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The Last Will and Testament of Sergei Esenin: Cultural History of a Mystification, Part II
On October 9th, 1927, already after the tragic death of Duncan herself, and again in the Sunday supplement to Hearst’s newspapers, there appeared yet another article, undoubtedly from the same...
Pussy Riot: the telenovela?
The Pussy Riot case has already run the gamut of available genres, from performance art to legal drama to kangaroo court. Now it's taken a turn towards soap opera.
Speak, Memory: The Case of Yuri Dmitriev, Part II
Historian Yuri Dmitriev’s initial arrest came on December 13, 2016. It was the beginning of a nightmare involving months of pre-trial detention, two psychological examinations, and finally an acquittal –...
Excerpt from Anne Lounsbery's "Life is Elsewhere," Part II
This week, All the Russias is delighted to feature excerpts from Anne Lounsbery's "Life Is Elsewhere: Symbolic Geography in the Russian Provinces, 1800–1917," just out from Cornell Press. The below...
Catherine the Little and Crimean Puppets: From Vandalism to Voodoo in Ukrainian Popular Culture, Part II
Whereas vandalism is programmatically collective and anonymous, voodoo performance requires a priest: an authorial actor and director of the ritual.
New-Generation Warfare and the Fringe Right: How Russian Interference Impacts Right-Wing Extremism in the US, Part II
It is difficult to say whether anyone, Russia included, could purposely engineer another QAnon movement. However, QAnon is a masterclass in manipulating an audience by playing to its expectations and...
A Spectre is Haunting Russia, or A Chilling Journey from Ulyanovsk to Silicon Valley, Part II
As near-daily news articles expose American tech leaders’ unethical business practices and shifts into neoconservativism, we are more in need than ever of creative means for limiting their power. Maybe...
Ksenia Sobchak, puzzled by sexism
Is it possible to be disappointed in Ksenia Sobchak?
Penile Servitude and the Police State
Sunday before last, on the drizzly police holiday, Petersburg performance artist Petr Pavlensky (b. 1984) sat stark naked in Moscow's sacred center and nailed his scrotum to the cold cobblestones...
Pussy Riot vs. Ksenia Sobchak, Round Two
So why did she conduct an interview with Pussy Riot that was god-awful enough to make it onto Buzzfeed?
Nadya Tolokno: Pussy Riot's Fashion Icon or Fashion Victim?
It’s not easy being punk. It’s even harder to keep believing in punk (or, by extension, anarchism, activism, and the like). For a style of life and art that seems...
Russia Under Siege: Attack of the Gay Pillows
It’s not easy keeping an open mind about what’s going on in Russia when government officials are so intent on keeping minds closed.
Putin's Birthday: What to Get for the Man Who's Grabbed Everything?
“In an amazing fashion, the events of ancient tales of the mythological hero, Heracles, can be adapted to here and now, when the three-headed Cerberus evokes USA, when the defeat...
Snowden in Moscow: The Interview
"I’ve been recognized every now and then. It’s always in computer stores. It’s something like brain associations, because I’ll be in the grocery store and nobody will recognize me. Even...
Wheel of Misfortune: Game Shows and Show Trials after Crimea
What does a Russian game show have to do with a Ukrainian prisoner?
Party Like a Russian
Are we really here again?
#quitseelangs
If you say the word SEELANGS to a Slavist, they will most likely respond by rolling their eyes.
An excerpt from Alexandra Petrova's "Appendix" (2016)
I felt even worse about my appendix. Over and over, they’d told me: “Don’t swallow fruit pits, and make sure to shell sunflower seeds before sticking them in your mouth,...
May Day: A History
The first of May has been celebrated around the world for centuries. Known as “May Day,” the holiday originated in revelries anticipating the coming of spring in the Northern Hemisphere...
An interview with Donna Orwin on her new book, "Simply Tolstoy"
We heard that Donna Orwin had just published a new book called "Simply Tolstoy" and had to find out all about it.