In 1931, the Communists began drawing up plans to tear down Christ the Savior Cathedral and, in its place, build the Palace of the Soviets. It would have been the world’s tallest structure (and would still be #9 today). It would have been topped with 6000 ton statue of Lenin and included, among other things, […]
How did the economic and political disarray that beset Russia in the days and years following Glasnost affect Russian cultural institutions? In Russia, Theater practitioners have long enjoyed a social position comparable to Hollywood actors or professional sports stars in America. By the mid-nineteenth century, amateur, provincial, and serf theaters had sprung up in even […]
The Girl with an Oar sculpture was re-introduced to Gorky Park in 2011. Originally installed in 1935, it was then a controversial piece of art, and endured criticism, a likely theft or vandalism, revision, and then destruction by Nazi bombs. Everyone associated with the statue died the year the statue was destroyed: 1941. The statue […]
Winter is the most fairytale-like time of year. Everything around is covered with a sparkling white quilt; only purity and mystery remain. It is impossible not to fall in love with winter. AdMe.ru, a Russian site, has put together a list of four artists in Russia who capture the beauty of the season. This translation […]
In response to a wider trend of “Art History for Dummies” that has recently gone viral, the staff at AdMe.ru, a Russian website, recently created a short guide that will help you to distinguish Brullov from Surikov and Kandinsky from Malevich. Please note: this is not an art appreciation course but a simplified guide created […]
Adam Fuss has worked as a freelance writer, editor, translator, and communications professional for over eight years. Prior to establishing ABF Communications in early 2008, he worked on a series of assignments in Moscow, Russia as a writer and translator for several high-profile global corporate communications projects. He holds a graduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. […]
Julius (“Jay”) Wachtel was born in Italy. Two weeks later he and his parents, both Holocaust survivors, moved to Buenos Aires. A decade later the family emigrated to the US and settled in Los Angeles. The fact that his mother had been liberated by Soviet troops led Jay to develop an interest in Russian history […]
Erin Decker holds a BA in Political Science and International Studies (Global Security) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing SRAS’s Translate Abroad program in 2009, she went on to find employment as a translator and editor in Moscow and has lived there since. SRAS: You are currently an analyst-level editor for Equity & Fixed Income Research at […]
Robert Chandler graduated with a BA in Russian and English Literature from Leeds University. His translations from Russian include Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate and Everything Flows, Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Aleksander Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter. His co-translations of Andrey Platonov have won prizes both in the UK and in the USA. His translation of Hamid Ismailov’s The Railway […]
Dr. Anne Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Russian Literature from The University of Michigan. She has taught Russian in several institutes of higher learning and is now a professional translator and interpertor living in California. Her first major translation, Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip: The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers, was shortlisted for the […]
Faith Seim, after studying at for an academic year (1999-2000) at Moscow State University with SRAS, applied to and was accepted to study film direction at the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). She eventually went on to work in the studios of RAMKO/Russian-American Movie Company, a Moscow-based film company specializing in producing films “for the international market” and […]
Nora Favorov is a freelance, professional translator working in the Russian>English market and is an active member of the American Translator Association. She recently took some time from her piles of manuscripts to talk about how she came to work in her profession and what it’s like to work in a profession that often must bridge art […]
