Best of Da Russophile (to be expanded)…
- Ten Myths about Russia’s Demography – why Russia is unlikely to see significant population decline in the foreseeable future. See summary, model.
- Translation: The Case of the “Stalinist” Textbook – many commented on the infamous chapter from Filippov’s textbook that apparently “glorifies” Stalinism. Only I bothered translating it so that you can make your own judgments. See summary.
- Rosstat and Levada are Russophobia’s Bane – why the data from Russia’s statistics service and opinion polls overturn practically every Kremlinologist canard about “repressive”, “declining” Russia.
- Top 50 Russophobe Myths – a huge set of arguments against the anti-Russian consensus in the West (disclaimer: while I don’t fully agree with many of them, it would be a good exercise for the Kremlinologists to try to refute them). See old version.
- Translation: Russia’s Phantom Tandem, Real Triumvirate and the Kremlin Clan Wars – Vladimir Pribylovsky on who’s who in the Kremlin and my own thoughts on the limits of “clan war” analysis.
- Translation: Confessions of a Russian “Liberal” – Tatyana Korchevnaya on how Russia’s (limousine) liberal excuse-for-an-opposition uses coercive “web brigade” tactics to quench pro-Kremlin voices (the liberals, ironically, frequently make the same accusations of supports of “Putin’s bloody regime”).
- Why Russia is cemented to the Other BRICs – why Russia’s economic prospects are more than bright enough to place it in the same group as China, India and Brazil. See similar.
- A Short Guide to the Top 10 Russia Blogs – who you should follow on the Anglophone Russia-watching blogosphere (to be updated annually).
- Victory Day Special: The Poisonous Myths of the Eastern Front – explains how popular views of the Eastern Front are dominated by the memoirs of self-serving former Wehrmacht officers, who glossed over German war crimes and wrongly attributed the Red Army’s victories to its manpower superiority.
- Categorizing the Russia Debate – my rough attempt at classifying the main positions amongst Russia-watchers today by slotting them into a 2-D “belief matrix” according to their levels of Russophobia and Westernization.
- Responses to Common Russophobe “Arguments” – identifies some common red herrings and strawmen used by Russophobes to attack their opponents.
- Russia’s Sisyphean Loop – my huge essay on a “unified theory” of Russian history drawing on geography, cultural traditions, imperial cycles and belief dynamics. See a defense of the theory.
- The Struggle between Europe and Mankind – an exposition of Nikolai Trubetzkoy’s 1920 essay Europe and Mankind, in which he argues that the notion of European supremacy is born of a misguided egocentricity.
- Paul Goble, Promethean Propagandist – uncovering possibly the most deceitful Russia “analyst” writing today.
- Reconciling Stalin with Victory – explains why Russians have ambiguous feelings towards Stalin on the basis of their wartime experience.