Reading Anastasia and Her Sisters by Carolyn Meyer In some ways, Anastasia Romanova is like any teenager anywhere, replete with crushes, squabbling sisters, working parents, the inability to cook, concerns about her weight. Then, of course, she is actually one of a very small set—one of the overprotected, sheltered daughters of a czar who is…
Category: Russia
Crouching Boy Close Up
Appreciating Michelangelo’s Work at the Hermitage Of the many things to appreciate about St. Petersburg’s Hermitage—in addition to the vastness and quality of its art collection—is the opportunity to experience so much of it up close and in a luxurious atmosphere. While some more contemporary museums ooze sterility—with security so brisk that viewers are kept…
The Matisse Dance: Practice/Perfection
The Dance of Matisse in New York and Russia Henri Matisse’s Dance works appear in practice form in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and in their final version in its Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The work was commissioned in 1909 by a Russian patron. Which do you prefer?…
The Mystery of the Amber Room
A Must-See in Pushkin, AKA Tsarskoye Tselo To the list of places I don’t know I need to see when I head to Russia is Pushkin, also known as Tsarskoye Tselo (‘czar’s village,’ I am told). Not far from St. Petersburg, it is home to the Catherine Palace (named for Catherine I of Russia, not…
Free Radical: The Lesson of Louise Bryant
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 she reported on its revolution, and going to Paris, where she died at the relatively…
Remembering the Romanovs in Russia
A Reading of Helen Rappaport’s Romanov Sisters The story of some sisters burdened with a bit of a wackadoodle mother and an autocratic father appeals to many of us, even if we do know the ending, as in the case of the daughters of the last Russian czar (Nicholas): Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia. Intrigued,…
Looking for the Revolution in Russia
November 7 is Something of a Big Day The New York Times in 1917 reported that on November 7, “the Bolsheviki” had seized government buildings in what was then called Petrograd; in the same day’s paper, November 8, the Times reported that there were 10 Socialists in the New York Assembly, and that suffragists were…
Finding Napoleon beyond France
Enamored with the French Revolution on my visit to Paris, I pay scant attention to Napoleon during my time there. Stopping by at Les Invalides, I focus more on a car show on its grounds than to the tomb of the former emperor inside. It’s not until I visit Moscow and view his cannons that…
American Red
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 to pursue when I am actually at the Kremlin. Lenin’s Tomb is closed when I…
Mothers and Marys around the Planet: Red Square
Some images are universal: here, Mary and Jesus depicted in St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow. The art of Christianity unites Russians with others here in Red Square. —Lori Tripoli ~Advertisement~ ~Advertisement~ Considering a trip to Russia, with or without your mother? You might like these posts: Moscow Now Chewing It Up in Red Square Russia, Contrariwise…