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Russia articles, essays, debate and features from the Prospect archive.

Flirting with Stalin Arkady Ostrovsky While 1917 saw a cultural flowering in Russia, the post-Soviet intelligentsia has failed to articulate a liberal vision and produced only shallow art. Little wonder that Putin has been able to exploit nostalgia for Soviet "greatness" September 2008	It takes a village Thomas de Waal There are no winners in Georgia's crisis. It shows how great power games can easily get out of hand September 2008
The dangers of appeasement Marko Attila Hoare There are no parallels between Kosovo and South Ossetia. Russia's brutal expansionism must be checked now—or we will pay the price later September 2008	The Russian futurist Lesley Chamberlain Aleksander Solzhenitsyn killed off leftist attachment to the Soviet ideal in Europe. But his own attitude towards the motherland was complex August 2008
Caucasian favours Daniel J Gerstle Russia invaded Georgia partly to help maintain the loyalty of its own southern republics August 2008	Writing against himself Thomas de Waal He may deny it, but Orhan Pamuk is Turkey's most important political voice. Even Dostoevsky would have agreed July 2008
Myth of the new cold war Stephen Kotkin Russia was not a liberal democracy under Yeltsin, and neither has it reverted to totalitarianism under Putin. But America's long-established religiously inspired concern about "losing" Russia is once more at the centre of debate April 2008	The Kosovo precedent Shaun Walker The west's recognition of Kosovo's independence has given fresh impetus to other separatist movements. Consider Abkhazia April 2008
The Russian tradition Lesley Chamberlain Those who want to claim Russia as western ignore her deep historic ambivalence towards liberalism March 2008	A second Gorbachev? Andreas Umland Although he owes his advancement to Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev may prove a surprisingly liberal president of Russia March 2008
No one's hero Lesley Chamberlain What might Chekhov have made of modern Russia's slide into authoritarianism? March 2008	Georgi Arbatov Jonathan Power From his country dacha, the Soviet Union's top America-watcher discusses Putin's Russia, US foreign policy and nuclear proliferation February 2008
Behind the interviews Jonathan Power Reflections on my visits to Moscow and Washington to visit two of the leading lights of the cold war February 2008	Private view Ben Lewis The Russian paintings affair was, in reality, a minor wrangle about timing. Were the Russians being opportunistic or just paranoid? February 2008
After President Putin Andrew Jack Vladimir Putin is likely to try to shift powers from the presidency to the premiership next year. But Russian history suggests that such power-sharing is difficult January 2008	A new deal with Russia? Charles Grant It's in the interests of both the west and Russia to seek a grand bargain on the issues that divide them November 2007
Widescreen Mark Cousins The Russian film Day Watch is daft and even boring at times. But it is a stylistic revelation— and the best mainstream entertainment cinema around November 2007	We started something great Ben Lewis Orlando Figes's magisterial work tells the story of Stalin's Russia through the lives of its victims. It finds that misplaced idealism, as much as blind fear, was what made them obey Stalin November 2007
Checkmate Gazprom Derek Brower After Russia cut supplies to Ukraine in 2006, the EU decided it needed to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. But since then, a series of shrewd moves by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas monopoly, has left the EU's diversification strategy in tatters July 2007	Letter from Moscow Clementine Cecil Moscow's mayor is overseeing the destruction of many of the city's historic monuments. A stand needs to be taken against this illegal vandalism—and international criticism can help July 2007
Rowan Williams Lesley Chamberlain The Archbishop of Canterbury on Dostoevsky, "personalism" and how the story of Christ reminds him of Russian ideals May 2007	Private view Ben Lewis Russia is trying to engineer its own contemporary art boom. But it is too much in thrall to non-Russian artists and curators—and runs the risk of ignoring its home-grown talent April 2007
Putin's patrimony Robert Skidelsky Russia's economy is more dependent on natural resources than in Soviet times. This "oil curse" means a brittle economy and an unstable political system based on the fusion of power and property. Watch out for the coming Putin succession crisis March 2007	Anna and Alexander Thomas de Waal There are critical differences between the killings of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya January 2007
Reports from the gulag Tom Chatfield Martin Amis's new novel is brilliant and insightful, but offers little news to those versed in the 20th century's first-hand accounts of atrocity November 2006	Moscow diary John Keane November 2006
