Publications

Last Saturday in Moscow on Bolotnaya Square (as in other cities throughout Russia) an opposition protest was held demanding a reassessment of the results of the State Duma election. The meeting was initially planned to be held on Manege Square, but the application for the meeting permit indicated only 300 participants, and it soon became clear that many more would like to join. On a Facebook page set up for the event, nearly 40,000 indicated that would attend. As a result, the city’s authorities reached a compromise with the protest organizers, raising the number of attendees on the permit to 30,000 but moving the location to Bolotnaya...

December 8 marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Belavezha Accords, which declared the Soviet Union effectively dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place. It was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on December 8, 1991, by the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Executive Director of the Russkiy Mir Foundation and Dean of the School of Public Administration of Moscow State University Vyacheslav Nikonov here discusses six key consequences of this event. If we look at the main geopolitical consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union, then the first thing we...

The international academic conference First World War and Its Balkan Connection, organized by the Institute of Contemporary History, Russkiy Mir Foundation and Russian Embassy in Serbia, took place in Belgrade. Alexander Naumov, head of the Analytical Department at the Russkiy Mir Foundation, elaborated on the goals and objectives of the conference. – Please say a few words about the participants. What were your goals and objectives? – To begin with, I’d mention the fact that this is already the third major conference during the past year held by the Russkiy Mir Foundation with our partners on the subject of WWI. The given...

Although mainly fiction was represented at the Thirteenth Non/Fiction Book Fair in the Central House of Artist (CHA), the name of it did not discredit the main idea behind this spectacular, salient and multi-faceted event.About 300 participants – including publishing houses, book retail chains, literary associations and cultural funds – represented philosophical, educational and popular science literature at CHA – both fiction and non-fiction. One of the most notable events that fit quite fortunately into the Non/Fiction framework was the Festival of Global Ideas from the Vokrug Sveta magazine that turned 150 a short time...

Peter Buslov’s film Vysotsky: Thank God I’m Alive has now been widely released in Russia. This is the culmination of five years of work on the film and a major promotional campaign. Three decades have passed since the death of the legendary singer-songwriter, but he has not been forgotten by those born in the USSR. And even those born after his death can sing along to his songs. Vysotsky is a cult figure and interest in him is not waning with the passage of time.  But the type of interest can vary. This film, which was developed on the initiative of the management of Channel 1 and according to the scenario of the...

The Fifth Festival of Russian films Sputnik over Poland has just finished in Warsaw. Just a year ago it was called Sputnik over Warsaw, but later its geography expanded and after several shows in the capital city our films will travel 42 more Polish cities. If this festival is compared with similar actions in other countries, nothing equal in scale can be found. Sputnik’s program includes more than 150 movies, both brand new and those going back to Soviet times, animated films, documentaries and fiction films. These include such popular cartoons as Cheburashka, Just you wait, Magic Lamp of Aladdin, and also the special program Russian...