The Soviet capital choked with grief: Witnessing Lenin’s funeral, Moscow 1924
On January 26th, 1924, the New York Times published Walter Duranty’s report of Lenin’s funeral, as well as an obituary of the late Soviet revolutionary leader. This post is a brief extract from my book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin, on day the young Soviet...
Assignment Moscow: new edition out on May 18
THE NEW EDITION OF ‘ASSIGNMENT MOSCOW: REPORTING ON RUSSIA FROM LENIN TO PUTIN’ will be published in the U.K. and U.S. on May 18. It includes new material covering the Covid-19 pandemic; the jailing of the Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, and, of course, Russia’s escalation of its war...
Reporting from Russia: live event at the Frontline Club, London, January 20th 2023
ON FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY AT 1900 I will be chairing a live discussion, ‘Reporting from Russia’, at the Frontline Club in London. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a war not only on a neighbouring country, but also a war on journalism. New laws rushed through the Russian parliament in...
Journalism in the Russia-Ukraine War, and soaring sales of ‘1984’: recent podcast and radio interviews
THIS MONTH I have recorded two new podcast interviews, the first for Silicon Curtain with Jonathan Fink If you have not come across this series, do take a look at the other interviews, too. Jonathan gets excellent guests and the audience continues to grow. This time, Jonathan and I...
ASSIGNMENT MOSCOW: NEW COVER DESIGN FOR NEW EDITION
THE NEW EDITION of my most recent book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin will be published in May next year. It is updated with new material on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That new material includes interviews with some of the journalists who felt forced...
New Edition of ‘Assignment Moscow’ out in 2023
RUSSIA’S ATTACK ON UKRAINE in February this year focused international attention on the Kremlin’s imperial ambitions in a way unseen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, Russia introduced new legislation making normal journalism all but impossible. To call a ‘war’ by its real name–instead...
REPORTING RUSSIA: LIVE BOOK EVENT AT THE FRONTLINE CLUB, LONDON, 10 MAY 2022
Russia’s war in Ukraine has put journalism on the frontline both in covering the fighting itself, and in the way that new laws have made independent journalism in Russia all but impossible. These are just some of the issues I will be discussing in conversation with Nanette van der...
Assignment Moscow: update March 2022
‘THE STORY OF Western correspondents in Russia is the story of Russia’s attitude to the West.’ So opens the final chapter of my book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin . This worst of times for Russia’s relations with the West has also become the worst...
Live Book Event: ‘Assignment Moscow’ at the Frontline Club, London. March 1st
My first live, in-person, event to discuss ‘Assignment Moscow’ will be at the Frontline Club in London on March 1st, 2022. If you are in London that evening, please come along. There are more details here , including how to book tickets. The book tells the story of the...
Chronicles Of A Collapse: Journalism And The End Of Soviet History
This post is an article originally published on The Conversation, as, ‘Writing history: 30 years on, a former Moscow correspondent reflects on the end of the USSR’. It includes reflections on the relationship between journalism and history, and explains why–in the Journalism department where I teach–we are launching a new...