Publications

The Adventures of Dennis ин Victor Dragunsky were translated into Marathi. COURTESY SOVIET LITERATURE IN MARATH When he was about 9 or 10 years old, Devadatta Rajadhyaksha read the book The Adventures of Dennis, by Victor Dragunsky. Rajadhyaksha was mesmerized by naughty little Dennis, who kept grass snakes, lizards, and frogs in his pockets, made funny faces in front of the mirror, and liked to hop and skip. The book was originally written in Russian, but Rajadhyaksha read the book in his mother tongue, Marathi, as Dennis Chya Goshti. Rajadhyaksha is now in his forties, and the...

Sergey Vinogradov Soviet cars are greeted with welcoming car klaxons honking on the streets of New York, Berlin or Tokyo. It's a long time since German students bought Zhiguli cars, and French farmers acquired Lada Niva. As of today, collectors are chasing Volga, Pobeda (Victory) and Moskvich (Muscovite), which are exhibited in museums and in public squares. For many foreigners, Soviet cars are curiosity and novelty, but for Russian compatriots they symbolize nostalgia and connection with their homeland. “When I stop by a gas station, almost every time someone offers me to buy my Zhiguli,” our...

PAX RUSSIKA Yuri Gagarin and Lolita Torres Every year in April we commemorate the glorious day of April 12, 1961. It was the day when Yuri Gagarin, the first man of the new space era, was brought to near-earth orbit by the Vostok-1 spacecraft. The flight lasted just a little over an hour and a half, but it turned Gagarin into a figure that has been admired throughout the world ever since. And the feat accomplished by Gagarin 60 years ago inspires us to recall the incredible connection of his story with the wonderful character from Argentina - Lolita Torres, a singer and actress. This story is told in Dear...

Photo credit: 8moments / pixabay.com In 2021, the Baikal Ice Marathon was held on Baikal for the 17th time. The reporter of the Dutch newspaper de Volksrant decided to test himself and overcome 42 kilometers at -29 degrees Celsius and in a scorching wind. He was joined by other 60 athletes. "If you start to freeze, just run faster" - this advice was given to Tom Vennink by the experienced participants of the Ice Marathon. Although the participants are accompanied by an EMERCOM truck, hovercraft and several snowmobiles, everyone understands that no one is completely...

Sergey Vinogradov In February, the House of Russia Abroad launched Portraits of Women in the Russian Scientific Community Abroad in the 20th Century, a series of public lectures. In the lead-up to International Women's Day, we talked with Natalia Masolikova, the author of the series, about how Russian women emigrants made their way to scientific heights, and what united them despite all the differences in characters and destinies. Natalia Masolikova. Photo credit: House of Russia Abroad Without glass ceiling – Russian women scientist abroad is a rather uncommon topic. It is a borderline between...

Tamara Skok International Women's Day has been celebrated for over a hundred years, but the path to women's independence began much earlier. This topic was of utmost importance to the public. There were starkly differing views, and many swards were crossed over disputes about women’s rights and their role in public life. Ivan Kramskoy. Woman Reading (Portrait of Sofia Kramskaya, the artist’s wife), 1863 (fragment). Photo credit: wikipedia.org Russian writers and journalists did not stand aside and did their best to express their views on this urgent problem of women's personal identity. Vladimir...