Russia's strongman suddenly starts to look weak
In Russia one of the biggest hits on YouTube is the dramatic scene in November when Vladimir Putin was booed at a martial arts contest....
Threat to Hungary
In the last 18 months, nine European governments have lost power: Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy,...
He wanted 'dull', but Orbán is becoming a dictator
The Hungarian Prime Minister I knew was a fun-loving firebrand. Now his democratic deficit is a threat to the EU. - Read full article
Leave it to the Russians to bring down Putin
Moscow’s leader is a corrupt bully. But it’s not worth starting a second Cold War over him. - Read full article
Apricot Jam and Other Stories by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Themes of tyranny and brutality run through this collection for stories, published in English for the first time. - Read full article
City of the dead
Russian officials today, much like the Soviet authorities of a past generation, encourage a cult of the Great Patriotic War. In the...
Moscow, December 25 1991 by Conor O'Clery
Nobody saw it coming — this superb account re-creates in vivid detail the passing of the Soviet Union 20 years ago. So many moments are...
The K.G.B.'s Bathhouse Plot
THE plot was hatched at a bathhouse in downtown Moscow. At midmorning on Saturday, Aug. 17, 1991, the head of the K.G.B., Vladimir A....
Afghanistan : How to end a war
President Medvedev has offered to help the west’s faltering Afghan campaign - but both parties must heed the lessons from the Soviet...
The Road by Vasily Grossman
An outstanding collection from one of Russia’s greats who dared to write against the wishes of the authorities. - Read full article
It's not easy to get troops out. Ask Gorbachev
In his Cabinet room, the leader was exasperated by the latest reports of casualties in Afghanistan. “We’re in ... but how to get out...
Encounter by Milan Kundera
Having had Rushdie and Coetzee defend him, Milan Kundera’s reflections on other writers shed some light on his own tricky past. - Read...
Before and after the Fall
No one here (I mean in Britain, not perhaps in the columns of The Spectator) likes to read anything nice about the Germans. So I shall...
Vaclav Havel: the unlikely leader
There’s one sound I shall never forget about the revolution that bustled the Communists out of power in Czechoslovakia 20 years ago: the...
The Berlin wall was the real 9/11
The heady events in Berlin in 1989 had far more impact than the rise of Islamism. Today is the real 9/11. This is not meant as a quibble...