Russian History

What Happens Next in Russia?

2012-01-09T10:37:00.002-05:00

See Jeff Tayler's article in The Atlantic,Russia's Protest Movement: Big, Angry, and Preparing for the Worst. Not sure what to make of this or the earlier demonstrations in December, but given the previous prevention of such outbursts by the Putin-Medvedev governments, one can only wonder what is up. The elections this spring will certainly be interesting, but don't expect the unexpected.

Having just celebrated, in our own modest way, Russian Christmas, I found this article very interesting, Over 2 million Russians visit churches on Christmas.

Krokodil and Drug use in Russia

2011-10-07T09:01:00.003-04:00

Shaun Walker, Krokodil: The Drug That Eats Junkies
I will have to do some more research on drug use around the world when I get a chance to put this in proper perspective.

Nicholas Riasanovsky in memoriam

2011-09-25T11:10:00.001-04:00

Professor Nicholas Riasanovsky (1923-2011), long time professor of Russian history at the University of California, Berekey, died earlier this year--yes, I agree, that sometimes it takes news a long time to reach me. He was one of the key figures in the development of Russian history studies in the US, as his graduate students filled positions everywhere in American universities, and everyone used his popular History of Russia, now in its eighth or ninth edition. Here is the link to the New York Times obituary and one from UC Berkely. I met him once in the 1980s when he visited the University of Virginia. I do not recall really speaking with him at all; what I do recall was that he was a passionate sports fan and insisted that he attend a UVa soccer game while he was there. He later wrote up some notes for me about how he got interested in Russian history as a field of study.

The Return of Putin

2011-09-24T09:18:00.002-04:00

There are headlines everywhere about the decision of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev to flip-flop positions. That means that Putin would again become president, and then Medvedev would become prime minister when their current terms are up. See for example,
Putin to Run for Presidency in 2012. There is also a lot commentary, for example, Analysts' View: Putin to Return to the Kremlin. Again, this is not really surprising, since Putin is the real force in Russian politics, and he is going to stay the main force; whatever formal political position he holds. It is also clear that there is currently no one who has any sort of mandate to challenge him--that person would also have to be especially brave. This also means that Russia, much like the US, is kind of stuck in a holding pattern--although for different reasons that what is happening in the US--and that critical socio-economic challenges to both societies are not going to be resolved in the upcoming next few years.

Russia, Exxon and the Arctic

2011-09-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

The NPR headline reads
Exxon In Multibillion-Dollar Russian Arctic Deal. I wonder if Exxon studied the experiences that Shell had in working with the Russians on the huge Sakhalin Island project.

War and Peace redux

2011-08-05T08:07:00.002-04:00

Having just finished up the 1500 pages of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet, I decided tha I should continue to read "big books" and that it was time for me to get back to my roots and re-read Tolstoi's War and Peace. This will be at least my third go-round at it, and I am looking forward to the new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I still think that this book perfectly captures an era of Russian history--that is not exactly a rocket science deduction--but I am most interested in taking another look at Tolstoi's views on history.

Chernobyl, 1986-2011

2011-05-02T14:01:00.002-04:00

Hard to believe that it is now the 25th anniversary of the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl. There has been a lot of coverage in the news, especially in light of the nuclear problems that are occurring at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan after the tsunami. See, for example, A Nuclear Cautionary Tales turns 25. Strange, there are still people poking around the Chernobyl Exclusion zone (much of the area is a modern-day ghost town), and there are even some residents who have returned to live there. There are a lot of answers to common questions on the IAEA site. Please note this: "The initial explosion resulted in the death of two workers. Twenty-eight of the firemen and emergency clean-up workers died in the first three months after the explosion from Acute Radiation Sickness and one of cardiac arrest." From what I recall, those fireman stood above the core as it melted down and frantically directed water onto the core in an effort to reduce the magnitude of the disaster. They had to know that they were going to die from the radiation exposure.

