Construction of the Elbe Philharmonic is underway, with its opening planned for autumn, 2011. Hamburg?s creative artists are not alone in seeing a new landmark for their city in this spectacular concert hall....
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The dead body of Russian artist Anna Alchuk was pulled out of the river Spree in April this year. She and her husband, philosopher Michail Ryklin, had moved to Berlin in November 2007 after life in Russia became intolerable as a direct consequence of Alchuk's participation in the exhibition "Caution: Religion!". Michail Ryklin looks to his wife's tormented diary entries to help him approximate the causes of her death.
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The novel is blooming in the Urals, where the children of the former technology elite are letting their imaginations run riot. By Sonja Margolina
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Russian journalist and Putin critic Grigori Pasko talks with Tobias Goltz about the North Stream Pipeline, Russia's state-controlled media and how his like-minded colleagues are dropping off like flies.
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Continuing the NZZ's series of first-hand accounts of climate change by international writers, Siberian-born Juri Rytcheu pokes fun at polar meteorologists and admits he wouldn't mind it getting a bit warmer.
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Russia has long since degenerated into morally bankrupt totalitarianism. Europe used to take a proud stand on freedom. So why isn't it doing anything? By Andre Glucksmann
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The recent represssions of demonstrations by "The other Russia" suggest that Putin's regime is very concerned about the opposition. But why? He has the country solidly under his thumb, his ratings are good, the people fear his departure. But of course, as Sonja Margolina reports, "controlled instability" has certain advantages.
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It was only with the end of the Soviet Union that Russians got the chance to get discover their own 20th century literature. Forbidden authors like Nabokov, Mandelstam, Brodsky and Kharms became hugely popular. But until today the most enduring are the Oberiuts, a group of avant-garde poets from the 20s and 30s. By Olga Martynova
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Granting the 2007 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade to Anna Politkovskaya would not be a gesture of criticism directed at Russia as a whole, but a sign of hopeful expectations for the country, its people and its culture. By Gerd Koenen and Norbert Schreiber
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Svetlana Geier's magnificent translation of Dostoevsky's "The Adolescent" brings to an end her monumental project of translating all five of the author's "elephants", or major novels, into German. Although many disparage the book as muddled, in her eyes it is Dostoevsky at his most modern. Martin Ebel has paid a visit to the Grande Dame of Russian-German translation. (Image © Niklaus Stauss)
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The murder of Anna Politovskaya shocked not only the world, but critical voices in Russia as well. Philosopher Michail Ryklin talks with Caroline Fetscher about the new degree of fear in Russia.
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In one of the last articles she wrote for the Novaya Gazeta before being murdered on October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya paid tribute to the recently fallen Buvadi Dakhiev. A warlord with humanity, he was a rare find in Chechnya.
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Nothing is forcing the Western democracies to crown the Petro Czar. The only thing supporting the Russian economy is the price per barrel. Its industry is stagnating, and Russia needs the West more than vice versa. The powers meeting in St. Petersburg today have to choose: either they prolong an enormous misunderstanding even after its death, or they bury it altogether. By Andre Glucksmann
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Russian poet Olga Martynova returns to Moscow after 15 years away and discovers that the city has lost its grey communist pallor. In fact, it's a pleasant, busy, contented metropolis,
whose buildings and memorials, while kitschy at times, actually have a certain charm.
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Like his country's heraldic eagle, the Russian president Vladimir Putin has one head facing west and the other east. By Viktor Erofeyev.
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Sixty years after the end of World War Two, Russia is seeing a dramatic re-Stalinisation under President Putin's leadership. As hopes for prosperity dwindle, "Uncle Joe's" star is on the rise again. By Sonja Margolina
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