Publications

Alla Berezovskaya Latvian authorities have turned their attention to toddlers and preschoolers, after issuing new reform on switching Russian schools in Latvia to the State language. In January 2020, without any discussion with parties concerned, the Latvian parliament passed through the first reading a controversial bill. Its goal is to eliminate Russian language from kindergartens of national minorities. Truth be told, there was a hitch before the second reading, though it did not last long… Policy makers from the National Block have had grudge against Russian-language kindergartens in Latvia for quite a while,...

Svetlana Smetanina Photo credit: artchive.ru This spring marks 125 years since the release of the highest decree of Emperor Nicholas II on the establishment of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The uniqueness of the museum was that literally the whole country collected exhibits for its collection - from peasants, who gave away ancient household items, to representatives of the upper classes, who donated the richest collections of paintings to the fund. These days, the Russian Museum is exploring new territories both in Russia and abroad. It confirms that for Russian art there are no borders. The idea to...

Isaak Dunayevsky. Photo credit: multiurok.ru Anna Genova 120 years ago, Isaak Dunayevsky, perhaps the most famous Soviet composer of popular songs, was born in the quiet Ukrainian town. “Could you think thirty-five years ago that a small musician, a fan of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Borodin, would be able to become a master of the easy genre? But it is my extensive musical background that helped and still helps me to create light music by serious means,” Dunayevsky wrote in his memoirs. Light music quickly becomes obsolete. Fortunately, there are exceptions, and such exceptions...

Alexander Dobrovolsky 75 years ago, the Red Army liberated the Oświęcim concentration camp (the Auschwitz) - perhaps the deadliest Nazi concentration camp, which became a symbol of the Holocaust and quintessential example of inhumanity of the Hitler regime. However, in the war and post-war history of the world-known concentration camp, there were episodes that are still in the shadow of “zeitgeist biography” of the “death factory” replicated by mass media… The concentration camp dates back its history back to 1940. In the spring, barracks of the former military camp of the Polish army located near the...

Photo credit: iStock The authorities and social activists of Crimea intend to popularize the Ukrainian language, which is one of the state languages ​​in the region. They intend to hold a forum, round tables and exhibitions on the peninsula to fulfill this task. In 2020, a newspaper and a regional TV program in Ukrainian are also going to be launched in Crimea. The Constitution of the Republic of Crimea recognize three state languages: Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar. Municipal and state institutions indicate their names on all three of them. ...

Marina Brovkina On January 17, 1945, during the Warsaw-Poznan operation, Soviet troops liberated the Polish capital from Nazi invaders. It took the Red Army several days to get the Nazis out of the city. Adolf Hitler declared Warsaw a fortress (a German stronghold), and the Wehrmacht generals fiercely resisted, realizing that their defeat would open the direct route to Berlin for Soviet troops. The Red Army, having taken Warsaw, had the opportunity to be near the walls of the Reichstag soon. Warsaw was under enemy occupation since September 28, 1939. The...