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Tag Archives: USSR

Russian History: 25th Anniversary of Coup Attempt in USSR Posted by on Aug 23, 2016

August 20 marks the 25th anniversary of an attempted coup in Russia and the USSR. Many news outlets have published their accounts and analysis of this event. Let us read some of the coverage.   Background Ironically, many in Russia, especially young people, have a fuzzy understanding of the events, as demonstrated in the video…

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Советские Анекдоты [Soviet Jokes] Posted by on Sep 26, 2011

«Дорогие друзья» [Dear friends], it is with great pleasure that I inform you that I am in an advanced Russian class this year. We have been reading «советские анекдоты» [Soviet jokes] in class and I want to share a few of them with you, as they are often quite funny.  «–Цензурируется ли переписка советских…

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So What’s Being Given Away? Posted by on Aug 26, 2011

By the time you’ll be reading the giveaway will be over, the winner chosen and the secret revealed. But at the time of writing of this post, there are still a few hours left in the giveaway. So the only thing I can do right now is to reveal the secret prize. I’m not exactly…

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20 лет спустя – Twenty Years After, Part 1 Posted by on Aug 22, 2011

Well, «друзья» [friends], it has happened again: I sat down to write «про грамматику» [about grammar] and instead I wrote about something completely different. I found this «фоторепортаж» [photo essay] on the website of «магазин Внешняя политика» [the magazine “Foreign Policy”] called, in English, “Russia’s Big Backyard.” I have opted to translate the title…

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19-20-21 Soviet Pop Culture Memories From 1991 Posted by on Aug 18, 2011

This Friday, August 19th, marks the 20th anniversary of the Soviet coup d’etat attempt. I’m not going to do a history post because there are lots of sites online that do a much better job of it, complete with detailed timeline and analysis.  Besides, I was just 13 at the time and politics was the…

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Reading: Master and Margarita – Chapter 5 Posted by on Jul 4, 2010

Don’t know about you, but with all the summer fun and travel I find it hard to find time to sit down and read even a few pages of the Master and Margarita. But a few paragraphs here, a page there and next thing you know you’re in Chapter 5 already. It just so happens…

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A Russian Post-modern Classic: Венедикт Ерофеев’s «Москва-Петушки» Posted by on Apr 16, 2010

The post-modern pseudo-autobiographical classic «”Москва–Петушки” Венедикта Ерофеева» [“Moscow-Petushki” by Venedikt Yerofeev] has been translated into English as “Moscow to the End of the Line”, “Moscow Stations” and “Moscow Circles” (all of the above are very correct titles). But it should of course be read «в подлиннике» [in the original] – as should all other «произведения…

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