Gaw ruminates on the significance of Solzhenitsyn's final work in a world where even disaffected and idealistic Occupiers no longer really seem very sure of anything... In a little less than a month we mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union. I haven't seen a single mention ... Read More...

Introducing our Dabbler Book Club choice for October... Our Dabbler Book Club choice for this month is Apricot Jam by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn.  Book club members have the chance of an exclusive preview of this newly-translated collection of short stories by a Russian master, which is to be published in the UK ... Read More...

Further to my post last week concerning Russian drinking habits, I thought readers might be interested to read a handful of impressionistic sketches of the country and its people. They're drawn from my experiences studying, traveling and working in Russia during the 1990s. Whilst I found the place fascinating, I always ... Read More...

A Russian doctor takes the connoisseur's approach to combining vodka and food: Russian men drink vodka shots. They drink vodka with gusto while making loud breathing noises. They drink vodka as if their manhood depended on how loud those noises are. After these shots, Russians eat. They eat small morsels of food, ... Read More...