Content note: some of the names in this story have been changed to protect anonymity. It’s Sunday morning in August 2022, and midway through an online group therapy session, Mariia, in Kyiv, tells the group that there is a missile alert. She needs to move her laptop computer into the closet, away from the windows. […]
Tag: Russia
Posted inNews & Politics
Bigger than basketball
The WNBA season is over. Brittney Griner remains in a Russian prison. What’s next?
Posted inSports
Bring Brittney home
Brittney Griner, imprisoned in Russia, was honored at the All-Star Weekend.
Posted inFilm
Navalny feels like a Soviet-era infomercial
I left feeling hollow and angry. Like I’d been manipulated using methods pioneered and perfected under the long-gone Soviet regime of my childhood.
Posted inNews & Politics
Life during wartime
A Ukrainian student living in Chicago shares her perspective on the Russian invasion of her homeland.
Posted inNews & Politics
Chicago comes together to support Ukraine
Thousands marched from Ukrainian Village to the Loop last weekend in a show of solidarity.
Posted inOn Culture
‘Are we calling this an invasion? It’s really a war.’
There were two crowds in front of Saints Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukrainian Village on a frigid afternoon last week. One was the medieval crowd that’s always there, on the church’s iconic mural—a depiction of the baptism of the Ukrainian people. The other consisted of several hundred live and livid Chicagoans reacting […]
Posted inNews
Queer Ukrainians in Chicago fear the worst amid Russian invasion
Russia’s violent history toward the LGBTQ+ community has many worried that anti-queer violence will be meted out in Ukraine.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
A note on this week’s cover story
When I was seven I broke into a house with some older kids one summer. This was in Russia in the 90s, as the society around us was collapsing. The fall of the Soviet Union and the descent of the country into sudden, unregulated capitalism yielded the rapid development of inequality. Seemingly overnight a place […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Anastasia recreates the animated feature with fewer animals and more Bolsheviks
It’s as pretty as a pastry.
Posted inMusic
Little Big have more fun than anyone toying with rave’s cliches
Little Big have all the nuance of a Las Vegas motel sign, but that’s the point. They’re a Russian rave band that have employed jackhammer drums, earthquake-inducing bass drops, and synths that could soundtrack for Sonic the Hedgehog on ecstasy to spoof Russian culture and dance-music cliches. The music on their two 2018 Antipositive EPs […]
Posted inBlogs
Pussy Riot use their Riot Fest set to demand justice for a fallen comrade—and for all the oppressed
The likely poisoning of Pussy Riot member Peter Verzilov this week didn’t keep the group from Riot Fest, where they delivered loud criticisms of Russia and the United States.
Posted inBlogs
On winning wars and losing memories
Lee Sandlin’s magnum opus on Americans’ amnesia about World War II makes a Russian reflect on how differently we experienced the war.
Posted inMusic
Publicist Heather West on the feral stank of the Wolfmanhattan Project
Current musical obsessions of Western Publicity founder Heather West, music critic Jim Kopeny (aka Tankboy), and Reader associate editor Jamie Ludwig
Posted inBlogs
Why renters should care about the Cook County assessor’s race
Dramatic changes in property tax assessment have a deep impact on renters, assessor candidate Fritz Kaegi says.