Vasily Grossman Robert Chandler The Russian writer's novel "Life and Fate"—often compared with "War and Peace"—was first published in English in the mid-1980s. But only now is interest taking off among a wider public September 2006	Gazprom's triumph Derek Brower Liberalised energy markets have brought Europe to the edge of a gas supply crisis August 2006
Russia's pipeline politics Anthony Robinson At St Petersburg, the old G7 countries will find a newly confident Russia willing to exploit energy policy to fulfil geopolitical objectives. What can they do about it? July 2006	Russia's colluders Jeremy Putley The Beslan school crisis and the Moscow theatre siege took place with the knowledge and possibly even the assistance of Russian authorities July 2006
Split-screen Russia Derek Brower Russian cinema is not so much repressed as divided. Some films dwell on a glorious lost order, but others are unflinchingly critical of the new one April 2006	Gazprom and the snarling bear Anthony Robinson The Kremlin's taste for using energy assets to play politics and concentrate power is worryingly reminiscent of the Soviet era. What is Putin's next move? February 2006
Arts forecast Ivan Hewett In opera and ballet, the Kirov continues to innovate, even as it builds on historic strengths. Driving this winning formula are the titanic energies of its artistic director, Valery Gergiev July 2005	Cold war chess Daniel Johnson The rise and fall of chess in the 20th century was intimately linked with the cold war and the Soviet Union's giant investment in the game. But deprived of the atmosphere of menace that characterised that era, chess has dissipated much of the capital it built up over more than a century June 2005
Theatre forecast Michael Coveney The great St Petersburg company shows what's possible when actors dedicate their entire lives to one theatre May 2005	The Yukos affair Anthony Robinson The dramatic arrest 18 months ago of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then Russia's richest man, marked the end of the first, positive, phase of the Putin regime and the return of fear to Russian politics. But thanks to Kremlin errors and in-fighting, there is a new spirit of resistance to creeping authoritarianism April 2005
A split Ukraine? Tom Reed A humiliated Russia may try to split Ukraine if its supporters lose the next vote January 2005	Russia's playground Timothy Phillips Behind Russian bellicosity in the Caucasus lies an old dream of holidays and romance October 2004
The temptation to steal Edward Lucas The failures of Africa and the ex-Soviet states have much in common June 2004	The Shostakovich files Erik Tarloff The debate over Shostakovich's "collusion" is inconclusive; the music is not May 2004
Neo-Stalinism Gideon Lichfield What happened to democracy in Russia? Why don't the Russians care? March 2004	Roman Abramovich Chris Stephen He seized Russian oil, governed a distant province and bought Chelsea FC. And he remains a friend of the Kremlin. How? January 2004
Fall of an oligarch Robert Cottrell Khordokovsky's arrest shows that power in Russia now resides squarely with the men with uniforms. December 2003	Chechnya roadmap Thomas de Waal The second Chechen war grinds on - but the Chechens are supporting neither side November 2003
Into the Russian night Jeremy Putley David Satter's account of Russia's criminal state is savagely bleak. Did the state really kill hundreds of its own people to justify the second Chechen war? August 2003	Petersburg reborn Duncan Fallowell Out of dereliction, St Petersburg is re-emerging as a great Russian city. The concrete of communism has peeled off to reveal a human logic in the streets, and the return of a belle époque atmosphere June 2003
The ghost of the gulag Rodric Braithwaite The camps were a microcosm of the Soviet Union, which may be why so few contemporary Russians want to think very much about them June 2003	Widescreen Mark Cousins How tragic Russians gave American cinema its joy January 2003
Young person's guide to Stalin Frederic Raphael Martin Amis's Koba is another exhibitionist work-yet endearing and instructive. A Harry Pottering among the ruins of 20th-century political illusions October 2002	The definitive Dostoevsky Derek Brower Joseph Frank has completed his five-volume biography of the Russian genius July 2002
Widescreen Mark Cousins The single-shot movie July 2002	First night in Moscow Clem Cecil Moscow theatre is starting to vibrate as powerfully as the streets May 2001
Return flight Arkady Ostrovsky After a decade of asset stripping and capital flight the Russians are finally investing in their own economy April 2001	Power food Vanora Bennett Sergi was sent down for 15 years for smuggling caviar. In prison he became a poet and now he laughs at the new Russians February 2001
What is Russia? Orlando Figes Without a real sense of nationhood, Russians tried to make a homeland in their art. All Russian art circles the question: "What is Russia?" January 2001	Remembrance day Robert Chandler How can Russia commemorate so many dead? December 2000
