Russia's Economic Crisis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.