Category Archives: Da Russophile

The Transition 20 Years On: The Reckoning

By AK | Published: March 10, 2010
It is now nearly 20 years since market reformers began liberalizing the economies of Eastern Europe, or as some smart-ass put it, trying to revive the fish in the centrally planned fish stews. These stews, cooked to diverse recipes from goulash socialism to Soviet “structural militarization“, were subjected to a wide spectrum of overlapping treatments ranging [...]
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Russia’s Demographic Resilience III

By AK | Published: February 24, 2010
It’s official. Russia’s population grew by 23,300 souls in 2009, for the first time since 1995. The rate of natural increase remained slightly negative for Russia as a whole, though the Siberian and Urals Federal Regions actually saw positive natural population growth for the first time in 19 years. However, this was more than compensated for by [...]
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Regathering of the Russian Lands

By AK | Published: January 27, 2010
I have long noted Russia’s resurgence back into the ranks of the leading Great Powers; I predicted that the global economic crisis will not have a long-term retarding impact on the Russian economy; and within the past year I have bought into Stratfor’s idea that the defining narrative now in play in Eurasia is Russia’s [...]
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New Year Special: Year in Review and 2010 Predictions

By AK | Published: January 4, 2010
I would like to wish all Sublime Oblivion readers a very happy and successful New Year. One of my major motivations for writing is getting comments and feedback, so please continue – the more you inflate my ego, the more time I will feel compelled to spend on the blog. Please feel free [...]
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Voice of the People Part 3

By AK | Published: January 3, 2010
This is a summary of opinion polls conducted by the Levada-Center, Russia’s Gallup, since February 2009, and continues from Part 1 and Part 2. Along with the original post Lovely Levada, this series constitutes a unique English-language reference for social trends under late Putinism as expressed by the Russian people themselves, rather than the limousine [...]
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Russia’s Sex Traditions

By AK | Published: December 9, 2009
Sean recently suggested Russianists study the history of smell in Russia. I have an even better idea: a history of sex in Russia, or rather my translation (PDF) of the tabloid article Сексуальные традиции на Руси (Russian Sexual Traditions). It’s historically and culturally inaccurate in more than a few places, but will hopefully make for a [...]
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Interview @ Siberian Light

By AK | Published: December 7, 2009
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10 Myths about Russia’s Demography

By AK | Published: December 7, 2009
This post tries to debunk some popular, but misguided, views on demographic trends in today’s Russia. These consist of the perception that Russia is in a demographic “death spiral” that dooms it to national decline (Biden, Eberstadt, NIC, CIA, Stratfor, etc). Some extreme pessimists even predict that ethnic Russians – ravaged by AIDS, infertility and alcoholism [...]
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