Was communism as bad as Nazism? Anne Applebaum Anatol Lieven October 2000	Two Russian films Arkady Ostrovsky The battle of Russia's past is played out in two films: one indescribably cynical, the other too painful to watch August 2000
A Russian album Sally Laird The age-old Russian desire for contact with foreigners is as powerful now as it was in the Brezhnev era June 2000	Russia's swamp Thomas de Waal Putin's declared ambition is to restore Russia great power status, how should the west respond to this weak, aggrieved post-superpower? April 2000
Can Brits film Pushkin? Yuri Senokosov Edward Skidelsky The cultural and aesthetic challenges of putting Russia's national poem on the big screen March 2000	Victor Pelevin Jason Cowley Russian literary culture is in disarray but it can still have a good row about its most fashionable writer March 2000
Right of reply Anatol Lieven Western coverage of Russia's latest invasion of Chechnya has been hopelessly one-sided January 2000	Why Milosevic cracked Zbigniew Brzezinski Serbian capitulation was the result of a partition manoeuvre that went wrong November 1999
Discovering Platonov Penelope Fitzgerald A great Russian writer August 1999	Hot nights in Moscow Douglas Steele For three years the Hungry Duck was the wildest club in Moscow. But after seeing off the mafia and the cops, the outraged politicians finally did down the Duck July 1999
Rasputin's ghost Colin Thubron In a decaying Russian village, I meet Rasputin's "great grandson" and spend the night with a babushka who has lost so much June 1999	Babel Edward Skidelsky An extraordinary political salon has been created in Moscow by a woman who trusts intuition March 1999
Mahler man Duncan Fallowell Gilbert Kaplan is a businessman with little musical training who has learnt to conduct Mahler's 2nd symphony. Last year he was in St Petersburg, next month it's Moscow February 1999	Good news from Russia Robert Chandler Russians are not all mafiosi and die-hard communists. One visitor to the country is pleasantly surprised January 1999
The new nuclear threat Christoph Bluth Most people asssume that the end of the cold war has erased the risk of nuclear confrontation. But the break-up of the Soviet Union has actually increased the risk of accidental or "unauthorised" nuclear strikes December 1998	History is not bunk Anatol Lieven There is nothing unusual about Russia's flawed transition, it repeats the experience of many other weak states plundered by their own corrupt elites. Utopian capitalist ideologues, inside and outside Russia, have made things worse by justifying corruption in the name of the greater free market good October 1998
Blaming Yeltsin Anatol Lieven The financial crisis in Russia is Boris Yeltsin's fault. The west would be foolish to back him at the next election July 1998	Gulag Baden-Baden Robert Skidelsky Robert Skidelsky takes part in an unusual academic conference on the edge of Siberia. He visits Stalin's last gulag and hears Shirley Williams sing June 1998
The paranoid Pole Anatol Lieven Zbigniew Brzezinski belongs to that realist school of geopoliticians whose advice is best ignored. His hard-headed approach to American hegemony masks an irrational hatred and fear of Russia May 1998	Fire and ice Edward Skidelsky The end of the Soviet Union has released a flood of new histories of Russia and communism. Edward Skidelsky recommends two-one describes the tragedy of an idea, the other of a people March 1998
The new class John Lloyd Russia is no longer an empire but not yet a "civic" nation - into this vacuum have stepped institutionalised corruption and criminality. John Lloyd traces the roots of the problem to Russia's Soviet past and its transition to the market economy, and says the situation is getting worse January 1998	Letter from Moscow Liam Halligan Liam Halligan, in Moscow for the city's 850th celebrations, wonders about the bad news from Russia November 1997
Russian reasons Douglas Hurd There is a new optimism about Russia. Douglas Hurd, who here recalls his meetings with Gorbachev and Yeltsin, says it is justified. Even the prospect of a populist president should not alarm the west August 1997	Eastern front Enlargement of the EU to the east is economically feasible, with sufficient flexibility in the west. But it is geopolitically risky. The historic fault line in Europe is between Germany and Russia, not Germany and France. Russia must not be isolated from Europe's mainstream August 1997
Russian bodies and souls Sally Laird Some of the greatest literature of the Soviet era is only now becoming available in fine English translations. Sally Laird finds similar themes reverberating in new Russian writing July 1997	Bringing Russia in Rodric Braithwaite The expansion of Nato will serve no clear defensive purpose and is likely to strengthen reactionary forces in Russia. Rodric Braithwaite, former British ambassador in Moscow, argues that acknowledging Russia's desire to be part of a European settlement is not appeasement but good sense June 1997
