Two wars over Ukraine
Pacifists and liberals are fond of repeating the old adage that ‘the first casualty of war is the truth.’ In fact, the exact contrary is far closer to the truth: […]
Category Archives: Russia
Ukraine’s “History Wars” and the political descendants of Stalin and Walter Duranty
A friend has drawn my attention to a criticism of my review of the film Mr Jones. (See here for the review – this post will make more sense if […]
Loveless and A Gentle Creature – two flawed but brilliant Russian films
Andrey Zvyaginstev’s Loveless is not as good as his earlier masterpiece, Leviathan. But it has some moments of brilliance, and even at less than his best, Zvyagintsev captures the essence […]
A city built on the bones of prisoners
Komsomolsk-na-Amur is an industrial city in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1932, it was from 1937 unmarked on maps and off limits to foreigners – not just in Soviet […]
“Really living life” vs the Russian Revolution: Watching Doctor Zhivago fifty years on
When you’re trapped in an aeroplane seat for twelve hours, you will watch almost any movie to take your mind off the noise of the engines and the thought of […]
The war of all against all – a review of Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan
On the northwest coast of Russia there are settlements where stubborn and resourceful human beings eke out a living, hauling fish from Arctic seas. The seashore is littered with the […]
Facebook slanders and threats – an echo of politics in Ukraine
Having fought under the banner of communism for my entire adult life, I must say that it is not often that I get branded as an apologist for fascism. But […]
The shocking events of August 1914
One thing you will not find in the contemporary writings marking the centenary of the beginning of the Great War is a satisfactory explanation of the causes of that war. […]
The tragedy in Odessa
The tragedy in Odessa and the inexorable logic towards fratricidal war in Ukraine – a discussion Reprinted below is a statement entitled “No-one wants to die” by Ilya Budraitskis, published in […]
A worker at large 