Monthly Archives: August 2018

Gleb Pavlovsky acidly poked fun at Dugin’s influence over the so-called siloviki – the security men who came to power with Putin: ‘He made a huge impression on people who never read any books.’ —Charles Clover, Black Wind, White Snow, … Continue reading →

Catherine Palace. It’s a beautiful sunny, warm, breezy day. The Catherine Park is gorgeous, and very pleasant to walk about in. As at similar locations the royal outbuildings are opulent mansions in themselves. The line for the tour of the … Continue reading →

A great many of the trucks leaving tracks on the Road of Life were American Studebaker 6x6s, shipped across the Atlantic by merchant seamen like my dad.

What one sees here are rows of mass graves, mounds labeled with the years 1941-45, the years of The Great Patriotic War. During the seige of Leningrad over one million Soviet soldiers and over six hundred thousand Soviet civilians died. … Continue reading →

Guardian: “Hope is passive,” Moore said about [his new Trump documentary]. “Hope gives you permission to let someone else do the work. Hope leads people to believe that tax returns, or a pee tape, or the FBI or an adult … Continue reading →

Winter Palace Cruiser Aurora

The theater is across the street from my hotel. Driving in I thought it was some sort of abandoned industrial complex. It is immense, fantastical. Today it’s quite dilapidated, but it’s easy to see how 30 or 40 years ago … Continue reading →