Articles

All but invisible in his home country, Sergei Dovlatov became something of a mythical figure among the Russian diaspora of New York. Indeed, Vladimir Yermakov compares the conundrum of Dovlatov’s life as writer to the two hands simultaneously drawing one another in Escher’s mysterious drawing.

From the planned rewilding of London’s Upper Lea Valley to performance indicator software designed to manage 663 of China’s largest cities, Warren Karlenzig knows what he’s talking about when it comes to urban sustainability projects. And yet he’s never been more daunted by the dizzying speed of growth and unfathomable scale of today’s cities.

The German copyright on Mein Kampf expires in 2015, renewing debate on whether it should be reprinted, or even read. Sascha Feuchert, expert in Holocaust literature and vice president of German PEN, believes an academic version is vital. Charlotte Knobloch, former vice president of the World Jewish Congress, is of a different opinion.

How can it be that, in contrast to the international community, virtually no one in Russia believed that Russian-backed separatists shot down the Malaysian Airlines plane in July? Beyond press censorship, Lev Gudkov looks to Russians themselves, who increasingly hear only what they want to. His analysis draws extensively on research conducted by the Levada Center, presented here in numerous tables and graphs.

Every system has its flaws and every flaw can be exploited any time. Hence the permanent need for updates. But as Russia takes its revenge in eastern Ukraine and attacks on Ukrainian consciousness, trust and infrastructure become ever more devious, what does the future hold? Oksana Forostyna remains optimistic about the chances of modest success, at the very least.

A journey that takes one beyond the limits of human imagination: this is how Fabrizio Gatti describes his experience of a week spent undercover among immigrant labourers in Puglia in order to report on the horrors that these modern slaves endure.

With Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the military conflict in eastern Ukraine, the era of post-Soviet tolerance of blurred identities and multiple loyalties has ended. Borderlands, writes Tatiana Zhurzhenko, have once again turned into bloodlands.

The Gezi spirit continues to be seen as a remedy to the polarization of Turkish politics. But the question remains, writes Irem Inceoglu, as to how to avoid the newly blossoming politicization and the language of solidarity being squashed by party-managed politics.

Despite evidence that western companies sell surveillance software to repressive regimes like Egypt, there have been few attempts to restrict the export of such technologies. After all, the cyber surveillance industry is big business, writes Max Gallien.

The literary history of the Turk is long: from the Shakespearean Turk to Turkish humanist Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar’s “dervish without the mantle”. But what exactly does it entail, to turn Turk? E. Khayyat traces an intellectual tradition that begins with the characters of Don Quixote.

As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall rapidly approaches, Thomas Rothschild draws attention to the growing gap between rich and poor in eastern Europe, and discrimination against minorities. The renaissance of nationalism in Hungary and elsewhere also requires urgent attention.

According to Fabrizio Gatti’s estimate, at least 268 refugees drowned in the Lampedusa shipwreck on 11 October 2013. A month later, Gatti established that the tragedy could have been avoided, had the vessels in the vicinity with resources to support every victim been allowed to respond according to common sense. But they were not. Referring to laws and regulations, Italian authorities passed the buck of responsibility to Malta.

No wonder Aleksandr Dugin, founder of Neo-Eurasianism, has caught the attention of western analysts of Russian foreign policy. Anton Shekhovtsov confirms that Dugin, among other far-right intellectuals, has made headway in his struggle for cultural hegemony in Russia.

An insidious obsession with ratings and the suppression of the opposition: this is all that Vladimir Putin’s rule hinges on now, writes Boris Dubin. However, right up until his recent death, the Russian sociologist continued to combine keen insights into Russia’s rotten political culture with a plea for a new, enlightened historical consciousness.
Boris Dubin died on 20 August 2014. This is the last article he wrote.