Does Putin Have a Philosopher, or Does He Really Need One?

Anton Barbashin and Hannah Thoburn, Putin's Philosopher: Ivan Ilyin and the Ideology of Moscow's Rule (Foreign Affairs, 20 September 2015)

The mysterious name of the semi-literate, semi-rational, semi-intellectual, mysterious, Russia emigre, Ivan Ilyin (1883-1954)keeps circulating these days in connection with Putin's ideas and behaviors, and scholars are looking for the direct, ideological connections between the two with the hope that perhaps Ilyin's writings provide a rational explanation for Putin's ideas.

Reminds me a lot of the effort to figure out a rational definition of fascism from the readings of so-called fascist thinkers, but it's an effort in futility.

Remembering the Stalinist Terror

Sabrina Tavernise, Russian Project Honors Stalin’s Victims and Stirs Talk on Brutal Past (New York Times, 20 September 2015).  Some Russians are endeavoring to remember those who perished in the Great Terror by placing small plagues on the last know residences of those who disappeared.  It's a very small act, but some feel that something is needed instead of sweeping the past under the carpet.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Masha Gessen, The Dearly Departed Return to Russia, 21 August 2015

For some unknown reason, the Putin administration is working to dig up famous Russians buried abroad so that they can be "repatriated" back to Russia.  It is especially hard to believe that Anton Denikin, a fierce opponent of the Bolshevik regime during the Russian civil war, has now been reburied in Russia. The Kremlin has also been launching a public relations campaign that Sergei Rachmaninov should be returned to Moscow, claiming that his remains are not being properly taken care of in the United States.

The Alliance between the Putin Regime and the Russian Orthodox Church

Nice article by Paul Coyer, Putin's Holy War And The Disintegration Of The "Russian World" Forbes, 4 June 2015. That alliance between regime and church is nothing new to Russian history, as it goes back centuries.

Khodarkovsky Op Ed

Michael Khodarkovsky, Putin’s Disunited Nation 19 May 2015, The New York Times

Putin and the World War II Victory Celebrations.

Masha Gessen, Putin’s Victory Day, Not My Grandmother’s, has some interesting reflections on the evolution of Russia's World War II holiday.  Plus, this is a great line: Putin, a this year's event, "was surrounded instead by friends from North Korea, Venezuela, China, Zimbabwe, and a handful of other countries."

точно так!

Worth the read.  Masha Gessen, Is It 1937 Yet? (5 May 2015, The New York Times)

Ukraine v Russia Now Playing Out in History Books

Andrew Kramer, Ukraine Separatists Rewrite History of 1930s Famine. Seems to be a lot of this going on in Russia and now in the Russian-supported war in Ukraine.

All Quiet in Eastern Ukraine?

Real or imagined that the "ceasefire" is still kind of a ceasefire and continuing in the region.

Russian nuclear submarines

Recent news about a fire in a Russian nuclear submarine in Arkhangelsk brought back memories of the Kursk disaster. Wiki has a link of sunken nuclear submarines. There was no nuclear danger in this case.