Tag: union of soviet socialist republics

Free Radical: The Lesson of Louise Bryant

Moscow Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

A Russian Revolution Chronicler’s Extraordinary Life I am late to the life of Louise Bryant. I become interested in her long after watching Reds, and reading her husband’s book, Ten Days That Shook the World, and going to Russia, where…

What’s Left of the Berlin Wall?

A portion of the Berlin Wall Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

Seeing Where the World Really Changed It seems almost unimaginable now that for so many years, between 1961 and November 9, 1989, a wall divided East and West Berlin and tourists couldn’t cross easily beneath the Brandenburg Gate, and East…

American Red

A bust of Vladimir Lenin in the Moscow subway Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

A Romance with Revolution Rewatching the 1981 Warren Beatty film Reds, about journalist and eventual collaborator John Reed’s coverage of and interest in the Russian revolution, I remember that Reed is buried at the Kremlin, a point that I neglect…