Russia

The Missing Debate

Stephen F. Cohen : Presidential Election 2008

Why aren't the presidential candidates talking about Moscow's impact on our national security?
Lenin, Trotzky and Gorky

Bertrand Russell : Nation History

"I went to Russia believing myself a communist, but contact with those who have no doubts has intensified a thousandfold my own doubts...of every creed so firmly held that for its sake men are willing to inflict widespread misery."
Revolutionary States

Ronald Grigor Suny : Non-Fiction

Two new books take a closer look at the "Soviet monster" in an age of lazy, anti-Communist rhetoric.
The Ice Forge

Jochen Hellbeck : Non-Fiction

The generation that came of age in Stalin's Russia was torn between perpetual fear and profound emotional investment in the Soviet ideal.

2007

A Colder War

Jonathan Schell : Arms Spending & Proliferation

Richard Rhodes's Arsenals of Folly, sequel to the book that defined the atomic age, captures the political struggle that brought it to an end.
The Courage of Anna Politkovskaya

Natalya Estemirova : Journalists & Journalism

A human rights activist remembers the courage of a crusading journalist, murdered one year ago.
Skinhead Violence Rising in Russia

Alexander Zaitchik & Mark Ames : Racism & Discrimination

Copying the tactics of terrorists, neo-Nazi groups are targeting reformers, progressives and ethnic minorities.
Russian Protests: The Big Guessing Game

Mark Ames

After a surprisingly peaceful weekend of rallies, the first signs of dialogue between the Other Russia movement and the Kremlin are emerging. Will it last?
The Polonium Papers

Edward Jay Epstein : Great Britain

A lack of hard evidence in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko has stopped neither the wheels of British justice nor the cameras of Hollywood.
Stop Making Sense

Colin Fleming : Non-Fiction

A 1920s Russian literary movement celebrating experimental narratives and absurdism never survived Stalin's reign.
Yeltsin's (Real) Legacy

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Don't believe the glowing obituaries: Boris Yeltsin's legacy was to de-democratize Russia.
In Russia's Blogosphere, Anything Goes

Anna G. Arutunyan : Internet & New Media

Russian blogs are flourishing as alternative media and launchpads for an emerging civil society, but corruption and government manipulation are flourishing as well.

2006

The Soviet Union, R.I.P.?

Stephen F. Cohen : History

The collapse of the Soviet Union was far from inevitable: A historic opportunity to democratize and marketize Russia by more gradual means was lost--and the people paid the price.
Anna Politkovskaya

Katrina vanden Heuvel : Journalists & Journalism

The killing of Anna Politkovskaya has rallied her journalistic colleagues and fellow citizens in a way few other recent events have.
The Prison Notebooks

Ronald Grigor Suny : Philosophy

Nikolai Bukharin's Philosophical Arabesques is more than a cul-de-sac on the road from Marx to Stalin; the book defines a political path still not taken.
Journals of the Purge Years

Sheila Fitzpatrick : Non-Fiction

Revolution on My Mind is a new analysis of personal diaries written in the shadow of Stalin.
Putin's Foes Fall Flat at Summit

Anna G. Arutunyan

As Vladimir Putin played host to the G-8 summit, opposition groups from the right and left staged events that challenged Putin's authority and paraded their grievances to Western media. It was not their finest hour.
The New American Cold War

Stephen F. Cohen : US Foreign Policy

The cold war never really ended: Russia's continuing instability and weapons of mass destruction, combined with Washington's triumphalist foreign policies and US/NATO military buildup, are creating an even more dangerous situation.
The New American Cold War

Stephen F. Cohen : US Foreign Policy

The unfolding conflict over US plans to build missile defense components near post-Soviet Russia, in Poland and the Czech Republic, is the latest proof of the way US-Russian relations are deteriorating into a new cold war.
The Passion of Anna

Elif Batuman : Poetry

In Elaine Feinstein's new biography, the complicated life of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova is flattened into a fable of suffering and redemption.
Remembering Chernobyl

Adam Federman : Nuclear Arms & Proliferation

Twenty years after the Chernobyl disaster, an area twice the size of Rhode Island is uninhabitable, yet a power-hungry world thirsts for nuclear energy.
The Unforgettable Fire

Andrew Meier : Nuclear Arms & Proliferation

Voices From Chernobyl is an oral history twenty years after a nuclear disaster.
Selling Human Rights in Russia

Michelle Risley : Vladimir Putin

Russian human rights activist Gregory Shvedov examines how Vladimir Putin's tactics toward Chechnya align with George W. Bush's "global war on terror."
The Geopolitics of Natural Gas

Michael T. Klare : Energy

Natural gas is rapidly emerging as the next big prize for consumer countries like the US and China. In the twenty-first century, alliances and hostilities between economic powerhouses and volatile nations will be carved by the pipes that will someday carry this environmentally safer resource.