archive

Back in the USSR

From Osteuropa, Russia's systemic crisis: Russia is degenerating into a police state, society has descended into poverty, and the country is becoming increasingly isolated. Worse still: the Russian public is united only in the view that talk of common goals is the empty rhetoric of demagogues. From Sign and Sight, an interview with Russian journalist Grigori Pasko on the freedom of speech vacuum in which he works. Tatyana Zaslavskaya, the sociologist whose pioneering ideas inspired the Mikhail Gorbachev-era reforms in the Soviet Union, remains hopeful in a political climate far less receptive to her ideas. Stalin, his father and the Rabbit: The bizarre story of Stalin, his possible biological father, and his food taster can finally be revealed. From Exile, Russian propaganda posters are back with a vengeance, and they have the same design as before. Hail to the Return of Motherland-Protecting Propaganda! The Russians and their unintentionally hilarious Washington Post ad supplement.