Manipulating Russia’s Manipulation of History

This about History, tagged , , , , was written by for on June 23, 2009 .19 Comments

Stalin was the “most successful Soviet leader”. Thus proclaims Filippov’s controversial textbook A New History of Russia 1945-2006 – a symbol of the Putin-inspired drive to rehabilitate Stalinism and steep the next generation of Russian schoolchildren in the glories of sovereign democracy. Right? Unfortunately, there’s just a few problems with this kitschy narrative of neo-Soviet […]

Translation: The Case of the “Stalinist” Textbook

This , about History, tagged , , , was written by for on May 28, 2009 .47 Comments

Ever since the publication of Filippov’s (in)famous textbook A History of Russia 1945-2006 in 2007, the state of Russian history teaching drew a fair degree of negative commentary in the West, some of it reasonably lucid, most of it superficial or hysterical. What the latter have in common is that they almost invariably haven’t read […]

Translation: Tatyana Korchevnaya – On Liberal Web Brigades

This , about Media, tagged , , , , , , was written by for on March 9, 2009 .3 Comments

It is a pity that foreigners are not privy to the wild and wacky world of LiveJournal, Russia’s premier blogging site – many prominent people have accounts there and traditions of opposition and kompromat makes for a lively stream of scandal. One recent case involved Tatyana Korchevnaya, who used to be a prominent member of […]

More Reflections on Election Fraud

This about Politics, tagged , , , , , was written by for on April 7, 2008 .2 Comments

Two weeks ago Illarionov gave an interview on the Echo of Moscow radio station. Covering it in-depth is somewhat of a pointless exercise, what with him comparing 1999-2007 Russia with Nazi Germany in 1932-40 (because of their rapid economic growth and Russia’s supposed loss of the rule of law). Now not only is invoking Godwin’s […]

I Appear on Al-Jazeera

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for , on March 21, 2008 .5 Comments

Here‘s the video. My section begins at 8:02. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jih6HCC_tww&w=425&h=355] Why was my speech not exactly on-topic?

News 19 Mar: It Takes 2 (or 3) to Tango in Human Rights

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on March 19, 2008 .2 Comments

The US State Department has released its latest human rights report – as usual, a veritable list of America’s bugbears (North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan are the ‘top ten’). It is true that the majority of the above are pretty odious regimes, with the partial exception of Belarus […]

News 31 Jan

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for on January 31, 2008 .8 Comments

The Western media has begun to whine about the Russian presidential elections five weeks in advance. Their beef is that Kasyanov was barred from running, ostensibly because above 5% of his required signatures were rigged, but actually to undercut the last independent candidate – Russia’s last and only hope of salvation from the ‘slippery slope […]

News 16 Jan

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on January 16, 2008 .No Comments

Freedom House publishes its 2008 report on Freedom in the World. Russia scored a 6 for Political Rights and and 5 for Civil Rights (1 is best, 7 is worst). According to their figures, Russia is no different from Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Brunei, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and the UAE, and less free than […]

Core Article: What We Believe

This about Politics, tagged , , , , was written by for on January 15, 2008 .9 Comments

In the first 5 days of its existence, this blog has been priveleged to receive more than more than 200 page views from more than 100 visitors from 18 different countries. We have also been linked to by the Winthrop88 blog and Marginalia (probably the leading English-language blog about Latvia) – of those that we’re […]