Featured
Teaching The Master and Margarita: A Pedagogical Field Note
If I had to choose a book to bring on a desert island, I wouldn’t choose this one.
A Woman’s Lot: Realism and Gendered Narration in Russian Women’s Writing of the 1860s
In March 1862, the first part of a novel titled Zhenskaia dolia [A Woman’s Lot] appeared in the leading Russian literary journal Sovremennik [The Contemporary]. The publication was signed "N....
Open Letter on the Termination of Russian Studies Faculty at Ohio University
Like you, we are wholeheartedly invested in the survival and recovery of higher education in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That recovery depends on the will of universities...
On Studying and Teaching Lesser-Known Russian Writers
At every meeting of “The Other 19v,” a reading group devoted to discussing less-studied nineteenth-century Russian writers, we find new insights into this century of literary experimentation and cultural transformation....
Will Somebody Please Write This Novel?
The dependably inventive G. Willow Wilson has just come out with a novel called Alif the Unseen, which somehow combines gray hat Arab hackers, would-be Islamic terrorists, and troublemaking djinns...
Sex secrets of the Russian classics
Reason #137 to study Russian literature: apparently, it will teach children about sex. This is a good thing, because no one else in Russia seems to want to.
Here’s How Trump’s Election Will Affect U.S.-Russian Relations
Donald Trump broke new ground — especially for a Republican candidate — with his consistent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian Meddling and Fake News, Part Four: The Curse of Glory
Nobody in Moscow cares about what really happens in the United States.
Selling the Cherry Orchard (Russia's Alien Nations)
On the battleground of market capitalism, the sovok is a metaphysical conscientious objector.
Progress: Threat or Menace? (WQ 15)
We can all learn something from villains.
The Devil Went Down to Zavolzhsk (Pelagia and the White Bulldog 2)
Bubentsov is going to make this provincial town matter, whether the town wants it or not.
Pelagia Descending into the Underworld (Pelagia and the White Bulldog 9)
Pelagia impersonates herself
Dispatches from NYU Libraries
Mother, Wife, and Activist? Opportunities and Obstacles to Women’s Civic Engagement in Russia
Women-led activism deserves a thoughtful examination in the contemporary Russian context, particularly because current debates continue to explicitly tie women to traditional gender roles.
Socrates in Russia, Part I
The story of Socrates has long been a vessel for interpretation. Philosophers, writers, and artists in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Soviet and post-Soviet space have actively participated in this process,...