Archive for July, 2009
“Good people live in bathtubs.”
By Sean at 31 July, 2009, 10:44 am
Vedomosti has a great article on the history of Russia’s housing crisis. Housing, as Maksim Trudoliubov notes, is a chronic historical problem in Russia, one which the Soviets tried to attenuate, but made little headway until the 1960s. “The comfort of our home life is still not good for many of us,” Trudoliubov begins. “As [...]
Read More >>“Volgograd Obama” Declares “Let the people decide!”
By Sean at 30 July, 2009, 10:21 am
My post about Joachim Crima, the so-called “Volgograd Obama,” has received a lot of traffic thanks to Joshua Keating’s link to it at Foreign Policy. So given the interest in this Russian political novelty, I figured I’d do an update on the first Afro-Russian to run for public office.
The first articles I read about Crima [...]
The Year of Stalin
By Sean at 25 July, 2009, 9:48 am
Those communists in Voronezh really, really like Stalin. Last month, the Voronezh KPRF put up billboards of Stalin to promote the dictator’s great achievements. The local government demanded that the billboards be removed citing laws on advertising.
But the KPRF is undeterred. Spurred on by the OSCE’s recent resolution equating Stalin with Hitler and the local [...]
Nikita Khrushchev Doesn’t Go to Disneyland
By Sean at 24 July, 2009, 9:06 am
I highly recommend “Nikita Khrushchev Goes to Hollywood” from the Smithsonian Magazine. Khrushchev, always the showman, charmed, bantered with American capitalists, and even took in the filming of Can-Can during his tour of America in 1959. When the Soviet premier went to Hollywood, hundreds of stars appealed for tickets to attend a luncheon with him. [...]
Read More >>Volgograd Obama
By Sean at 22 July, 2009, 8:53 am
They’re calling him the “Volgograd Obama.” Joachim Crima, 37, native of Guinea-Bissau, former watermelon seller, and graduate of Volgograd Pedagogical University has thrown his hat into the region’s municipal election. If elected, which is a long shot, Crima would become Russia’s first black elected official. “I was born in Africa, but I have lived in [...]
Read More >>Medvedev to Meet with United Russia Youth
By Sean at 21 July, 2009, 1:25 pm
увеличить фото …
Dimitri Medvedev’s effort to court youth into politics continues on Thursday when he meets with young members of United Russia. According to Kommersant, the meeting will be attended by party leaders Mintemer Shaimiev and Yuri Luzhkov, General Council secretary Vyacheslav Volodin and young United Russia representatives from the provinces.
The meeting appears to have [...]
