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Political and Cultural Commentary, mostly on Russia, since 1987

My photo of the crowd outside the courthouse during the resumption of the trial of the August '91 putschists (Kriuchkov, Yazov, Yanaev, and Gorbachev's former right-hand man,  Anatoly Lukyanov, et al.) in Moscow, on September 24, 1993. A few hours later, Yeltsin went on TV and announced his decision to disband the Supreme Soviet, which triggered another attempt at a coup, concluded with the army tanks firing on the White House.

 
  1. EYES WIDE OPEN: A Soviet Classic Revisits the End of War. Marlen Khutsiev's IT HAPPENED IN MAY (1970). Telluride Festival 2016 FILM WATCH (p. 24). For a fuller version see my blog TNT/The Noise of Time

  2. Mysteries at the heart of Stalin's empire. Last year’s most talked-about work of fiction in Russia raises postmodern (or post-Soviet) questions Aleksandr Terekov, Kamennyi most.# TLS, Jan. 1, 2010

  3. Putin: Time Magazine's Person of the Year. On Putin's interview to Time Magazine (Dec. 19, 2007)

  4. "Aleksei Balabanov’s Cargo 200: Russia’s Gray Underbelly,” The 2007 Film  Watch (Telluride, August 2007):73-74

  5. Response to Richard Taruskin on the "Klinghoffer Controversy" (John Adams' Website). Unpublished letter to the New York Times. December 16, 2001. Click here to read.

  6. Putin's Governing Style: One From Column A, One From B. Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2001

  7. Putin's Dilemma: Can Bureaucrats Be Trusted? Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, Sunday, August 6, 2000

  8. In the Days of Reform Fatigue, the Policeman Cometh. Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, Sunday, March 26, 2000 -- About Putin's ascent -- worth rereading!

  9. Victor Pelevin's Dzhenereyshen “P”. Foreign Policy. Spring 2000.

  10.  “Moscow Diary, 1992-1998.” Neprikosnovennyi zapas (Moscow), No. 1(3), 1999. In Russian

  11. “Without Cleopatra: Moscow In the Summer of 1992.” Neprikosnovennyi zapas (Moscow), No. 2 (4), 1999. Translated from English. For the original English, click here.

  12. PERSPECTIVE ON RUSSIA: Yeltsin Yields to the Oligarchs, Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1998

  13. "Chain Saw Boris Revs Up For Change," Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1998

  14. "Russia: Wishing the 'Swan' Well in His Mission," Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1996

  15. "A Question of Political Language," Op-Ed., Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1996

  16. "Weimar Russia?," Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1996

  17. "An Electoral System Turns Politics Into a Circus, Imperiling Democracy," Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1995

  18. "Paradox in the Fog: Stabilization Russian Style," Opinion Section, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1995

  19. "Memo to Yeltsin: How to Move Beyond Chechnya," Opinion Section, Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1995

  20. "Chechnya Remakes Russian Politics," Opinion Section, Los Angeles Times, December 18, 1994

  21. "Moscow Nouveau," Los Angeles Times, Opinion Section, August 21, 1994

  22. "A Vote for Zhirinovsky Meant a Vote for Yeltsin," Los Angeles Times, Opinion Section, January 19, 1994

  23. "The Yeltsin Mythology," Opinion Section, Los Angeles Times (Sunday edition), November 14, 1993

  24. "Or Did They [We] Live In Vain? Gorbachev's Values and Myths (With an Epilogue on Yeltsin)." In Russian (Win95 Cyr. fonts). Russian Culture in Transition (Stanford, 1993).

  25. "Без Клеопатры. Москва летом 1992 года. (Without Cleopatra: Moscow Intellectuals in 1992"), Neprikosnovennyi zapas (Moscow), No. 2 (4), 1999. Translated from English. For the original English, click here.

  26.  “Челночная Одиссея. Листки из дневника 1992 г." (Commuter's Odyssey: Notes from the Diary, 1992). Neprikosnovennyi zapas (Moscow), No. 2 (4), 1999

  27. "Vestiges of Socialism: Two Perspectives on Justice", Rossiiskaia Gazeta (Moscow, September 3, 1992). The English original.

  28. "How Communist Is Communist Gorbachev?" ?" Dilemmas of Transition: Eastern Europe and the USSR. Ed. by George Breslauer. Center for Slavic and East European Studies (Berkeley, 1991)

  29. Did We Live In Vain? Mikhail Gorbachev and Evgeny Popov's "Tales About Communists," With an Epilogue on Boris Yeltsin (in Russian - Windows Cyrillic). Russian Culture in Transition (Stanford, 1993).

  30. "Elections in Tadzhikistan: A Postscript," The Uncaptive Mind (winter, 1992)

  31. "Coup II: Tadzhikistan's Havel Fights Back," The New Republic, (October 14, 1991):16-18

  32. "To the Barricades: A Street-Level View of Moscow, August 19," The New Republic (September 30, 1991):8-10.

  33. "Reform or Else (Communists 'For a While')," The New Republic (13 August 1990)

  34. "The Gorbachev Team (Communist Reformers Conspire)," The New Republic (30 July & 6 August, 1990)

  35. "The Soviet Dinosaur," The New Criterion (September 1989)

  36. "Gorbachev's Other Woman," The New Republic (December 28, 1987)