Russian History News

• Restoring the Kremlin to pre-revolutionary status means getting rid of Stalin's concrete structures using water jets.

• What was going on 21 years ago this week- presaging changes to come.

• Author Catherine Merrindale has collected stories of Red Army fighters in the Great Patriotic War for her book Ivan's war: The red army 1939-1945- a review.

• 12 years since a new Russian constitution: will it survive?

• MosNews reports:
  

Six Russian organizations have addressed the local parliament of the Far
Northern Taymyr Autonomous District asking it to return the name of the last
Russian tsar, Nicholas II, to the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago that was renamed
in Soviet times, RIA Novosti reported.

• Per TimesOnline, Mikhail Bugakov's The Master and the Margarita is eagerly anticipated on Russian television tonight:
  

The Master and Margarita, which revolves around a visit by the Devil to
Moscow, is not only one of Russia’s best-loved literary works, it is also
shrouded in superstition. Some believe that the work has been cursed ever since
Bulgakov, a former doctor and journalist, completed it on his deathbed in 1940.

It was instantly banned — not least because the character of the Devil,
who is called Woland, was apparently inspired by the Soviet leader Josef
Stalin.

• However, several mishaps delayed the movie's making- delays encouraging superstitous belief.
  More.