By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with “He was not a nihilist for nothing!” This is one of the funniest, and at the same time one of the saddest lines written by Ivan Turgenev in Fathers and Sons, the novel of his which preserves its contemporaneity through the Russian revolutions better than any other classic of Russian […]

by Editor - Sunday, May 28th, 2023
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with This is a tale about whales and Russians. In the telling, it has surprised even its author. A university professor from Oregon, he belongs to that seagoing pod which, like the North Pacific right whales,    is a seriously endangered species right now — that’s the American exceptionalists. Ryan Tucker Jones’s book, […]

by Editor - Wednesday, May 17th, 2023
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Once upon a time, one of the leading literary figures in the UK defended Russian culture by staging a play in a London theatre in 1920 and again in 1926. J.M. (James) Barrie, famous then and now as the creator of Peter Pan, was the playwright; the play he wrote […]

by Editor - Monday, April 24th, 2023
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with To keep western children safe from being misled by Anglo-American reporters on this topic,  here is a primer on what exactly the newly enacted Russian law says; what Russian public opinion thinks; what the Russian courts, judges,  and lawyers have interpreted the law to mean; and what the record of enforcement […]

by Editor - Sunday, December 18th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The news from Odessa, the third city of the Ukraine and its leading port, is there is almost no news. This has strategic significance. It means there is no Russian plan for a battle for Odessa, no artillery, missile, air, or naval attack on the city. The Odessans know this, and […]

by Editor - Wednesday, November 9th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Last week the first snow landed on Moscow without sticking. On Thursday a significant  anniversary has also fallen without sticking. It has been ninety-one years since November 3, 1931, when the Central Committee of the Communist Party voted the resolution to design, build, and pay for public parks and gardens as […]

by Editor - Sunday, November 6th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Maria Yudina (lead image) is one of the great Russian pianists. She was not, however, one who appealed to all tastes in her lifetime, 1899 to 1970. In a new biography of her by Elizabeth Wilson, Yudina’s belief that music represents Orthodox Christian faith is made out to be so heroic, the […]

by Editor - Monday, September 5th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Anna Akhmatova, the most famous poetess in the Russian language, will be 133 on June 23. Akhmatova was the nom de plume she chose because her father said his family name would be disgraced by her publishing her poems.  The family name was Gorenko, and she was born in Bolshoi Fontan,  Odessa. A […]

by Editor - Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Every summer and winter the London art auction houses display the best of Russian painting and fine art objects for a bidding match between Russian bank robbers on the run; museums; boardrooms; and everybody else with the taste to fit their pockets. When the price of oil goes up, along with […]

by Editor - Friday, June 11th, 2021
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Russian laughter has weaponised – and that’s no joke. Nor is it new. This month is the 185th anniversary of the first stage performance of The Government Inspector (Ревизор, Revizor), the work launching the fame of its author Nikolai Gogol. The laughter which the play, then the book drew from May 1, […]

by Editor - Sunday, May 9th, 2021
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