PolyArchive

Excerpt from Red Fortress: History and Illusion in the Kremlin by Catherine Merridale “[The area of modern-day Russia and Ukraine] seemed to be a dangerous, exotic place, where fortunes waited for adventurers. Human slaves were one source of profit, for while Muslims and Christians were forbidden to enslave each other, the pagan Slavs were fair […]

Links of the Week, vol. 13 The following are links to interesting content we’ve read recently. If you would like to recommend a piece to share with our readers (no paywalled content, please), please use the contact form on our About page. ────────────── ● ────────────── Jonas Fredwall Karlsson’s Portraits of Rock Climbers and Adventurer Click […]

Declassified Soviet joke courtesy the CIA: A train bearing Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev stops suddenly when the tracks run out. Each leader applies his own, unique solution. Lenin gathers workers and peasants from miles around and exhorts them to build more track. Stalin shoots the train crew when the train still doesn’t move. […]

Links of the Week, vol. 10 The following are links to interesting content we’ve read recently. If you would like to recommend a piece to share with our readers (no paywalled content, please), please use the contact form on our About page. ────────────── ● ────────────── Jane Austen and Rom Coms: Sense and Sensibility (“Love Triangles”) […]

Links of the Week, vol. 7 The following are links to interesting content we’ve read recently. If you would like to recommend a piece to share with our readers (no paywalled content, please), please use the contact form on our About page. ────────────── ● ────────────── The girl who grew up in Pasadena, took the bus, […]

It’s rare that I feel pure jealousy of an author, but Mr. Towles manages to write exactly the books I wish I could. As a reasonably witty, well-educated Russian scholar with an overactive imagination, you might think I’d be capable of writing something as charming and transporting as A Gentleman in Moscow, but… alas. I […]

In our Global Archive series, we get to know the world a little better, one country (or territory) at a time. Today’s installment: Russia! So let’s start at the very beginning. Modern Russia has origins in about the 8th century CE. Vikings (called Varangians by the Greeks) came to rule over the people known as […]

Gorbachev Records Album, World Survives – Russia.