated twenty-seven million people; it became a holiday a generation later … gain[ing] in prominence as the U.S.S.R. unleashed less righteous battles abroad …. After the Soviet Union […]
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“… the Soviet Union was … a complex actor, in spite of being an ally. The fact that it was at the time ruled by a mass murderer, Joseph Stalin, doesn’t help. … Americans … don’t know what to think about the USSR’s role in the worst conflict in human history … Russia’s revanchism on the world stage today doesn’t […]
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(PONARS Eurasia – Gulnaz Sharafutdinova – May 7, 2019) Gulnaz Sharafutdinova is Reader at King’s Russia Institute, School of Politics & Economics, King’s College London. (PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo) The days of political promise the Russian liberal opposition enjoyed during 2011-12 when the “angry urbanites” protested against the regime, are long over. The Russian “progressive era” failed without even starting. […]
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(Kremlin.ru – May 9, 2019 – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60490) Thirty-five marching military bands and over 130 units of modern military equipment took part in the parade. Overall, more than 13,000 service personnel were engaged. Watching the parade on the stand together with the President of Russia were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a guest of honour, first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, May 7, 2019) Sometimes to ask a question is to answer it even if the answer is different than one intends. That appears to be the case with a Russian nationalist who asks, “Does Russia really need a Victory Parade every year?” His answer is an unabashed affirmative, but others clearly don’t […]
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“Werner Herzog says there’s a ‘subversive message’ to his new documentary ‘Meeting Gorbachev’: Talk to your geopolitical enemies. Herzog interviewed former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev three times in a six-month span to make the new film. He highlights … the reunification of Herzog’s native Germany as well as the groundbreaking 1986 arms control summit with U.S. President Ronald Reagan. […]
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