The Carpathians

Paris

On Etymology

Interesting note - One word in both Ukrainian (місяць) and Turkish (ay) means "month" and "moon," even though months are now measured slightly differently with calendars.

Kyiv/Kiev/Киев/Київ

St. Andrew's Church

The "Friendship of Peoples" arch - built,  ironically, less than a decade before nationalist movements began to develop across the USSR

Pechersk Lavra

20 Years of Independence

Enormous Soviet war memorial, holding the only hammer and sickle that I've seen left around here

Rumor has it that the statue is a bit top-heavy and could collapse in the future...

Scenes from outside Prime Minister Tymoshenko's trial

Anyone who wants to understand the background on the trial of former Prime Minister and Orange Revolution figure Yulia Tymoshenko can do so here.

Tent for Tymoshenko supporter

Flag ceremony performed by Tymoshenko opponents

Opponent camp with signs calling her a thief/liar

Riot police surround a protest camp they had dismantled

"Tymoshenko has been behind bars 31 days - She has not broken"

Tymoshenko supporters demonstrating outside

And From a Proud Tower in the Town...

A lovely profile of Barbara Tuchman in the Washington Post:

"She does not like being called an 'amateur' by all the 'professionals' who have graduate training, advanced degrees, and university positions. She prefers, she said in a 1981 collection of essays covering her career, to recognize the difference between them and her 'by distinguishing between academics and independents, or between scholars and writers, rather than between professionals and amateurs.' She may not have a Ph.D., but she is as much of a pro as the professors are, and rather more so if making a living by your work is any criterion of being professional. She can communicate with a willing readership, which is more than the professors can do. . . . They really do not know how 'to capture and hold the interest of an audience.' "


More

Late Communist Architecture

 (Georgian Ministry of Roads, completed in 1975)

I think this should belie the claim that late Soviet and Eastern Block culture was lacking in innovation. These collections of images - 25 WWII memorials built under Tito in the former Yugoslavia and images from the recently published book by French photographer Fredric Chaubin documenting avant-garde late Soviet architecture provide an interesting look at Eastern European architectural developments in the 70s and 80s.

(Palace of Ceremonies, Georgia, 1985)