Books by Natasha Lance Rogoff
“What struck me most—and I suspect this is what struck other Soviet people too—was the colors. We were living in a very sensory-deprived environment, in a very drab atmosphere. There were hardly any colors. These creatures looked like nothing we had ever seen before. They wore these nylon, bright colors. They had these long arms and legs. They were singing in chorus. There were songs! Sometimes it was hard to understand what the story was about because it was so different, but it was pretty riveting. To now read the story behind all this and how this Muppet show appeared in Russia, is very, very interesting. It is escapist reading, I must confess. It takes you back to those times when, as you said, we were thinking that things would go so well, so quickly. When nothing was impossible.” Read more...
The Best Russia Books: The 2023 Pushkin House Prize
Ekaterina Schulmann, Political Scientist
Interviews where books by Natasha Lance Rogoff were recommended
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1
Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin and Russia’s War Against Ukraine
by Owen Matthews -
2
Russia's War
by Jade McGlynn -
3
Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia
by Natasha Lance Rogoff -
4
Places of Tenderness and Heat: The Queer Milieu of Fin-de-Siècle St. Petersburg
by Olga Petri -
5
Cigarettes and Soviets: Smoking in the USSR
by Tricia Starks -
6
Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling
by Ryan Tucker Jones
The Best Russia Books: The 2023 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Ekaterina Schulmann
The Best Russia Books: The 2023 Pushkin House Prize, recommended by Ekaterina Schulmann
Since its invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia has been much in the news, with many of us struggling to better understand its politics, history, society and culture. Fortunately, we have the Pushkin House Book Prize, which every year celebrates the best nonfiction written about Russia and available in English. Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, chair of this year’s judging panel, talks us through the books that made the 2023 shortlist.