Interesting Russian Demographics

2011-01-04T10:38:00.003-05:00

I had to look up some numbers for a short presentation that gave recently. They were actually a bit shocking. Russia is still a big country in terms of square mileage (6.5 million sq. mi. according to state.gov, but the population is now only about 142 million (same source). Then I checked the CIA factbook:
Population growth rate: -0.465%, which was 222/233 in the world
Very surprising numbers.

С Рождеством и Новым Годом

2011-01-04T10:35:00.002-05:00

Russian Christmas (old style) will be celebrated this first week of January. Tradition has it that it usually snows on, or around, Russian Christmas.

Nukes and Russian Posturing

2010-11-30T13:29:00.002-05:00

Medvedev sees arms race if missile shield not agreed. That was the recent headline by BBC news. Further, the article began: "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said a new arms race could begin in the next decade if Nato and Moscow fail to agree on a joint missile shield." Really, a new arms race?

Back to the Katyn Forest

2010-11-28T07:58:00.002-05:00

There was a recent news story, "Russian parliament: Stalin ordered Katyn massacre," last week that explained that Russia is still dealing with the repercussions of the Katyn Massacre, which occurred during World War II. Former Russian President Eltsin had initially taken steps in the direction of acknowledging Russia's responsibility for the crime, but since 2000 little had been done. Then earlier this year, there was the disaster of the Polish airliner, with key Polish government officials crashing on their way to a Katyn memorial. This happened just outside of Smolensk. (There is a wiki entry on the crash.) Now the Russian Duma has passed some sort of statement noting that yes, it was Stalin, that ordered the massacre.

Russia Burns

2010-08-18T13:06:00.002-04:00

It has been a record-setting summer temperature-wise for most of Russia, and this has lead to the outbreak of forest fires everywhere. The most dangerous were in the western reaches of the country where much of the area had been contaminated by fallout from the Chernobyl accident back in the 1980s.

Unrest in Kyrgyzstan

2010-04-11T10:16:00.003-04:00

Trouble has again erupted in the former Soviet republic (now an independent country) of Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic). Since independence in 1991, and then the subsequent Tulip Revolution of 2005, political stabiity has been difficult to come by, primarily because of ongoing corruption issues and the failure to the government to develop any sort of firm economic basis for the country's citizens.

Katyn Tragedy Redux

2010-04-11T10:10:00.002-04:00

As if the first Katyn Forest massacre was not enough, Poland now must mourn again. A plane of Polish army and political leaders crashed in heavy fog conditions as they were on their way to a memorial service at Katyn (60 years since the original massacre in 1940 of Polish military leaders by the Soviet secret police and military on the orders of Stalin). The memorial service was to be attended by PM Vladimir Putin himself as a gesture to improving Polish-Russian relations, which have tended to be quite frosty over the years.

S novym godom

2010-01-18T09:50:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year. I have not been very good about posting to my blog about events in Russia. Mostly because I have been swamped with grading (end of semester in December and start of semester in January). We have been having pretty good enrollments in our online HIS 241 course (History of Russia I) the past few semesters of about 20 per semester--not that many actually finish the course. HIS 242 (History of Russia II) usually enrolls fewer, about 7-10 students.
In the meantime, Russia is experiencing an economic crisis,much like most of Western Europe and the United States, but a recent article pointed out how much of the economy has turned "underground" or non-official or illegal.

Gorbachev

2009-09-21T18:37:00.002-04:00

Interesting article in the Washington Post, How Gorbachev Slowed the Arms Race (21 September 2009), b David Hoffman and adpated from The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2009)--aside, the article was buried on page A11. Anyway, it remains somewhat amazing to me why few Russians to this day appreciate the kind of efforts that Gorbachev undertook to end the arms race (and thus the Cold War). In addition, there was his attempt to re-invigorate Soviet society and re-orient the economy away from military and heavy industry spending. I still believe that he was the major player in bringing about the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the destruction down of the wall, and really the end of the Cold War.
ps. Another fine article in the Post dealt with the effort to control fissionable Uranium in the former republics of the Soviet Union, in this case Kazakhstan, Half a Ton of Uranium -- and a Long Flight by David E Hoffman.

