Publications

This Tuesday, mankind noted the anniversary of what is perhaps the most important and happiest date in the history of the 20th century – the end of World War II. Russians relate to this date with a bit of bewilderment until we realize that May 9 signified the end of the Great Patriotic War. After a pause, there was still the Battle of Manchuria (the Soviet Union never entered Japan, by the way, although an operation in Hokkaido was planned). The generals of the Kwantung army surrendered to the Soviet troops for three weeks, and only on September 2 did Mamoru Shigemitsu, Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Yoshijiro Umezu,...

In recent days, there has been a considerable amount of discourse on the issue of who won and how many people were killed as a result of the war in South Ossetia. The discussion smacks of cynicism. A huge tragedy has occurred – for the Ossetians, Georgians and Russians. Thousands have been killed. It seems that the impossible has happened – war between two fraternal nations. What exactly happened? The problem of South Ossetia I personally encountered the situation in South Ossetia back in 1990 while I was working in President Mikhail Gorbachev’s administration. The Ossetians are a divided people, with most of them living in...

“Neither vocation, nor confession, nor the blood of forefathers makes a person belong to a people… He who thinks in a language belongs to its people...” Vladimir Dal From the editor: In the town of Lugansk, a small museum is devoted to the life and work of Vladimir Dal. In a sense, this museum is a reminder that the Russian world also consists of these half-forgotten corners and that its historical and cultural map is also made up of such inconspicuous details. Finding them and taking inventory, so to speak, is a job in itself. At the end of the 18th century in a small village on the shores of the small Luhan creek in the...

On August 9, the Soviet offensive began in the Far East – the last major land operation of World War II. Our troops’ plunge to the Pacific Ocean was the beginning of the end, not only for the great Japanese empire, but also for one of the largest Russian centers abroad at the time. Most emigrants living in Manchuria welcomed the advancing Soviet troops and provided them all possible assistance. That was the case with both those living in big cities as well as in small towns. When hostilities began, the Soviet Consul General in Harbin established community defense brigades that numbered 3,000 people, 240 of which were Soviet...

August 6, 2008 will mark the 30th anniversary of the expulsion of the Russian thinker Alexander Zinoviev’s family from the USSR. Russkiy Mir spoke with Olga Zinovieva, widow of Russian thinker Alexander Zinoviev. – Olga, what did being an ...

The Russian world abroad is often referred to as “Russia outside of Russia.” At the same time, most researchers and the journalists who follow them, assuming it is possible to talk about a Russian diaspora, apply the term only to the first and second waves or generations of emigrants. Although it might seem otherwise at first glance, in this case there is no contradiction. A diaspora is not only a certain ethnic and demographic community, but above all it is a model of worldly behavior and a unified system of values. “A diaspora is distinctive cultural community built on the basis of a common understanding of the...