Stories about Belarus from January, 2008
Belarus, Latvia: “Ploshcha”
Marginalia watches Ploshcha (“The Square”), a film about the March 2006 mass protests in Minsk – “and watching it is a good way to mark Ceauşescu's birthday and Suharto's death”...
Russia: Kasyanov and Invalid Signatures
Mark MacKinnon writes about Mikhail Kasyanov's failed attempt to run for president and provides “an incomplete list of the invalid signatures phenomenon in post-Soviet elections.”
Belarus, Russia: Minsk-Murmansk Train
The post translated below features a photo of a note pasted on the Minsk-Murmansk train - a note that's supposed to assist passengers in locating cars they've got tickets for, but is instead a great illustration of how easily something mundane may turn into the frustratingly surreal in this part of the world.
Soviet History: Fartsovshchiki
Window on Eurasia writes about a review of a new book on Soviet fartsovshchiki: “In the 1970s and 1980s, ‘fartsovka’ grew so large that Vasil’yev suggests there were six different...