September Days

2009-09-21T13:40:00.002-04:00

Recent news that Russia was willing to scrap missiles along the Polish border after the US declared something about abandoning a European missile shield. What nonsense. As if anyone in Russia believed that the US was still aiming missiles at Russia--actually who knows where they are pointing these days. And as if the Poles were a real security threat to the integrity of Russia. Ah, the games people play.

Talking about Trotskii

2009-08-10T08:18:00.003-04:00

Check out the dialogue between Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service on the legacy of Trotskii, or whether there ever really was a Trotskiite alternative to Stalinism. This was part of the Uncommon Knowledge program (You might need to check the August 2009 archives).

Another Russian Journalist Has Been Murdered

2009-07-19T12:04:00.003-04:00

The editorial piece by Tanya Lokshina, Another Voice Silenced in Russia (Washington Post, 17 July) documented yet another in a long series of "mysterious murders" of journalists who have dared to criticize the Russian government's actions, particularly those that have occurred in Chechnya.

Hoopla over Summit

2009-07-14T14:46:00.002-04:00

President Obama visited Russia, and pretty much nothing was accomplished, and pretty much all has been forgotten. One wonders if President Obama has invited President Medvedev to visit the US (alone and without Vladimir Putin).
Anyway, the economies in both the US and Russia have hit the skids in the last year, and both have been trying some desparate measures to keep people employed.
Both the US and Russia are involved in tangled foreign policy issues, Afghanistan and Chechnya to name but two.

Lenin Statue in St. Petersburg Damaged

2009-05-21T20:48:00.002-04:00

Well, someone with an axe to grind blew a large hole in one of the few remaining Lenin statues in Russia, this one famously in St. Petersburg, home to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. See Bomb Blows Hole in Lenin Statue.

Kremlin Still Re-Writing History

2009-05-20T12:47:00.002-04:00

In yet another attempt by the Putin-Medvedev regime to control ideas in Russia, see
Medvedev Creates History Commission, an article which recently appeared in the Wall Street Jounral online. From what we have seen in the past both in Russia and also on a larger scale in the world, these kinds of thought-control activities can work in the short run, but do not work in the long run.

Weird Anti-Khrushchev Conversation Taking Place in Russia

2009-05-19T13:27:00.002-04:00

See the recent article, The Trial of Leonid K. Amazing how the ghosts of a missing-in-action Russian airman from World War II can animate political discourse in contemporary Russia.

Nikolai Gogol and Taras Bulba

2009-05-17T12:07:00.002-04:00

I'm a little late on this but back in April Russia unveiled a new, blockbuster film version of Gogol's short story Taras Bulba. The story which loosely fits into the late medieval period of Russian-Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian history deals with a rogue Cossack who sallies out to do battle with the Poles--not quite in the nature of a Robin Hood. Russia designed the film for overtly nationalistic and patriotic intentions to show a mighty Russia (that of course included Ukraine) defending church and state from the infidels from the west. Gogol's intentions are a bit murkier, and his writings caused a lot of uproar back in their own day. He straddled the fence between Russia and Ukraine, between support for the tsar and critique of the system, between support for the system and critique of the tsar. Critics and commentators both in Russia and Ukraine and also abroad have made much of the cultural overtones of the film and the intentions of both countries to claim Gogol, but everyone makes films like this. Look no farther than such stuff as The Patriot (2000).

Medvedev Letter in the Washington Post

2009-04-01T14:28:00.002-04:00

Yes, there are curious happenings in the world these days (apart from the economic catastrophe). Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev published a letter (Building Russian-US Bonds) on the Washington Post op-ed page, yesterday, 31 March, a day before the G-20 summit was set to open in London. Maybe this (after President Obama's letter earlier this year) could be the start of a process that might see an end to the baiting and bad relations between the US and Russia. There is too much in the world that the two countries could be cooperaating on.

