Pascha and Pandemic

by John P. Burgess

Developments around Pascha this year reveal a much more complex picture of Russia's church-state relations. Continue Reading »

1 May 2020

The New Lazarus

by Gary Saul Morson

The Aviator by eugene vodolazkin translated by lisa c. hayden oneworld, 400 pages, $26.99 In one of the greatest memoirs of the Stalin years, Nadezhda Mandelstam wrote, “We have to get over our loss of memory.” Beginning with Gorbachev’s glasnost, and especially after the fall of communism, . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Mar 2019

Royal Fatalism

by Leann Davis Alspaugh

The Romanovs:  1613–1918 by simon sebag montefiore vintage, 784 pages, $35 The Romanovs Under House Arrest:  From the 1917 Diary of a Palace Priest by afanasy belyaev translated by leonid michailitschenko holy trinity, 136 pages, $29.95 The Romanov dynasty begins and ends with one name: . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 2019

Russian Jeremiah

by ​Ryszard Legutko

Between Two Millstones, Book 1: Sketches of Exile, 1974–1978 by aleksandr solzhenitsyn notre dame, 480 pages, $35 The first volume of Solzhenitsyn’s memoir of exile, Between Two Millstones, begins with the author’s expulsion from the Soviet Union and closes with him viewing the landscape . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jan 2019

Thinking Under the Influence

by John Wilson

There was, and still is today, a photo of Sinyavsky on one of my bookshelves. Continue Reading »

8 Jun 2018

Freedom Is Never Free

by George Weigel

The war in the Donbass is real, and the West needs to take it far more seriously. Continue Reading »

9 May 2018

Patriarch Kirill
and Mr. Putin

by George Weigel

Russian Orthodox Church leadership continues to promote Putin's farcical attempt to be a savior of Christian values. Continue Reading »

11 Apr 2018

Briefly Noted

by Andrew M. Lang

With God in America: The Spiritual Legacy of an Unlikely Jesuit by walter j. ciszek, s.j. loyola, 264 pages, $19.95 With God in America completes the triptych of the legendary Walter J. Ciszek, S.J., an American missionary priest who endured twenty-three years in the Soviet Gulag. While the . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Mar 2018

“Equilibrium” and Ignominy

by George Weigel

By refusing to denounce Putin's actions in Crimea, the Holy See is shirking its moral responsibility. Continue Reading »

17 Jan 2018

Dispatches from Russia

by Marcus Plested

Some little while ago, I found myself sitting in the grounds of the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, delighting in the spring flowers and being treated to a prodigious display of bell-ringing. I reflected at the time that the Russians have few peers among other nations in their great love for church . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jan 2018