The April issue of Soviet Samovar is now out!

by on April 21, 2012 in Soviet/Russian Jewry

Hi guys, the April issue of the Soviet Samovar is now out. Highlights include an article on the lives of Russian Jewish immigrants twenty years on – it compares those who went to Israel, to the US, to Germany, and those who stayed put in the Former Soviet Union. Plus, lots on the Holocaust in »Read More

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Apparently, there are words I still don’t know in English. Like apron.

by on March 8, 2012 in Soviet/Russian Jewry

I forgot the word for helicopter the other day. For the rotor, actually. And I didn’t forget so much as remember it in the wrong language. My brain froze up and then offered me nothing but a very Russian “vyertolyot”. The end result is that I have a toddler who will never know what those »Read More

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There was probably a KGB file with my name on it

by on March 7, 2012 in Soviet/Russian Jewry

*Updated at bottom Excuse me all, while I continue to geek out on Soviet government memos… As I flip through, I’m continually amazed at the level of specificity in these memos, and to realize that “Big Brother” genuinely read all letters received from North American activists and government officials. (Paging Amnesty International.) We like to »Read More

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The loneliness of crossing oceans

by on March 2, 2012 in Soviet/Russian Jewry

I’ve been writing about a trip I took to Rome with my parents a few years ago. We tried to find the apartment we’d lived in while we were waiting for our Canadian paperwork, but then didn’t. We did eat a lot of gelato and drink a lot of wine. But one of the things »Read More

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Apparatchiks with typewriters, or, in the Soviet archives

by on February 28, 2012 in Soviet/Russian Jewry

I recently got my hands on a research collection of Soviet government documents on Jewish immigration, dating from 1957 to 1989. The book was published in 1998, just as the post-collapse euphoria came to a close and Russian archives began to fold back in on themselves, so these documents are no longer as accessible. It’s »Read More

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The Potemkin effect: Colour photos from the black-and-white days

by on February 12, 2012 in Random, Technology

There is a fantastic photo collection of Tsarist Russia taken between 1902 and 1912 on the Boston Globe site. Strictly speaking, they’re not colour photos – the photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) – shot each image three times, using a red, green and then blue filter. He later combined them to get an approximation of reality. (For »Read More

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The Soviet Samovar – February issue is out!

by on February 8, 2012 in Soviet/Russian Jewry

The February issue of the Soviet Samovar – my monthly round-up of things Soviet, Russian and Jewish, is now out. Highlights this issue include lessons for Iranian Americans from the Soviet Jewry movement, a Jewish-themed restaurant in Lviv, Regina Spektor concert to benefit HIAS, and Russian-Israelis scrambling to prove their Jewish identity in Israel. Oh, »Read More

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Soviet Jewry reading assignment

by on February 6, 2012 in Random

I made a reading list! Or “curated” if you want to be fancy about it. You all should go read it. It’s for the Jewish Book Council and covers what I consider some of the best reading on Soviet Jewish history. Please take a moment to check it out. If I’ve missed something, leave a »Read More

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My Perestroika

Not my perestroika: Shades of might have beens

by on December 15, 2011 in Soviet/Russian Jewry

Every year, on September 1, Russian children start their first day of school. All of them, en masse. And before them, it was Soviet children. My mother went to school in pinafored uniform, braids and bows in her hair, flowers in her arms. Twenty years later, a carbon copy photo of my cousin doing and »Read More

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