Russia's Economic Crisis

2009-03-26T09:25:00.002-04:00

Unfolding in Russia is a similarly damaging economic crisis such as that sweeping through most other countries in the world. It has been especially problematic in Russia because of the economy's reliance on the export of oil to generate rubles. Still, Russia had manged to accumulate a large horde of monetary reserves over the last few years, and that should help. There was an article this week in USA Today that reported on a government program that would aid the many craftsmen who make Matryoshka (nesting) dolls, since no one seems to be buying the crafty little wodden dolls these days. Well, the government will and then stockpile them. The aid program is very similar, in a way, to what the US government is aiming to do with its stimulus package.

Russia v. Ukraine

2009-01-18T09:55:00.002-05:00

Playing out the rivalry on the natural gas front, another round in the dispute between Russia and Ukraine has turned particularly nasty this January and ended up affecting millions of people in Europe. In a nutshell, Ukraine owes Russia a lot of money for natural gas; Russia earns a lot of money selling natural gas in Europe; for Russia to make that money the gas that it is selling has to transit Ukraine through the Ukrainian pipeline system. Now there are historical and cultural factors complicating this dispute, and there is no doubt some hardball politics being played by Russian leaders to demonstrate to Ukraine that Ukraine does not belong in a relationship with NATO and Western Europe but that Ukraine rightly belongs in a relationship with Russia (back to the good old Soviet Union days). So, why not split the difference, Ukraine raised its transit fees; Russia lowers prices to Ukraine, and it all balances out

Russia's Economic Crisis

2008-12-30T11:22:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note.
Read today in the news about the continuing devaluation of the Russian ruble and had read also recently about how the world economic crisis was going to end up affecting Russia. Since the country depends so much on the export of natural resources (oil and gas) for its foreign exchange balance, and with the collapse of prices for those commodities in the past six months as the world passes into a global recession, Russia is not going to be immune from the troubles, despite its huge cash reserves amassed over the past few years.

Russian Orthodox Chrismas

2008-12-30T11:19:00.002-05:00

Now that we are in a new century, the celebration is on January 7th. When I was much younger, and my family celebrated the holiday (My grandparents emigrated from Russia in 1912), it was always January 6th; it simply is a matter of different calendars in use by the orthodox and western churches. Anyway, the rule of thumb was that it always snowed on Russian Christmas, but the last few years that has not been the case--it's been more like a tropical day in the Eastern US.

Pet Shop Boys and Live 8

2008-08-24T10:10:00.002-04:00

Just happened to recently see the clip of the Pet Shop Boys singing Go West as part of the Live 8 concerts (July 2005) on a stage set up right on Red Square in Moscow, with St. Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin Wall in the backdrop. It was truly an amazing sight! What immeidately came to mind was the deteriorating state of relations between Russia and western countries such as the United States and Great Britain, culminating in the current stalemate over the Russian occupation in Georgia. I don't think that another concert could be staged in Moscow such as was done just three years ago. Seems kind of weird how quickly things can change on the international playing field.

Conflict in the Caucasus

2008-08-12T08:23:00.002-04:00

In the news this week, during the so-called Olympic truce," fighting has broken out in the Caucasus between Russia and Georgia over control of South Ossetia, a region whose control has been in dispute for some time now.

Back to Putin Again

2008-06-08T17:28:00.003-04:00

Just finished reading a column by Roy Medvedev entitled "The New Czar." In the short piece, Medvedev, Russian historian and noted author of Let History Judge, reviews approvingly the accomplishments of Putin's eight years as prime minster and terms him the "one Czar in Russia today," and someone who "looks at Peter [the Great] as a role model. The czar analogy must be in vogue in the US and West European press these days, as when I googled the phrase "the new czar," quite a few references to Putin returned. While he may be powerful, and while he may have some authoritarian (although that is not quite the adjective that I was looking for), Putin still operates within the framework of a political democracy (although the exact nature of that democracy may be debated) and of a capitalist economy, unlike any past "czar." Indeed, since most do not even use the "czar" spelling, which has long been considered antiquated, anymore, one wonders about the message being sent by commentators who persist in applying it to Putin's Russia.

