Outsiders generally associate Russia with totalitarianism, the epitome of political centralization, and this is not an incorrect assumption. However, much in Russian life also depends on the whim of local authorities, and sometimes even on the people’s will. Residents of Ulyanovsk, for example, chose to continue their association with Lenin, rather than renaming their town Simbirsk.
All this naming and renaming can seem baffling to non-Russians. Russians themselves view it as representative of their land’s long and complex history, a land of people accustomed to thinking one thing and saying another, a land where roads often lead to dead ends, a land where (for now at least) the Putin-era farrago of symbols from almost all Russia’s epochs—Red Victory flags from the Great Patriotic War, red-white-and-blue banners from the imperial period, Soviet-era statues, and emblems from Russian Orthodox Christianity—are tasked with reconciling the irreconcilable extremes of a country where the past is anything but past.
NOTE ON TRANSLATION AND TRANSLITERATION
Bibliographical references and Russian words cited in this book follow a modified version of the Library of Congress system of transliteration (“ya” instead of “ia,” for example). Soft signs are omitted, and names are mostly given in their standard English form (when such exists). Unless otherwise indicated, translations from the Russian are our own.
INDEX
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Abramovich, Roman
Agata Kristi
agriculture
airports
AK-47
Akademgorodok
Akhmatova, Anna
Albertina University
alcoholism
Alexander I
Alexandra, empress
amber
Ammosov, Maksim
Amur River
Amur tigers
Andreyevsky Descent, Kiev
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
anti-Semitism
apparatchiks
apple trees
architecture
Constructivist
of Moscow
neo-Russian
socialist classicism
Stalinist
Arctic Ocean
Arkhangelsk
art, avant-garde
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), 2012 summit
atomic bomb
autocrats
Azarov, Dmitry
Baikal-Amur Railroad (BAM)
Baikal Lake
bakeries
Baltic fleet
Baltic Plain
Baltic Sea
Baltiysk (Pillau)
Basil II
bears
Beketov, Pyotr
Beria, Lavrenty
Berlag (Coastal Labor Camp)
Bessonov, Tatyana
blackouts (power)
Black Sea
blacksmiths
Blagoveshchensk
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917
bookstores
Brezhnev, Leonid
bribes
bridges
Briner, Yuly (Jules)
Brodsky, Yury
Bucharest Declaration of 2008
Buddhism
buildings
five-story
gigantic size
Bukovsky, Vladimir
Bulatov, Erik
Bulgakov, Mikhail
Buryatia
Buryats
Bush, George W.
Butugychag labor camp
Byzantine Empire
cab drivers
cafés
capitalism in Russia
Carroll, Lewis
cars
foreign made
Russian made
and traffic
Caspian Sea
cathedrals
destruction of
rebuilding of
Catherine I
Catherine II, the Great
cats
Caucasus
caviar
centralization of state power
regions’ defense against
Chagall, Marc
Chaif
Chapel of Saint Nicholas
Chechen wars
Cheka
Chekhov, Anton
chelnoki (“suitcase traders”)
Chernyshevsky, Nikolai
Chersonesus
China
alliance with Russia
border with Russia
comparisons with Russia
investments in Russia
relations with Russia
single time zone of
threat to Siberia
wars with Russia
Chinese, in Russia
Chinese language
Chirkunov, Oleg
Chita
Christianity
Chubais, Anatoly
Chukchis
Chukotka oblast
churches, destruction of
Churchill, Winston
Civil War
climate
summer
winter
Clinton, Hillary
clothing
coffee
collectivization
communism
disappearance of
effect on Russian psyche
promise of
Confucius Institute
constitution, Russian
construction sites
corruption
Cossacks
countersanctions, Russian
Crimea
annexation of (2014)
history
importance of, to Ukraine
Khrushchev’s transfer to Ukraine
Crimea bridge
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Peninsula
cruise ships
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
cult of personality
Currentzis, Teodor
customer service
Cyril and Methodius, Saints
Cyrillic alphabet
czar, rehabilitation of
Dalstroi (Far-Eastern Construction Directorate)
Damansky Island
Decembrists
demonstrations
Demurova, Nina
Derzhava (Fatherland) sculpture
de-Stalinization
Diaghilev, Sergei
diamonds
Dnieper River
documents, personal
Dolgorukiy, Yury
Donetsk People’s Republic
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
double-headed eagle coat of arms
Dudayev, Dzhokhar
Dzerzhinsky, Felix
Dzhugashvili, Joseph
earthquakes
Eastern Economic Forum
eastward migration, incentivizing of
economy, Russian
Ekibastuz
elections
presidential
snap
Elgen camp
emigration to the West
empires
encirclement, fear of
English language, speaking it, in Russia
“Ensk,” the city of N
environmentalist movement
Estonia
ethnic minorities
Eurasia, Russia’s place in
Euromaidan revolt of 2013
Europe
eastern extent of
Russia compared to
European culture
in advertising
and Russian culture
European Union
Evenks
Evens
Fadina, Oksana
Far-Eastern Hectare project
Far Eastern University