archive

Countries of the former Soviet Union

Daniel Sutter (Oklahoma) and Daniel J. Smith (Troy): Soviet Sports and the Efficiency of Central Planning. From Fletcher Forum, a photo essay on countries of the former Soviet Union. After being uncovered by Soviet archaeologists, ancient mysteries revealed in Turkmen desert sands. Ethan Pollock reviews Stalin’s Think Tank: The Varga Institute and the Making of the Stalinist Idea of World Economy and Politics, 1927-1953 by Kyung Deok Roh. Derek Mead on Petr Mikhailovich Borisov, the Soviet scientist who dreamed of melting the Arctic with a 55-mile-long dam. A proposed new law has Moldova’s Russian speakers fearing the end of bilingualism, while members of other ethnic groups worry they could lose their languages entirely. Asya Pereltsvaig on Stalin’s ethnic deportations and the gerrymandered ethnic map.