Burnt by the Sun Again

2008-06-01T07:23:00.002-04:00

A front page article in the Washington Post yesterday noted that director Nikita Mikhailov, whose 1994 film Burnt by the Sun won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, is working on the film's sequel (a two-part Burnt by the Sun II), which will deal with the Russian experience in World War II, on a scale hither-to-unseen in the Russian cinema. To do that he will bring back characters who supposedly died at the end of the first film. Although I did not particularly enjoy the original movie, most of my friends did. Take a moment and read the article, which also notes the role that Mikhailov's father played in the writing of the Russian national anthem.

Putin as Prime Minister

2008-05-19T09:08:00.002-04:00

Vladimir Putin, formerly Russia's president, became Russia's new prime minister on May 8th, just hours after stepping down from his presidential post. He then proceeded to set up his own "presidium" of important government ministers that will directly meet with/report to Putin himself. There will still be a cabinet of ministers that formally are responsible to the president Dmitrii Medvedev. The similarities to the political structure of the Soviet Union in the 1970s are eerie (See, for example, Jerry Hough et al, How the Soviet Union Is Governed).

Missing Romanov Family Found

2008-05-01T10:22:00.001-04:00

There have been a number of recent articles about the fact that recent DNA tests on some bone remains unearthed near Ekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains of Russia, where the Russian royal family was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 on the orders of Lenin. Anyway back to the story, the DNA tests prove that the remains are those of the tsarevich Aleksei (heir to the throne) and his sister Marie. The remains of the other members of the imperial family (tsar Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, Anastasia, Olga and Tatiana) has all been previously located. They had been reburied in the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral (the family's imperial burial place) in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg in 2000. The identification of these last remains closes one of the last mysteries related to the Romanov family.

Solzhenitsyn

2008-05-01T10:21:00.000-04:00

Almost missed it, but when I was doing some research on Solzhenitsyn for our One Day in the Life assignment, I realized that he will be ninety years old this year. Further, I saw that there were some recent news items, mostly interviews with his wife, that indicated that he is in rapidly, failing health, but that he is still hard at work writing everyday and overseeing the publication of his collected works in 30 volumes--an undertaking that is proceeding at about 5 volumes per year. So it will take some time to publish everything, and these volumes do not include his unpublished materials. He has lead an almost miraculous life, and I don't really see any intellectual or cultural figure on the Russian landscape that even comes close to what he has accomplished or his importance. (After being expelled from the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn and his family lived in Vermont until his return to Russian in 1994.) Read his August 1914 sometime.

Russian Movie Series

2008-04-27T09:30:00.002-04:00

The National Gallery of Art is presenting a series of Russian films as part of its, Envisioning Russia: Mosfilm Studio, running May 24th through June 29th in the East Building auditorium. Some of these films are rarely available--most are never shown on the big screen in the US--and there are quite a few that I've never seen.

Russian Culture

2008-04-20T09:32:00.001-04:00

It would be great if more of you chose to read one of the great Russian classic novels instead of opting for a movie or doing something not-so-demanding on the web. Some of the Russian literary works of the nineteenth- and early twentieth century can be counted among the world's greatest, and you should read them sometime.

The Revolutionary Movement

2008-04-13T08:23:00.002-04:00

Well, with week 13 of the HIS 241 class, we turn our attention to the revolutionary movement that emerged in Russia in the reign of Aleksandr II. Next week, we will look at cultural developments. One thing to remember is that the "impact" of the revolutionary movement was out of all proportion to its rather tiny size. Really a very small segment of the educated class was involved in oppositional activities, yet that segment was very vocal in publicising their ideas for the future of Russia.

