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"The people controlling Joe Biden have just erased the Constitution for good. All that is now required for a citizen to lose all rights to own property or conduct business in any way is a simple accusation of Russian ‘involvement.’ The American Thinker explained: Executive Order Canceling the Constitution On April 15, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Blocking Property with Respect to Specified Harmful Foreign Activities of the Government of the Russian Federation. Contrary to its title, this EO is not about Russia. It is designed to allow the Biden administration to deprive American citizens and organizations of...

It is no exaggeration to say that Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1960s adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel “War and Peace” is a singular feat of filmmaking that can never be repeated. If it were, a director would have to match the resources at Bondarchuk’s disposal — a virtually unlimited budget, props from Russia’s great museums, thousands of extras from the Soviet army — and engineer sprawling battle sequences using no computer-generated effects. The extraordinary support behind “War and Peace” is apparent in every lavish frame of its seven-plus hours, and it is staggering to witness — even more so in the...

Is life a matter of grand politics or individual souls? Can human affairs be boiled down to science or theories? Tolstoy and Chekhov believed: Life is lived at ordinary moments, and what is most real is what is barely noticeable, like the tiniest movements of consciousness. True life is not lived where great external changes take place—where people move about, clash, fight, and slay one another. It is lived only where these tiny, tiny infinitesimally small changes occur. American conservatives can learn much from the great literary output of 19th century Russia. Though seemingly distant in time and place, the...

The deputy speaker of the Russian parliament intimated that Jews are using their positions in the media and government to continue the work of ancestors who “pulled down our churches.” Peter Tolstoy at a news conference Tuesday on plans to move a cathedral in St. Petersburg appeared to blame Jews for anti-religious persecution under communism. He referred to the descendants of people who on 1917 “jumped out of the Pale of Settlement” in the churches statement. The Pale of Settlement was an area of western Imperial Russia beyond which most Jews were not allowed to settle. This changed after the...

The opening scene of War and Peace, the first two hours of which screened on A&E, Lifetime, and History Channel on Monday night, was specifically constructed with the purpose of allaying fears that the screen version would not be faithful to Leo Tolstoy’s 1800-page magnum opus.

After a battle-heavy first two episodes, it was pure, unadulterated romance that left viewers misty-eyed while watching War And Peace last night. An emotionally charged scene which saw dashing Prince Andrei (James Norton) whisk Natasha Rostova (Lily James) on to the dancefloor at the Tsar's New Year's Eve ball left the audience of the hit BBC One period drama reeling. Viewers took to social media to praise the romantic scene, which showed the couple falling in love - calling it 'this generation's Mr Darcy in the pond' - referring to Colin Firth in Pride And Prejudice.

Leo Tolstoy's classic story, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, is a tale about a man's journey towards death: the denial, the alienation, the terror, and the awful recognition that life has not been lived as it ought to have been. Stricken by a mysterious ailment in the prime of his life, Ivan Ilyich finds himself struggling to make sense of his situation as he witnesses all those closest to him struggle to navigate the unpleasantness of his condition and its impact on their lives. In his hour of greatest vulnerability, Ilyich finds himself isolated and alone, save for the faithful...

Move over Downton Abbey - a new trailer for BBC drama War and Peace promises love, sex, battle and intrigue and is certainly not for the faint hearted with passionate scenes in the bushes. It's been hotly tipped as the must-see drama of 2016, and now the BBC has released the first trailer from forthcoming drama adapted by Andrew Davies and starring Lily James, 12 Years A Slave star Paul Dano, James Norton and Gillian Anderson. Set against a stunning snowy backdrop, lead James - who plays Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky - declares 'I love her', aptly setting the scene...

Principal photography has started on the six-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic War And Peace which is being made by BBC Cymru Wales in partnership with The Weinstein Company and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point. Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton are already aboard to star, with new additions to the cast including Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Brian Cox and Ken Stott. The epic drama is written by House Of Cards and Bridget Jones‘ Andrew Davies. Anderson was nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn in his 2007 adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House.

MOSCOW, Russia — Russians love few things better than a good anniversary — any excuse to celebrate the country’s rich cultural history gives rise to festivals and forums, concerts and commemorative films. As 2010 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Anton Chekhov, President Dmitry Medvedev flew to the playwright’s small southern hometown and laid a bouquet of white roses. One hundred years after his death in 1837, poet Alexander Pushkin was celebrated across the country — a city was even named after him. Why, then, the silence in Russia around Leo Tolstoy, widely considered to be one of...

The Age of Rage November 13, 2003 The comedian Jackie Mason used to do a routine about visiting a psychiatrist. “You hate your father,” the shrink told him. No, Mason protested, I love my father very much. “Then you hate your mother.” No, said Mason, I love my mother. Told that he didn’t hate his brothers or sisters either, the shrink suggested, “Maybe you’ve got a cousin?” Reversing Tolstoy, the twentieth century decided that unhappy families were all alike. According to Freud, it was natural for boys to hate their fathers. And their brothers too. Phrases like Oedipus complex and...

AT NINE o'clock on the morning of September 11th 2001, President George Bush sat in an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, listening to seven-year-olds read stories about goats. “Night fell on a different world,” he said of that day. And on a different America. At first, America and the world seemed to change together. “We are all New Yorkers now,” ran an e-mail from Berlin that day, mirroring John F. Kennedy's declaration 40 years earlier, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, and predicting Le Monde's headline the next day, “Nous sommes tous Américains”. And America, for its part, seemed to become more...

BADEN-BADEN, Germany — Who was the man hanging around the roulette table in the casino in this historic hot-springs resort? He had a black shirt, tie and jacket over black jeans and a two-day stubble, like some of his companions. He looked like a member of the Russian mafia. Or, he might have been a Russian pediatrician escaping his family for a few days, or one of Moscow's new tycoons, or a tycoon's bodyguard. Anyway, he was speaking Russian with his friends, and therefore exemplified a new trend in Baden-Baden, whose image seems inconsistent with anything new. After the better...

Tolstoy’s pamphlets are the least-known part of his work, and his attack on Shakespeare 1 is not even an easy document to get hold of, at any rate in an English translation. Perhaps, therefore, it will be useful if I give a summary of the pamphlet before trying to discuss it.Tolstoy begins by saying that throughout life Shakespeare has aroused in him “an irresistible repulsion and tedium.” Conscious that the opinion of the civilized world is against him, he has made one attempt after another on Shakespeare’s works, reading and re-reading them in Russian, English and German; but “I invariably...