![Things That Disappear](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/roller-skates-150x150.jpg)
Things That Disappear
The pale yellow “favorite blanket” that you had as a child. The hair dryer that covered your head like a…
![Military Service? Impossible!](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/russian-recruits-150x150.jpg)
Military Service? Impossible!
When I taught English in Russia in the late 1990’s, my main place of employment was the Tolyatti Pedagogical Institute,…
![Where We Come From](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/family-tree-150x150.jpg)
Where We Come From
A family history is a collection of stories, stories told and retold and made old not so much by the…
![Persistence](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/zipped-mouth-150x150.jpg)
Persistence
In our elementary school, we start teaching children about character traits in the third grade. We teach them to recognize…
![Where You Can Put Your Putin](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Vladimir-Putin-150x150.jpg)
Where You Can Put Your Putin
No one could love Russia more than I do. You have to love a country where the cabbie taking you home…
![The Tattered Hem of Winter](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/early-spring-150x100.jpg)
The Tattered Hem of Winter
For me, there are three kinds of winters. The first kind is the rainy, gray, damp, but relatively mild winter…
![Everything Old Is New Again](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rushing-troika.jpg)
Everything Old Is New Again
The summer I traveled to Sweden nearly thirty-five years ago the national news there was full of reports of phantom…
![November Anniversaries](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/world-war-one-veterans.jpg)
November Anniversaries
Americans, who tend to shun both the specific and the historical, are today celebrating Veteran’s Day in one great, glorious…
![What Makes Them Do IT?](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/alexander-berkman.jpg)
What Makes Them Do IT?
When I was in high school, a friend of mine presented me with a copy of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake…
![The Bitter Pill](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ukraine.jpg)
The Bitter Pill
When I was a university student of Russian History in the mid 1980’s, the Iron Curtain was still drawn tightly…
![Sevastapol](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sevastapol.jpg)
Sevastapol
I’ve always found that when I want to understand something that’s happening in Russia, it helps to hit the books….
![The Sochi Saga](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sochi-150x150.jpg)
The Sochi Saga
You have to feel sorry for the Russian people. Or you don’t have to, not if you don’t want to,…
![Road trips](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/russian-countryside-150x150.jpg)
Road trips
Crumbling provincial towns, the Gypsy wedding of a fourteen year old, the dismal condition of the M10 which connects Petersburg…
![Remember Gorbachev?](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/gorbachev.jpg)
Remember Gorbachev?
I was reading an article about Gorbachev the other day. Gorbachev, remember him? I’m embarrassed to say that until I…
![First Aid](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/George-Soros.jpg)
First Aid
On September 18th, the US government announced that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), after two decades of…
![The Russian Orthodox Church – It’s a Riot!](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Russian-babushka-150x150.jpg)
The Russian Orthodox Church – It’s a Riot!
Let me be very clear, I agree with Madonna, Paul McCartney and Stephen Fry that the three members of the…
![Independence Days](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/independence-day-150x142.jpg)
Independence Days
Countries really don’t leave each other alone, do they? They are always bothering each other, invading, claiming sovereignty, imposing annoying…
![Russian Reformers Old and New](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/russian-reform-150x146.jpg)
Russian Reformers Old and New
The demands of the Russian reformers seemed reasonable enough to me. They wanted the Russian government to stop being so…
![Putin Party Politics](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/putin-150x148.jpg)
Putin Party Politics
Why did Putin win the Russian elections? He won due to election fraud. Well, yes, there was election fraud, buses…