Aleksandr II

2008-04-06T08:54:00.002-04:00

When Aleksandr II ascended the throne of Russia, he had to immediately confront the issue of the Crimean War. In a way, the situation resembled a cruel joke that had been played on Russia. In 1815, Russian armies stood victorious in the triumph over Napoleon, and it was tsar Aleksandr I who had led the march down the Champs Elysees in Paris. (almost) Nicholas II had then ruled Russia for over twenty years, seemingly emphasizing the military might of Russia that entire time and ruling like a commanding general, but then along came this nasty little conflict between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and suddenly the allies that had helped Russia in the struggle with Napoleon were turned against Russia and allied with the Turks. In addition to that little bit of irony, it was the Turks, French and British who invaded Russian territory on the Crimean peninsula, and it was those armies, supplied over a tenuous thousand mile sea voyage, who were doing better than the Russian armies. While the Russians fought bravely, they were terribly under-supplied and forced to fight in dreadful circumstances. So, when Aleksandr became tsar he had to deal with the war situation (he almost immediately began peace negotiations which turned out better than the Russians could have expected), and then he had to figure out what had put Russia into the debacle. His answer was that Russia needed to reform itself if it was to remain a great power.

Marvelous Decade; the Russian 1840s

2008-03-30T08:12:00.003-04:00

Although Russia in the 1840s was ruled by the strictly authoritarian tsar Nicholas I, and although Russian intellectual life had sharp boundaries to it as a result of the tsarist censorship and secret police, there still existed within Russia in the 1840s a lively debate carried out about the nature of Russian society and the its future. That debate took place in private drawing rooms, in coffee houses, in lecture halls at the University of Moscow and even in the published press. There was such a variety of terms in that discussion and such a diversity of areas explored that later historians, and indeed some of the participants themselves, called it a golden age, a marvelous decade. It was a time during which many of the foundations were set for future intellectual and cultural developments in Russia (Need we only mention the names of Belinskii, Dostoevskii, Tolstoi, Herzen...) One caveat to remember is that although this was truly a ferment, it only involved a very small portion of the country's population as Russia remained, in the 1840s, overwhelmingly rural, overwhelmingly peasant and overwhelmingly illiterate.

Sparrows Point

2008-03-24T11:17:00.002-04:00

Not sure how many of you saw the short notice in the Washington Post's business section the other day about the imminent sale of the Sparrows Point steel plant in Baltimore to the Russian steel company OAO Severstal, which is controlled by the super wealthy Alexei Mordashov (top 100 of Forbe's richest people in the world). The Sparrows plant was once the pride of Bethlehem steel, one of the great American steel firms that went bankrupt in 2001--though it had long before that ceased to be a force in the steel industry. For someone who grew up near the main plant of the "steel," as it was always known, in Bethlehem, PA, and as someone who knew a lot of older men who worked there to support their families through the twentieth century, it has always felt a little unsettling that the management of the company could end up letting that company come to nothing. Strangely, this purchase of the Sparrows Point plant could benefit a lot of people in Baltimore and also turn out to be a very good deal for the US steel-making industry

Russian Winter

2008-03-09T09:07:00.004-04:00

Well, winter is just about over here in Northern Virginia, and while it may have been a snwoy winter in much of the Midwest, we had a mild winter (about 3 degrees above normal) with little snowfall (about 5 inches total!). My impression was that much of European Russia also had a relatively mild winter with little snow through mid-February, but I am not sure of the end.

Russian Current Events Sources Available Online

2008-03-09T09:04:00.002-04:00

Just found a very useful list of online Russian newspapers and news sources available in English (and Russian) at worldnewspapers.com.

Russian Presidential Elections

2008-03-02T07:36:00.002-05:00

The 2008 Russian presidential elections are underway now, as voters are expected to choose Vladimir Putin's choice of Dmitrii Medvedev to take over as president. It is expected that Putin will move from the presidential office in May when his term is over, to the office of prime minister. Experts expect that he will continue to dominate Russian politics from that post, but no one knows quite what to make of Medvedev who has never held elective office before.

Midterm, Alexander I and Napoleon

2008-03-02T07:33:00.002-05:00

You should be taking your midterm exam now, with the essay question dealing with Alexander I and the creation of the Holy Alliance. (Remember that you must take the exam by 26 March to avoid being automatically removed from the course).

Washington Post's Russia Advertising Section

2008-02-27T13:20:00.003-05:00

Well, today is Wednesday, and the Washington Post includes every Wednesday a special, pull-out "Russia: Beyond the Headlines" special advertising supplement produced by Rossiyskaya gazeta. I'm curious if any of you are reading it (or even aware of it) and what your thought might be. Is it news, or what kind of news is it? Why publish a special supplement? Who wants it published? I've got a lot of questions.

