By Daniel Kalder SANTA MONICA: For over 60 years now the RAND Corporation has carried out research and analysis for governments, organizations, and institutions around the world. Famously, it was the work of Dr. Herman Kahn — a RAND employee –- that provided the seed for the military doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (Kahn was lampooned by Peter Sellers in …
Russia’s Young, Exportable Writers
By Chad W. Post Back in 2000, the “Debut Prize” was established by the Pokolenie (Generation) Foundation to support Russian writers under the age of 25. Ten years later, the best works generated by this competition will be made available to English and Chinese readers. According to Olga Slavnikova, winner of the Russian Booker Prize and director of the Debut …
Russian Poet Accused of Militant Activities
By Siobhan O’Leary Russian poet Yulia Privedennaya, leader of a youth commune called PORTOS (an acronym for the slightly Orwellian-sounding “Poetic Society for Development of the Theory of the Common Good”) has been given a 4 1/2-year suspended sentence after a Moscow Court ruled that the commune was being operated as an illegal militant group. According to the Moscow Times, …
3D Consumer Camera, Russia Bans YouTube, EU Lobbied on Privacy
By Hannah Johnson Welcome to the first Tech Digest roundup of noteworthy links about new technology, digital developments, social media, cool gadgets, and more. Without further ado, here is today’s digest: Amazon Announces New Kindle As everyone predicted this week when they saw the Kindle was out-of-stock, Amazon has announced a “smaller, lighter, faster” Kindle. It looks like Amazon is …
The Russians Have Landed
By Edward Nawotka For the first time in many years the Russian Federation has taken a collective stand at BookExpo America. “The goal,” said Vladimir V. Grigoriev, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication, “is to re-introduce American readers to the rich literary culture of Russia. They tend to think of our 19th century writers, but …
Does Literature Still Have the Power to Irritate Powers-that-be?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s lead story Daniel Kalder writes about Russia’s Ad Marginem Press, a “underground” publisher of controversial and politically provocative works of fiction and nonfiction. Ad Marginem publisher Alexander Ivanov says the press may have something of an advantage in attracting an audience, in so far as “literature [in Russia] may still -– as it did in …
Notes from the Underground: Indie Publishing in Putin’s Russia
By Daniel Kalder MOSCOW: Back in 1993 a group of philosophers from the Russian Academy of Sciences formed Ad Marginem Press in Moscow. Their plan was simple: to publish translations of late 20th century Western philosophy that had been unavailable in the USSR, alongside works of contemporary Russian fiction. After 70 years of totalitarianism Russians were hungry for new ideas …
Review: The Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov
Reviewed by Gwendolyn Dawson The Golden Calf, a classic Russian novel now available in a new English translation by Konstantin Gurevich and Helen Anderson, published by Open Letter Books, is an exuberant road trip story, a financial thriller, an examination of the criminal underworld, and a social commentary, all rolled into one package. The story spans the era of Lenin’s …
The “Lost” Books of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
By Daniel Kalder When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died at aged 89 in August 2008, his reputation had been in flux for a long time. Even so, while most obituaries acknowledged the power and significance of The Gulag Archipelago and his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, he was nevertheless dogged to the grave by accusations of anti-Semitism, reactionary …
Bonus Material: A Short History of Turkmen Literature
By Daniel Kalder Turkmen literature began in the 18th century, thanks to Makhtumkuli (1733- 1813) who composed mournful, painful poems about injustice, the decline of morals and the general harshness of life. Then came poets such as Mollanepes and Kemine whose works remain popular among Turkmen today. Makhtumkuli’s own poetry remained totally unknown in the West until the mid-1990s, when …