Arts, Culture & Media
PRI's The World
September 17, 2013
Food: the lack of it, the control of it, dreams of it, was a key part of the Soviet experience. Now a Russian author living in the United States, Anya von Bremzen, has written a memoir of the USSR through food, "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking."
Arts, Culture & Media
'Travels in Siberia' with Ian Frazier
The Takeaway
November 05, 2010
Is this place of exile really so much like a prison? Ian Frazier doesn't think so. For decades, Frazier's been visiting and loving Siberia, and joins us to talk about his tribute to that desolate wilderness, 'Travels in Siberia.'
Conflict & Justice
Russia's Hipsters on the Big Screen
PRI's The World
February 23, 2012
The World's Alex Gallafent looks at a Russian movie, Hipsters, arriving in American theaters. It's American-style hipsters in 1950s Moscow. The film's director says there are some parallels with the current wave of anti-Putin protesters in Russia today.
Global Politics
Soviet Era Dark Humor Makes a Comeback
PRI's The World
February 29, 2012
The Soviet jokes disappeared when the Soviet Union collapsed, but that brand of dark humor has made a comeback in Russia today.
Global Politics
Faking It: The Matrix
Studio 360
November 16, 2012
Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop is a singular and surprising exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Arts, Culture & Media
Preserving the Cold War in Sunny California
PRI's The World
January 04, 2012
We are looking for a museum of Cold War history that has a collection of everything from East German blueprints to Soviet artwork.
Global Politics
Embalming El Commandante: How Hugo Chavez Will Get the Lenin Treatment
PRI's The World
March 08, 2013
Venezuela's Interim President Nicolas Maduro announced Thursday that Chavez's body would be embalmed and laid out in the Revolution Museum in Caracas.
Arts, Culture & Media
Why Stalin Remains Popular in Parts of Former Soviet Union
PRI's The World
March 05, 2013
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was one of the most murderous dictators of the 20th century. And yet, 60 years after his death, he remains popular in some former Soviet republics - especially in his own nation of Georgia.
Arts, Culture & Media
A tale of two Russian anthems
PRI's The World
September 28, 2009
Sergei Mikhalkov wrote the lyrics to the Soviet national anthem during World War II, but rewrote it decades later to better reflect the times.
Arts, Culture & Media
The power of art as propaganda
Studio 360
September 02, 2008
In "Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State," Steven Heller describes how famous tyrannies used architecture and design for propaganda and control.
California-based Cold War museum tries to preserve reminders of bygone era
PRI's The World
January 05, 2012
For 50-some years, the Cold War dominated life in Russia, Europe and the United State. In the nearly two decades since it ended, though, the physical manifestations of those decades are rapidly disappearing. A museum in California is hoping to hang on to the past and make it real for the future.