The third volume is devoted to the first period of Nicholas Pavlovich's reign. The nature of ‘Knight Nicholas,’ as he was called in childhood, the ‘Don Quixote of autocracy,’ as he was later called, was infused with the absolute conservatism of his mentors, the historian Nikolai Karamzin and General Matthias Lambsdorff: the individual is insignificant, the state is valuable in itself. An...

The second volume covers perhaps the most glorious decade in Russian history—1815–1825. This is a decade of complete peace. For Russia, all wars are over. Europe recognizes the authority of the country that liberated it from Napoleon's rule. Emperor Alexander is called the ‘Agamemnon of Europe,’ compared to the leader of the Achaean kings in the legend of the Trojan War. Alexander establishes a...

Reading these poems and looking at these photographs, it feels like you've seen it all somewhere else. A small town no one dreams of visiting, with a train station and a bus stop. A fellow traveler with a bag of London bags packed by his wife. An apartment rental ad: a TV always by the window, a sofa, two armchairs against the wall. Little things that never seem important, but only they can...

Andrey Dudko's novel is a psychedelic parody of autofiction. The protagonist, a fake alter ego of the writer, abandons his family and job and retreats to the provincial town of Slonim to create a literary masterpiece in the solitude of his empty family home. However, alcohol, casual sex, and the phantoms of his childhood haunting the city hinder his creativity. Instead of writing, the...

‘Diary’ is a chronicle of the psychological breakdown of the country. The time of overturned destinies and burned-out feelings gives birth to a special literature, uncomfortable and disturbing. Here the author becomes general. Therefore, without a name, about everyone in the first person. ‘It's very difficult to write - everything is a stupor. Our current context adds to the senselessness -...

Experiencing unrequited love, the heroine of Daria Traiden's novel buys a village house in Belarus and begins renovating it. Transforming and inhabiting her own space on her native land is her strategy for preserving meaning. Reflecting on body, identity, poverty, violence, and family, the author searches for and reinvents her roots. Equally about love and home, the book explores the...

This book of short stories and miniatures by Vladimir Stepan strengthens his reputation as one of the best domestic masters of short prose. Laconic, transparent texts, in which there is not a single superfluous word, are made between artistic documentary and autofiction. At first glance, they belong to the tradition of pure realism, but upon careful reading it is easy to see that the author...

‘50’ is a book by Meduza film critic Anton Dolin, published to mark the author's anniversary. The collection includes 50 texts written between 2001 and 2022 for the magazine Iskusstvo Kino (only one article, on Paul Thomas Anderson's ‘Battle After Battle,’ was written specifically for the book). Dolin began his professional career writing for IK, and in 2017, he became head of the editorial...

Konstantin Gaaze's book, ‘Where Dictatorships Are Drifting,’ chronicles the historical evolution of Russian autocracy, culminating in a full-scale invasion of a neighboring country. In pondering why Russia attacked Ukraine, the author dismisses two well-worn theories—the country's eternal historical fate and the sinister personality of its ruler. Instead, he presents the results of his...

‘When We Sing, the Wind Rises: A Brief History of Popular Music in 21st-Century Russia’ is a book by Alexander Gorbachev, journalist, music critic, and former editor-in-chief of Afisha. It explores the relationship between the fastest form of art and its surrounding time and space, and how Russian-language music has changed during the various periods of the Putin era. Featured artists...

His new book, ‘The Dark Side of the Earth,’ is a deeply personal reconstruction of the last thirty years of the Soviet Union, chronicling its journey from the dawn of the space age, the peak of the Soviet empire, to stagnation, and then to perestroika, a series of crises, and collapse. It's also a book about the people, contemporaries, and participants in those events. Among them are Mikhail...