Moscow Old and New (A Travelogue “La Russie en 1839” by Astolphe Custine and a New Understanding of Russia)
I have just finished reading the book “Empire of the Czar” (A Journey Through Eternal Russia in 1839) by the […]
Sokurov’s Movie “Russian Ark” (2003) and the Russian National Identity
A central issue in “Russian Ark” is the spread of enlightenment through and the rise of the nation-state, and with […]
“Now About Those…” by Bella Akhmadulina, “the Best of the Living Poetesses” (Joseph Brodsky)
Vitas- reads a poem Such a comment I got last night from Kseniya and today I am putting it into […]
“…and Raising up to the Highest Level of Madness” (About Poetry)
First I would like you to listen to the song with the lyrics on poem by a great Russian poetess […]
Mark Twain or Dostoevsky? Parallel Lives of Great Nations
My interlocutor today is Ivan Semyonovich, a big politics fan and literature admirer and we are talking about Mark Twain […]
The Haunted City of St. Petersburg which once became Leningrad…
Listen to Vitas We stopped in front of the too celebrated statue of Peter the Great, placed on its rock […]