Browse Items (158 total)

With an economic value that far outweighs its relatively small physical characteristics and unassuming appearance, caviar is an item whose collection, consumption, and commodification has given it one of great historical, cultural, and geopolitical…

The Cap of Monomakh occupies a place of legend in Russian culture. Supposedly a gift from a Byzantine emperor, or basileus, to Vladimir I, the cap signifies Russia’s shared heritage with Byzantium and with Kievan Rus’. However, the basileus who is…

Cassius Marcellus Clay served as minister to Russia for two terms: first from July 14, 1861 to June 25, 1862, and again from May 7, 1863 to October 1, 1869. His tenure as minister was marked by a successful alignment of Russia with American…

The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Moscow. The Catholic Church is not interested in "poaching" the Orthodox faithful in Russia from their Orthodox congregations, but rather in preaching the Gospel to unbelievers in Russia. Despite bouts of intense…

After treaties in 1991 and 2001 were not able to complete define the disputed border between the Russian Federation and the Republic of China, the two states were party to the Complementary Agreement between the People's Republic of China and the…

After the collapse of Sino-Soviet relations in the 1960s, the Chinese began to dispute the current borders on the argument that "unequal treaties" by the Russians had stolen Chinese territory. On March 2, 1969, the border units of the Soviet Union…

This video, titled “Who let her behind the wheel?” is of note because it marks a synthesis of Russian jokes, by both insider and outsider perspectives. It’s a viral video that has gotten 12 million views on Youtube, starring a young woman who hits a…

This is a chart of the ruble denominated debt in Russia. It includes sovereign, municipal, and corporate debt. The scale on the right is billions of USD. The large run up in 1998 is of sovereign debt, which goes back to almost zero when the Russian's…

Construction on Moscow’s Cathedral of the Dormition began in 1326, the same year that the metropolitanate of Kiev and All Rus’ made its way to Moscow ("History of the Cathedral"). The relics of Metropolitan Peter, one of the metropolitans canonized…

The covers of American labor magazine paint a vivid picture of an evolving the leftist perspective on the Soviet Union. The 1919 cover of a pamphlet by Abner Woodruff depicts a single worker, symbolizing the mass of the proletariat, looming over a…