Igor Butman grew up in the Soviet Union, where he learned jazz from listening to nightly broadcasts of the Voice of America on shortwave radio, and from bootleg records.
A year after George Orwell published his classic novel, "Animal Farm", it became a hit with an unexpected group — Ukrainian refugees from the Soviet Union. They understood Orwell's allegorical novel about the Soviet Union in a way that others did not.
The Soviet jokes disappeared when the Soviet Union collapsed, but that brand of dark humor has made a comeback in Russia today.
Host of a Russian history program says his series, titled Kto my? (Who Are We?), is about Russians understanding themselves.
After the collapse of the USSR, Russians and other ex-Soviets had to learn to face a new culture - a money culture. For many, that was a huge shock.
The Soviet Union dissolved 20 years ago this Sunday. More than half of all Russians now regret that demise, according to a recent poll. Brigid McCarthy visited a restaurant in Moscow that lets nostalgic customers pretend they're back in the USSR.
Twenty years ago on Christmas Day, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Brigid McCarthy takes a look back at why the USSR came crashing down.
The Kommunalka was a Soviet experiment in communal living. Entire families were forced to live in a single room, nevertheless some have surprisingly fond memories of the experience.
Many Russians would rather forget the work camps of the Soviet past but a 91-year-old Gulag survivor keeps in trying to remind them. He runs the Gulag Museum in Moscow.
There are many Russians who say a critical factor in the demise of the USSR was the power struggle that broke out between Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin.
Twenty years ago on Friday, there was a coup aimed at bringing down Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.