Eating and Drinking Russian Style

2008-02-24T07:53:00.003-05:00

There are few truly "Russian" food items found in the major supermarkets in Northern Virginia, but there are at least two specialized stores located in Herndon and McLean that carry Russian (and also East European) food and drink items--I tend to buy a lot of Russian chocolates and some very good Polish beer. (In reality, the Zywiec brewery. is now run by Heinekin. ) Although you can't find a lot of Russian prepared food items at the market, you can easily cook like a Russian as cabbage, beets, fresh vegetables, fish, etc are always around.

Kosovo and the Russians

2008-02-18T07:46:00.003-05:00

A diplomatic crisis of sorts is in the works now as a result of the Declaration of Independence issued by the Republic of Kosovo on the night of February 17th 2008. Both Serbia and Russia are upset, and much of Russia's anger seems directed at the United States (always a convenient target), the UN and NATO. Russia has long seen itself as the protector/liberator of the Slavic populations of the Balkans. Russia was at war with Turkey a number of times, usually for purely Russian goals, but Russian always espoused a rhetoric of liberating the oppressed peoples of the Turkish empire. So that Russian messianic view of manifest destiny in the Balkans dates back to the nineteenth century and the gradual creation of the independent Balkan countries from the Ottoman Empire. The main beneficiary of Russian support over the years has been Serbia, which has set its mission as the rightful unifier of all Balkan peoples, even though many of those peoples do not necessarily want to live with the Serbs. Kosovo aka Montenegro has played an important part of the historical memory of Serbs and and other South Slavs, because Kosovo Field was the site of an important battle in 1389 when the Sultan's army was temporarily stopped by an army under Serb command. That, of course, did not stop the Ottomans from extending their control over most of the Balkans. So, the Serbs view Kosovo as an inherent part of Serbdom, the Russians support the Serbs as an inherent mission of Russiandom, and neither listens to the wishes of the people (Albanians and Serbs) of Kosovo. Remember that World War I (not to mention other ethnic crises that appeared after the breakup of Yugoslavia such as in Bosnia) started over similar kind of Balkan issues.

Peter the Great

2008-02-10T12:35:00.000-05:00

Peter the Great so changed the course of Russian history that it simply is difficult to imagine what would have happened to Russia if he had not assumed the throne--and that assumption of the throne itself was no given--and been able to impose his will on Russia. Russians have long been trying to come to grips with the Petrine legacy, and the duality of that legacy (the desire to be West European yet uniquely Russian at the same time). In this course we have the examples to view of Pushkin and Catherine the Great (via Falconet) trying to understand Peter the Great.

Muscovite Russia

2008-02-03T11:17:00.001-05:00

There are plenty of churches that survive in Russia from the medieval period, including those in the Kremlin and on Red Square.

These are the domes on what is popularly known as St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. If I remember correctly, the number of domes on a Russian Orthodox church is usually an odd number: one dome symbolic of one God; three domes corresponding to the Holy Trinity; five domes representing Jesus of Nazareth and the authors of the four Gospels; seven domes to mean the seven traditional sacraments; thirteen domes for the twelve apostles and Jesus of Nazareth.

After Kiev

2008-01-27T08:20:00.000-05:00

The period of time after the break-up of the Kievan state, as the Russian population generally shifted to the northeast, has often been called, "appanage Russia." This is because of the political de-centralization that characterized the time and because the system of granting out lands -- which then became inheritable--that developed within the royal families to allow the support of younger sons and relatives vaguely resembled the feudal system of Western Europe, especially what occurred in medieval France. In this course, we are not going to really address the question of whether or not Russia ever really experienced a "feudal" period, but let's just say that many of the socio-politico-economic practices extant in Russia through the Middle Ages could be viewed within the broad dimensions of the feudal experience.
See the very nice website of the Троице-Сергиева Лавра (The Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Sergei in Sergiev Posad northeast of Moscow, founded in the fourteenth century).

