Archive for February, 2006
Советское белье
By Sean at 28 February, 2006, 6:51 am
Soviet dress is a rather understudied topic. But now we can breathe easier. According to the London Guardian, Professor Olga Gurova from the European University in St. Petersburg is working on a cultural history of underwear in the Soviet period. I have to say, I’ll read it. I find the topic [...]
Read More >>Tagged!
By Sean at 28 February, 2006, 6:27 am
W. Shedd at Accidental Russophile has “tagged” me. So let me indulge him and whoever else is interested.
Four jobs I’ve had:
University Instructor
Waiter
Forklift Driver
Record Store clerk
Four movies I can watch over and over:
Seven
The Matrix
Pulp Fiction
Empire Strikes Back
Four places I’ve lived:
Foster City, California
La Verne, California
Los Angeles, California
Moscow, Russia
Four TV shows I like (ugh, I hate most [...]
Read More >>Stalin by the Numbers
By Sean at 27 February, 2006, 8:50 pm
The 50th Anniversary of Khrushchev’s speech has passed but not unnoticed. There was lots of commentary over the week in English and Russia media. Below you’ll find links to English and Russian language articles that have been published in the last few days. The list is far from complete. I won’t provide any detailed commentary [...]
Read More >>Cult of Putin?
By Sean at 23 February, 2006, 7:13 pm
The reflection on Khrushchev’s speech continues. This time, Julian Evans gives a fascinating take on the “Cult of Putin.” It’s worth reading. He argues that the Cult of Putin is not just some ancient Russian tradition of worshiping leaders. If anything it might have more to do with the type of [...]
Read More >>More on Khrushchev
By Sean at 23 February, 2006, 7:18 am
Articles and commentary commemorating Khrushchev’s speech to the 20th Party Congress in 1956 continue. Today Anne Applebaum, the author of Gulag: A History, weighs in on the pages of the Washington Post. Unfortunately, her commentary is more about us than about the historical significance of Khrushchev.
I’ll do my best to refrain from ranting on [...]
Read More >>Stalin as Sacrificial Lamb
By Sean at 21 February, 2006, 6:45 pm
Boris Kagarlitsky has weighed in on the significance of Khrushchev’s speech in a commentary in the Moscow Times. I think some of the passages are worth noting. Kagarlitsky has an interesting thesis: In order for not only Khrushchev, but the Communist Party to erase their complicity in Stalin’s crimes, a complicity which made [...]
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