Publications

Arkady Raikin died a whole epoch ago, back in 1987, but people still remember him and enjoy his gags. Raikin’s humor was democratic – he was equally admired by academics and housewives, engineers and flushers. He burlesqued the Soviet reality, bygone Soviet types and complexes, but for some reason his gags still sound fresh and funny. Mr Raikin probably cracked the nature of the hilarious – the secret known only to great humorists.A great stand-up comedian of the 20th century, Arkady Raikin was a sheer national phenomenon. Traveling all over the world and eliciting stormy applause everywhere, he nevertheless was hardly...

Before retreating from Moscow, Napoleon’s marshal Mortier ordered that the Kremlin and Saint Basil’s Cathedral be destroyed on October 23, 1812. During his last exile on Saint Helena Napoleon remarked that he would have been better off dying immediately after entering Moscow. There was a grain of truth in those words, for there was little sense in many of his subsequent actions. Let’s take his order to blow up the Moscow Kremlin, for example. It’s understandable that Napoleon felt no piety towards the Russian culture – it would suffice to recall the French stables in the Kremlin’s Assumption Cathedral or a...

The Russian language is in its own right is a part of the heritage of world civilization. As Nikolai Gogol wrote, the poets and writers of Russia did a good deed simply by “spreading previously unheard of euphony… Our poetry has tried all the chords, was nurtured by the poetry of all peoples, listened to the lyres of all poets, attained some sort of worldwide language so that it could prepare everyone for a more meaningful service.” Fifty years ago the Russian language became the first language in space. But by the 1990s Russian practically became a persecuted language. The peak in the number of people who knew the Russian...

The Lyceum Day celebrated on October 19 – an informal holiday of Russian culture – excites provocative emotions. We wonder, whether Alexander Pushkin, a graduate of Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, could study in its modern-day prototype (a private lyceum)? Most likely he would escape from such an institution, believes Vladimir Emelyanenko, a columnist of Russkiy Mir. His poetic soul would not stand the transformation of private education into a lucrative business. A historic parallel could be spectacular indeed, but alas! October 19, 2011, marked the 200th anniversary of the Imperial Lyceum and 200th anniversary of private education in...

According to the Christian custom, a deceased person is commemorated on the ninth day. We do not know for sure, whether the US creators of the stevejobsday2011.com portal did that on purpose, but the hand of God seemed to guide them as they instituted Steve Jobs Day exactly on October 14, 2011. Communities under the same name – SteveJobsDay – suggested that his admirers should be dressed in the Apple founder’s style – black mock turtleneck and jeans with trainers – and then post their photos on the Web site and write how Jobs’ company influenced them. On the same day crowds of people lined up at the Apple...

We met the great grandson of Petr Stolypin, Arkadiy D. Stolypin, during the Stolypin Memory Days in Kiev. It turned out this was the first visit of 49-year-old Arkadiy to Ukraine. – Kiev is the city where your great grandfather was assassinated. Do you have a sense of loss when staying here? – You bet! These were very strong emotions! It is one thing is to listen to stories about my great grandfather from the earliest years, including some family traditions, and quite another thing – to be at the site where he perished and was buried. – Now the name of Stolypin is very popular in both Russia and Ukraine. Why do you...