Breathtaking images; touching presentations of the people, the culture, the life and times. I came to know Heidi Hollinger during the past decade by seeing her on the cover of many distinguished magazines and reading about her interesting life and work in Russia. She is a world renown photographer for good reason: with this book she has given history a true gift with her unique feel for and portrayal of the moods and challenges of the Russian people. Her fascinating perspectives and excellent artistic, creative, and technical talents are awe inspiring.

I think this book is a fruit of combination between human intelligence and computer database. The auther gives profound analysis on every possible line of sozin and velimirovich attack, and you'll find many interesting ideas hidden in the GM games. The assessment of positons and lines is very objective, which distinguishes this one from "winning with xx" books, where authers don't mind giving wrong assessment on purpose.
In short, this book is a MUST if you are a FIDE titled player and play sicilian with either color. On the other hand, if you just want to grasp the general idea of Bc4 lines, you may be embarrassed, because the author tends to give only concrete lines.

I had the book for a while now. It went out of print and I see it is back as an Ebook. An excellent idea indeed. I have read this book cover to cover a few times. A great book that tells how to develop a safe and solid opening repertoire for white/black. Also, there is and endgame section which contained some very interesting R+P endings that are quite essential for a practical player. Once a GM friend of mine visited me and browsed thru my book rack.. and when I offered him that he could borrow any book he wants from my collection (over 300 or so books), guess which one he picked. "The Soviet Conveyor"! He said it is probably the best book I owned! The book also talks about the importance of studying the classics. This book can be of great help to any one rated upto 2400 Uscf.

This book gives an incredible overview of Soviet commercial design with tons of great color pages covering everything from package design, logos, posters, to general advertising. I would highly recommend it to design professionals and art students. The design inside has been ripped off a lot over the last few years, but it's still a great resource for timeless ideas and wonderful design.

A gorgeous explanation and representation of a gorgeous show. Chemiakin is a brilliant artist, and this book gives us a closer look at his spectacular new The Nutcracker. The text sheds light on the genius, covering Chemiakin's thoughts on the progression of the play, act by act, scene by scene. But most of all this is a visual representation of the magic of the show, its source and development, the perfect picturebook for every age. Hurrah!

Here is an academic book that anyone interested in language, literature, and cinema should love. Beautifully written (as few academic books are), it applies the cultural criticism of Russian writer Mikhail Bakhtin to a diverse selection of novels and films, but most notably to those from Brazil. It is a match made in heaven, because both Bakhtin and Brazil believe in carnival (the joyful festivities that take place just before Lent, known in the States as Mardi Gras) and the carnivalesque (where rules are suspended, the oppressed take center stage, the powerful are mocked, and the body is celebrated). Stam begins by providing a clear and thorough overview of Bakhtin's precepts and terminology (dialogism, chronotope, heteroglossia), showing how his writing can fill in the gaps left by other theories and illuminate both artistic texts and everyday life. He then moves on to discuss the conjunction between Bakhtin and film theory specifically, providing elegant analyses of Bunuel's "Exterminating Angel," Godard's "Two or Three Things I Know About Her," Welles's unfinished "It's All True" (much of which was shot in Brazil), Brazilian classics such as "Macunaima," and "Mar das Rosas/Sea of Roses." and several others. Along the way, he takes in such issues as the grotesque and magical body, the subversive as well as the pleasurable potential of carnival, the uses of cannibalism, and cinematic eroticism. This wide-ranging study takes in everything from music (by Brazilian composers Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque, plus rap) to the influence of the Yiddish theater on Woody Allen's "Zelig." An outstanding book that's a delight to read.

This book was the first book to be published after the fall of the Soviets, and it attempts to create a photographic chronicle as well as containing well written text. The photographs are better than other books, simply because they are different and you can't stop looking at them. For anyone who enjoys the Romanovs history, this book is a must. For anyone who enjoys a good history book, this is also a must. This is an excellent book and I recommend it 100 percent.