Letter from Russia Edward Skidelsky Edward Skidelsky shuttles between two contending realities in the new Russia February 1997	Shining Stalin's shoes PJ O'Rourke Are leftists crazy or are they charlatans? After wading through 769 pages of Mikhail Gorbachev's humourless memoirs, PJ O'Rourke thinks he has the answer January 1997
Roundtable on Russia John Lloyd Geoffrey Hosking Rodric Braithwaite Peter Frank Archie Brown Irina Isakova Russia is entering its most unstable period since the end of the Soviet Union. Will there be violence? Who is running the country? Why is the economy still depressed? Six Russia watchers review the country's mood and come to tentative judgements about Yeltsin and the role of the west December 1996	Educating Boris Rachel Polonsky Russia's elite used to be educated in France and Germany. Now its children eat custard in the private schools of England. Rachel Polonsky asks whether this will make any difference to the course of Russian history December 1996
The lab John Maddox John Maddox considers how the Wellcome Trust can save Russian science December 1996	Letter from Russia Samantha De Bendern Samantha de Bendern discovers why the Russian countryside is littered with half finished houses November 1996
Russian lessons Robert Skidelsky Robert Skidelsky spent a month in Russia, playing bridge, monitoring an election, learning Russian, and observing the anxieties of ordinary citizens October 1996	Red letter day Robert Haupt Where reform has been tried in Russia, democrats thrive. Communist strength, on the other hand, follows the path of Hitler's invasion July 1996
Digest Taylor E Dark Taylor E Dark spent a year teaching at a Russian university where he found a student generation politically apathetic but entrepreneurially vigorous. They even miss classes to go on business trips July 1996	Dealing with the Russians Douglas Hurd Whoever wins the election, Russia will remain an unpredictable neighbour for the west. Nato must expand eastwards but should encourage some states to become partners, not members June 1996
Lonely tsar John Morrison The defining moment of Boris Yeltsin's career was his humiliation by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. In pursuit of revenge, Yeltsin broke up the Soviet Union. But he has remained a loner, unwilling to build a reform party and now, like Leonid Brezhnev, protected from reality by his cronies. John Morrison, a biographer of Yeltsin, assesses his five years in office June 1996	The rest of history Ernest Gellner The late Ernest Gellner, a life-long anti-communist, deplored the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Here he explains his regrets-for those in the east who have had their moral universe shattered, and for those in the disorientated west who have jumped to the wrong conclusions May 1996
Nato's grey zone Philip Gordon The end of the cold war has left Nato with a diminished role. Will extending Nato to central Europe help revitalise the organisation and stabilise the new democracies? Or will it unnecessarily aggravate Russia and endanger those countries not in the first wave of enlargement? April 1996	Russia's "Fleurs du Mal" Lesley Chamberlain Contemporary Russian literature is suffering an identity crisis. Lesley Chamberlain describes how post-Soviet writers are struggling to escape the legacy of both 20th century repression and 19th century masters February 1996
Modern manners Rachel Polonsky February 1996	Who rules Russia? Thomas Graham A US diplomat caused an uproar when his analysis of Russia's political clans was published in a Moscow newspaper January 1996
An unscheduled stop Robert Haupt Ulyanovsk is a sleepy town on the Volga, but for over half a century it was a bustling shrine dedicated to its most famous son-Lenin. Robert Haupt took a river boat to the town in search of what shaped the Bolshevik leader, and listened to Russians trying to make sense of their communist history January 1996	Run rabbit run Artyom Troitsky Banned under communism, Playboy magazine became a legend among Russians. Artyom Troitsky, rock critic turned editor-in-chief, tells how the new Russian Playboy is shaping up December 1995
Russian roulette Bruce Clark The next few months could see the emergence of a new and altogether less predictable Russia. Forthcoming Duma and presidential elections will see gains for nationalistic, anti-western politicians. Having abandoned Marxism, the Russian political class may now be on the verge of exchanging liberal democracy for an ancient form of Muscovite statecraft. Bruce Clark assesses the impact of the new Russia on east-west relations November 1995	Dead souls Andrew Cowley Russia is in the midst of a demographic crisis. Life expectancy for men is falling precipitately and is now below the level it reached under Stalin. Andrew Cowley examines the reasons October 1995