The 9th Microdistrict: Moscow’s future
In 1956, they started to build a new future in Moscow out of both words and bricks. This was the year that Khrushchev gave the Secret Speech. He condemned the … Continue reading
Prince Charles and President Putin: a view from 1956
In 1867, Walter Bagehot famously argued that the British monarchy’s strength was its mystery, and one can still see the point. But try to explain it to a Russian. However … Continue reading
Khrushchev drops round
Someone once told me about the day that Nikita Khrushchev visited his Moscow neighbourhood. It was 1962 or 1963. Khrushchev’s car pulled up unannounced, and the great man walked about, … Continue reading
Fun for rich kids and poor kids: Crimea under Khrushchev
‘Are you ready?’ ‘I’m always ready!’ So went the refrain of the Pioneers, members of the state organization for children in the Soviet Union. Set up in 1922, the Pioneers … Continue reading
Ukraine and Russia: sibling nations in the life of Nikita Khrushchev
Ukraine and Russia are ‘kin’, according to Andrew Wilson, a leading specialist from University College London, writing in 2005: they are ‘sibling nations rather than two parts of the same … Continue reading
