Growing up a Cold War kid in Oklahoma, I naturally became fascinated with the (forbidden) Soviet Union. In high school, I thumbed through copies of Soviet Life in the school library for a report on life in the USSR. Later I read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky … Read on
Ian Frazier calls Russia both “great and horrible,” yet submits to an all-consuming “Russia-love.” It’s a bug I know well. To continue my flurry of Russia posts, here’s the link to a 52-minute discussion on the Russian Far East — the wild east, … Read on
To pass some time as the Sochi Olympics find new ways to embarrass itself, I thought I’d share photos from my three big crazy Russia trips over on my Instagram account. Come on over if you want to see some really strange places, … Read on
Only a handful of travelers ever take the Trans-Siberian Railway, and only a trickle of those complete it. Instead, most go from Moscow to Yekaterinburg (26 hours east) to see where the “Last Czar” died, then to Irkutsk (another 55 hours’ ride) for … Read on
A few years ago, I wrote a piece for Perceptive Travel on a serious topic: moustaches in Russian, past and present. It began: There’s no way to know the precise percentage of Russian men who wore moustaches in the first decade of … Read on
Sometimes people ask me who my favorite writer is. And I’m always embarrassed not to have a prepared reply. I had phases with Twain then Dostoevsky, and quieter ones stalking the words of various college football columnists. I don’t really have one, I … Read on
