Latest posts by Veronica Khokhlova from February, 2006
Poland: Iranian Perspective on the Holocaust
Beatroot corrects Mohammad Taheri, Iran's ambassador to Portugal, who thinks it necessary to reconsider the Holocaust numbers and has been quoted saying this: “When I was ambassador to Poland I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau twice and I did my own calculations. To incinerate six million people you would need 15...
Estonia: 1905 Revolution Photo Exhibit
Was 1905 in Estonia a prelude to 1917 or the year Estonia's independence movement was born? Bonjour l'Estonie links to a review of a photo exhibit capable of shedding light on this neglected and potentially divisive historical period: “Manors are Burning!: The 1905 Revolution in Estonia.”
Estonia: Taking Responsibility
Bonjour l'Estonie links to an article in Free Estonian Word about how the choices made more than 60 years ago still reverberate today: “People defend and excuse collaboration with the Nazis while condemning any sort of contact with the Soviets. Others, including prominent members of Estonia's political life, take the...
Latvia: March 16 Controversy
Aleks at All About Latvia writes about the controversy surrounding March 16 in Latvia: “For the last few years, every year on March 16, Latvian uberpatriots march in Riga and the Western Latvian city of Liepaja. Every year, Russian uberpatriots march to protest against the new found spread of fascism...
Ukraine: Yanukovych Having an Easy Campaign
LEvko at Foreign Notes muses on why no one is really giving Victor Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions a hard time during this campaign, despite him being an easy target.
Ukraine: Boston Diaspora Church
Greg of Reflections on Ukraine provides a link to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Andrew in Boston, built in 1954 and serving a Diaspora community whose history goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. The church's calendar has an unlikely feature: an RSS feed.
Ukraine: Andrey Kurkov Book Review
Kevin Kinsella at Languor Management disagrees with Victor Sonkin, a book reviewer who is being too harsh on Andrey Kurkov, a Ukrainian writer whose novels, originally in Russian, have been translated into many languages: “I'd call it ‘pleasantly surreal’ as opposed to Sonkin's ‘without rhyme or reason’ – despite also...
Ukraine: Kyiv on a Saturday Night
Carpetblogger, now in Kyiv (not Baku), describes the feel of the city on a (comparatively) warm Saturday night in February.
Russia: 50th Anniversary of Khrushchev's Speech
Nikita Khrushchev began the process of de-Stalinization 50 years ago, with a speech given at the 20th Communist Party Congress, held February 14-25, 1956. Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog discusses the event's significance and reviews the coverage of the anniversary. He also reproduces parts of an interview with Sergo...
Russia: Voice of Beslan and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, is in Russia and is expected to arrive in Beslan, North Ossetia, on Wednesday. Women from the Voice of Beslan organization, who spent ten day on hunger strike this month to draw the world's attention to inadequate investigation and unfair trial following...
Russia: Moscow Gay Pride Parade Banned
Andy Young of Taking Aim explains how the general bias against homosexuality in Russia has led to the cancellation of gay pride parade in Moscow.
Russia: Journalist Anna Politkovskaya
Raffi Aftandelian of Maaskva: Nashimi Glazami shares his thoughts on one of Russia's most prominent war journalists, Anna Politkovskaya, the nature of her writing, and the practice of reading newspapers in general. (This post is in two languages, English and Russian, as all the posts in this blog are.)
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Grbavica
Resident of a Sarajevo neighborhood Grbavica, Balkan-Scissors announces the Bosnian movie Grbavica, which has just won the Berlin Golden Bear award.
Belarus: Microsoft's Russification Policy
br23 blog encourages Belarusian Internet users to write to Microsoft to protest what appears to be the company's Russification policy: “If in your browser settings you chose Belarusian as the first language […], then all the materials on support.microsoft.com would always appear to you in Russian. Even if you explicitly...
Belarus: Moscow Solidarity Rally
LJ user greenmih, a Russian photographer, posts black-and-white photos from an anti-Lukashenko, pro-Belarus solidarity rally that took place in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow this past Saturday (RUS). Politically-minded hooligans tried to disrupt the rally, but did not succeed.
Belarus: Four Presidential Candidates
br23 blog introduces the four Belarusian politicians who have managed to collect more than 100,000 signatures and were registered by the Central Election Committee as presidential candidates: Alexander Lukashenka, Siarhiej Hajdukevich, Alexander Kazulin, and Alexander Milinkevich.
Belarus: Lukashenko Regime and the Upcoming Election
Tobias Ljungvall draws a parallel between today's Belarus and Russia under Lenin, and muses about Lukashenko's regime, the Russian ‘managed democracy’ model and the upcoming election. He also mentions solidarity rallies that took place in Stockholm on Feb. 16 – and one that was dispersed by the police in Minsk.
Albania: Trivia Quiz
Sitting in an Internet cafe, with the electricity out and a generator running, David Sheern of David in Albania comes up with Albanian Trivia Quiz. Answers provided at the end of the post.
Croatia: Women in Turbofolk Documentary
Eric Gordy at East Ethnia writes about a Croatian documentary on the experience of women in the folk music industry, to be shown at Zagreb Dox Festival of Documentary Film on Feb. 25.
Ukraine: News Roundup
Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine does his regular roundup of Ukraine's main political and economic themes: the gas agreement, privatization issues, campaign news and relationship with Russia.
Ukraine: 10 Uzbek Asylum Seekers Deported
Peter Byrne at Abdymok links to a Ukrainian-language story on ten Uzbek asylum seekers who were deported from Ukraine in violation of international law. He thinks this is “almost as bad as shipping rocket launchers to Burma.” Holly Cartner, director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division, believes...
