I needed a break from a tech magazine story I was writing tonight and my channel surfing landed me on a great program about Russia that I hadn't seen in a long time.

The History Channel's affiliate, History International, is re-running its excellent 2003 series Russia: Land of the Tsars. It traces the history of Russian rulers from Prince Vladimir through the last of the Romanovs. If you have... more

Every month at my kids' elementary school they have a Red, White & Blue Day assembly. They were started in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which claimed two lives in town, but civics has always been a strong focus of the school's curriculum.

Each Red, White & Blue Day assembly has a theme--the military's role for Veteran's Day, civil rights for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the history of America's flag and the writing of the national anthem for Flag Day this past week. The lessons are simplified, as I suppose they must... more

There was a piece in The New York Times this weekend that really has me worried. No, not about the state of Russian adoptions. This article bears on my efforts to grow a vegetable garden that a Russian could love.

You might remember that, several weeks ago, I planted cucumbers, potatoes and beets in my backyard garden. They are staples in the Russian diet and my... more

Never underestimate what you will find on the Internet.

I started out this morning to write a little primer on Independence Day, the holiday that Russia celebrates today, June 12. It's Russia's newest holiday, and so doesn't have quite the weight of Victory Day (May 9), which commemorates Russia's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, or even those Soviet holdovers like International Women's Day (March... more

There's a lot of Chekhov on the cultural calendar for June, so I thought it appropriate to take a minute to talk about another of Russia's great authors.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on Jan. 29, 1860, in Taganrog, in Rostov Oblast on the northern part of the Black Sea. There is a fairly active Yahoo! group for families who have adopted from Rostov, so if you're one of the lucky... more

Anna Karenina could have a lot in common with Ocean's 13, I've decided. The latter movie, which opens this coming week, has a cast that is packed with the cream of Hollywood's younger generation cream: Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Casey Affleck and Scott Caan. There could be roles for more than a few of these guys in our fictional casting of new movie version of Anna Karenina. (For anyone who's late to this series, I've already thrown out ideas for a new Anna... more

There's a lot of Chekhov on the program in June.

In Los Angeles, you can see his 1904 drama "The Cherry Orchard" at the Evidence Room Theatre Project, where it is playing through July 2. Chekhov's story line, of a family that is losing its wealth and its home, seems likely to have a lot of resonance for the Evidence Room cast: It is being forced by a lease dispute to move from its theater when the production closes.

Down near San Diego in Solana Beach, Calif. four directors are staging four... more

OK, we've played amateur directors to cast the lead of a new movie version of Anna Karenina. Now comes the hard part: Vronsky.

Why so hard, you ask? Hollywood must be brimming with young men who could fill the role of the dashing young army officer and Don Juan.

Maybe it's just me (as I've said, I don’t get out to see many movies that are not G-rated) but I don’t see a lot of choices. Remember, my starting point for Anna, in the initial... more

In the United States, we spent today remembering the men and women who have served and died in our armed forces. That is about 576,000 combat deaths from the Revolutionary War through the current engagement in Iraq.

That number seems large, and its size is reinforced every day by the casualty reports from Iraq. But I wanted to take a moment to put these deaths in the context of the world I write on here: Russia.

Wars have taken an enormous toll on Russia, both its military and civilian populations. Russia lost 1.8 million soldiers... more

According to the Internet movie database IMDB.com, there hasn't been a filmed version of Anna Karenina since 1997. So I think those of us who are reading Tolstoy's opus to pass the time until re-accreditation (or just because it's a great book) should turn our thoughts to casting a new version.

First up today: Anna.

In the movie that came out a decade ago, which had a largely British cast, Anna was played by Sophie Marceau, a French... more