Memories & Conversations

Yuri Chekalin21.07.2026

There is a peculiar trick that history likes to play on us. It records the names of emperors, generals, conquerors, and men who spent their lives proving that they were important. It carefully preserves the dates of battles, treaties, and political intrigues. But every once in a while, history makes a mistake — a fortunate […]

Yuri Chekalin18.07.2026

The temperature was pushing 40°C. The humidity felt like a steam bath. Still, a man has to eat. So I bought some fruit and wandered through a park in central Tokyo, happily snacking on grapes. Then I noticed a portrait of the Russian imperial family. A group of Russian expatriates was putting on some sort […]

Yuri Chekalin01.07.2026

”…Death will bestow on us the bells of glory. Yet we pass through this world as envoys Of a country that has no name.” — Alexander Galich We were leaving Russia. Three years had passed since we had made the decision to emigrate to the United States—three years and an endless number of certificates, documents, […]

Robert Reich24.06.2026

Today I start my ninth decade on earth. It’s astounding and distressing, but I suppose it’s better than the alternative. In his latter years, my father would always answer my weekly phone question, “How are you, Dad?” with a brisk “Still here!” Several of my joints ache, I can’t remember shit, I can no longer […]

Yaroslav Listov22.06.2026

Eighty-five years ago, on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. And today, more than ever, it is important to respond to the brazen falsehood about June 22—that the USSR was allegedly not preparing for war with Germany. It was preparing. And it was preparing on a massive, systematic scale, at the cost of […]

Yuri Chekalin21.06.2026

Today, we remember Viktor Alksnis on what would have been his 76th birthday. Although he passed away in 2025, his memory endures through a lifetime of public service, principled advocacy, and unwavering commitment to the causes he believed in. Born on June 21, 1950, Alksnis belonged to a generation that witnessed profound historical transformations. As […]

Yuri Chekalin19.06.2026

Today we’re heading to the very heart of Tokyo — Shibuya. As you’ll see, it’s like Times Square multiplied by a hundred. There are endless crowds, entertainment venues, restaurants, izakayas, and countless little eateries. Tokyo truly never sleeps. You can pass the time until dawn by drinking, playing billiards, reading manga in cafés, or even […]

Robert Reich25.05.2026

Robbie was the kindest person I ever knew. I met him in our dormitory the day we entered college in 1964. He saw me struggling to carry my big luggage crates up the two flights of stairs to my dorm room and, without saying a word, grabbed one and hauled it to the second floor. […]

Vladimir Golstein15.05.2026

Obviously, politicians and other “communicators” of all epochs have appealed to bullshit in times of need, but rarely had the regime been running solely on BS as much as did the Brezhnevites. Nothing was left of Marxism and Leninism. Nothing was left even of Stalinism, cruel as it was, at least it had clear goals […]

Alexander Palladin12.05.2026

Ted Turner, founder of CNN, has died in the United States at the age of 87. While working in Washington, D. C. in 1980s as Bureau Chief of Izvestia I took part in half a dozen talk shows at CNN Crossfire program, debating Soviet-American relations with US politicians, journalists, and political scientists. Turner was one […]

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Beneath the Shadow of the Fleeting: A Woman’s Voice from the Heian Court

How Japan Marked the Anniversary

A Life: For My Grandfather, Iosif Lvovich Mirkin

Eighty Years Old Today

85 Years Ago…

A Tribute to Viktor Imantovich Alksnis

Notes from Japan: Hachikō

Remembering Robbie: An Appreciation on Memorial Day

Late Soviet Period Was the Time of the Official Bullshit

Ted Turner in Memoriam

The Michael Jackson Biopic is Missing its Most Controversial Story

Madama Butterfly and the Japan of the Western Imagination

The Spanish Civil War at 90: the Republic’s Response

Terminator Is about 80 Years Old