Tag: Russia

‘We ask you to relieve yourself of your post’: Kremlin officials are turning against Vladimir Putin

Brandon Gage Halfway through his invasion of Ukraine’s sixth bloody month, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power in Moscow is imploding as scores of Kremlin officials are calling upon the 69-year-old autocrat to quit. Putin had anticipated his February 24th “special military operation” to be a cakewalk through the Russian-controlled East into the Ukrainian… Read More ‘We ask you to relieve yourself of your post’: Kremlin officials are turning against Vladimir Putin

Dilip

Nikolai Berdyaev: The Religion of Communism (1931) / The Paradox of the Lie (1939)

First posted September 17, 2017 NB: Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) was a Russian religious and political philosopher. He was among 160 non-communist intellectuals and scholars, deported from Russia in 1922 on Lenin’s orders (after interrogation by Felix Dzherjzinsky, of the secret police), for being spies and counter revolutionaries. Berdyaev  had also been convicted of blasphemy for criticising the Russian… Read More Nikolai Berdyaev: The Religion of Communism (1931) / The Paradox of the Lie (1939)

Dilip

Ann O’Loughlin – How the Trans-Siberian railway became the love train

First posted July 22, 2017 Ann O’Loughlin set off across the Soviet Union nearly 30 years ago, looking for adventure and a chance to practise her Russian. Instead, she met a fascinating stranger in a leather jacket in the next carriage … The Trans-Siberian railway, the greatest train journey in the world, is where our… Read More Ann O’Loughlin – How the Trans-Siberian railway became the love train

Dilip

‘I longed for the moment you would write’: The Gulag penpals whose love lasted 60 years

Kasia Delgado First posted September 7, 2019 Vladimir was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour. Ivanna was Prisoner 108, and his secret correspondent. She looks back on a love affair with a man she never met In 1953, a young Ivanna Maszczak trudged through the Siberian labour camp in which she was serving a 10-year… Read More ‘I longed for the moment you would write’: The Gulag penpals whose love lasted 60 years

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Mikhail Gorbachev obituary

Jonathan Steele NB: Mikhail Gorbachev was a historic figure, for his courage in steering the USSR toward democracy and the peaceful resolution of conflicts within and without its borders. It is another matter that the political forces at work in a decrepit state structure were too divisive and corrupt for him to forestall disintegration. Foremost… Read More Mikhail Gorbachev obituary

Dilip

Ukraine war shows it’s time to do away with the racist ‘Clash of Civilizations’ theory

By Katherine Bullock “The clash of civilizations,” wrote the late American political scientist Samuel Huntington in a famous 1993 article, “will dominate global politics.” He predicted: “The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” Picked apart by critics for conceptual and empirical errors, the tragedy of 9/11 breathed new life… Read More Ukraine war shows it’s time to do away with the racist ‘Clash of Civilizations’ theory

Dilip

Hari Vasudevan and the Soviet Archives : A Personal Remembrance. By Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

NB: Hari Vasudevan passed away on May 10, 2020, aged 68. A great scholar and wonderful man, he was widely respected and loved. He will be mourned and missed by friends and students. RIP, Hari Hari Vasudevan and the Soviet Archives : A Personal RemembranceIt was May, 1995, exactly 25 years ago. Hari Vasudevan (Calcutta University), Purabi… Read More Hari Vasudevan and the Soviet Archives : A Personal Remembrance. By Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

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Book review: Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński (1993)

I thought about the terrible uselessness of suffering. Love leaves behind its creation-the next generation coming into the world; the continuation of humanity. But suffering? Such a great part of human experience, the most difficult and painful, passes leaving no trace. If one were to collect the energy of suffering emitted by the millions of… Read More Book review: Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński (1993)

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