Nina Khrushcheva book on Russia

2008-01-24T07:01:00.000-05:00

Take a moment to read the interesting commentary by Robert Fulton on Nina Khrushcheva's new book on Vladimir Nabokov, Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics (2008), www.nationalpost.com/story-printer.html?id=248282.

Kiev, Rus' and Russia

2008-01-20T09:50:00.000-05:00

This week in the course you will be studying the origins of civilization in "Russia." I use the quote marks because Ukraine, where the first organized political state emerged, is not part of Russia now, and it technically wasn't also for long periods of time before the seventeenth century. But from a cultural, political and social point-of-view there is a direct continuity from the princes of Kiev in the tenth century to Moscow and Kiev today. Hope that makes sense.
Also, I'd like to call your attention to this website (The Serpents Wall), which has some very interesting pictures, on Kievan history and the battle for Kiev that took place during World War II.

Welcome Spring 2008

2008-01-07T07:15:00.000-05:00

Welcome to HIS 241, the History of Russia I. I'm Charlie Evans, your instructor for the course, and this is about the fourth year now that I've had my Russian history course sequence online. This semester we will be trying something new by using a blog to support our experience with Russian history. It should be fun!

Nikita Khrushchev at the UN: Did He or Didn't He Bang His Shoe?

2007-12-16T08:51:00.001-05:00

Sergei Khrushchev, at a recent campus event, spoke about the "shoe-banging" incident that allegedly took place in September 1960 at the General Assembly of the UN. You can listen to his remarks at
novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his242/Notes/shoe/shoe.html

The Caspian Lake, Sea or Pond: A New Near Eastern Conflict Zone?

2007-10-17T15:49:00.000-04:00

The recently concluded summit in Tehran, involving the shoreline countries of the Caspian (Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), provided another opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to throw Russia's economic weight (natural resources) onto the world stage. Disputes over who should control the oil and natural gas fields of the Caspian (the fish are already dead or dying) between the bordering countries of the water body--there is disagreement over whether it is a "sea" or a "lake"--could get very unpleasant in the near future (unless Putin gets his way).
ps. Technically, the Caspian is not part of the Near East, but what could happen there could very much be of the same model as the discords plaguing the Near East.

Georgian Wine

2007-10-14T08:29:00.000-04:00

One of my former students sent me an announcement of a recent cultural event that featured dancers from Georgia. The events was to be followed by a Georgian wine tasting session, and that reminded me of my stay in Russia (still the Soviet Union at that time) when you could still freely, and quite easily, get Georgian wines. We had a lot of Tsinandali, a dry white wine, to drink then. In recent years, Russian authorities have tried to bring economic pressure to bear on Georgia by prohibiting the import of Georgian wines into Russia. Since wines are one of the main currency-producing exports from Georgia, this has considerably hurt the Georgian economy. Fortunately for us in the United States, and especially those who live near DC, with a little looking around, you can buy them here. I found myself a bottle of Tsinandali!

Khrushchev and the Space race

2007-10-05T06:49:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday night, we had an interesting session with Professor Sergei Khrushchev--Nikita's son-- who related some first-hand knowledge about the background of the Soviet space program. What was surprising occurred when the floor opened for questions from the audience; there was a high level of hostility apparent in the number of questions about the evilness of communism and the relationship between the US and USSR during the Cold War.

2007-09-25T18:21:00.001-04:00

Well, we've got a campus event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet satellite that started the space race between Russia and the United States on 4 October 1957. The main guest on our program is Nikita Khrushchev's youngest son, Sergei, who will talk about Sputnik, the Soviet Space program and the space race as part of the Cold War. Before he emigrated to the United States, Sergei worked as an engineer on various missile projects in Russia.

Parades in the Soviet Union

2007-09-24T09:33:00.000-04:00

I am not sure exactly which holiday is being celebrated in this image of a parade in the Soviet Union, but I suspect that it might be May Day. There used to be a lot of parades on the yearly schedule for the Soviets, but I don't think that there are as many in Russia today.