This is a wild book!!!!!!! It is full of very wild art photos of crazy scenes, such as Michel in a bathtub full of feathers, another has him in a loin cloth hanging on a cross after a strange bunch of scenes with a dungeonmaster-looking fellow....it is almost indescribable!...it is ALWAYS a topic of conversation when I bring it out! This book is certainly worth obtaining and keeping. It is sensual art in high form.

Clear and compelling indictment of the most inhuman social system devised by humans. This account of the Soviet Union's history illustrates the danger of a one party system and the inhumanity of big government.

This amazing novel remains far beyond the reach of Russian publishers in spite of "raging" freedom of speech. In fact, several major Moscow publishing houses, in an effort to publish it in Russia... Mikhail Armalinsky's reputation makes it awkward for any "official representative of Russian culture" to mention him, because Armalinsky's name is associated with his publication of the Secret Journal 1836-1867 by Alexander S. Pushkin.The scandal around this book has lasted for several years now and continues to expand because it's been translated into 16 languages. The title of the novel is rather unusual and perhaps bewildering at first. However, the implications of Voluntary - Forced become clear when one understands that the protagonist's "voluntary confessions" are forced by the torture of loneliness and that his "forced correspondence" is a war waged against society's norms for freedom of self-expression. On the other hand, we find out that the correspondence was forced to start because two main addressees - Boris, who emigrated to the US, and Sergei, who lives in the USSR, are separated by the ocean and by insurmountable borders. Other addressees in the novel are inaccessible as well due to mutual alienation. Therefore, correspondence for them becomes forced by their attempt to control loneliness.

Armalinsky's novel remotely resembles Shoderlo de Laclou's epistolary novel, Dangerous Liaisons. In both novels, the protagonist is a cynical libertine who, in addition to describing his love affairs, also relates his philosophy of love. The resemblances ends when the protagonist Boris, sarcastically calls his adventures "non dangerous liaisons." The plot is amusing: emigrant Boris places a personal ad in a Russian newspaper in the US. His "catch" is three recent women emigrants. Boris describes his affairs with them in his letters to his old friend Sergei, who lives in Leningrad. Armalinsky manages to paint unforgettable portraits of Russian emigrants as well as detailed scenes of American life. In the second part of the novel, Boris places a personal ad in an American newspaper and meets an American woman, Karen. They fall madly in love and marry. Boris describes the idyll of their early marriage in trembling prose to Sergei. Sergei, in turn, describes his women to Boris, none of whom inspire him to give up the solitary life, which Sergei is convinced he needs to carry on his creative work and to keep his integrity. Yet, reading Boris' letters, Sergei begins to doubt the firmness of his position.

There are several episodic correspondents in the novel, but all of them turn out to be connected somehow with each other. Not a single plot line dead ends but after some wandering comes together into the novel's "ideological center."

However, the power of the novel lies not only in the plot. First of all, its power is concentrated in bright unceremonious language of sexual liberty. Furthermore, it is not an attempt to embarrass the reader but rather to reveal a natural form of male thinking, which may be common, but has not existed in Russian literature before. It is not just obscene words but it is also confidential conversation, the type of extreme openness which may exist only among closest friends. Most people would not have the guts to confess such thoughts even to themselves. Yet Armalinsky manages to reach unthinkable depths. Many would think that he hit bottom, but human depths are bottomless. The power of this novel can be threatening, extending beyond common norms and conventions. This just confirms once again how endless human essence is and therefore how infinite its literary investigation. A writer is granted his own literary style by reaching a certain physiological depth. You can not confuse Armalinsky with anybody else. His style is serious and light minded, exalted and vile, lovely and lusty, in other words, the combination of everything human.

Why is Voluntary Confessions - Forced Correspondence so unique? Because it is unprecedented, something "unheard of" in literature. It is not the obscenity which has filled pages of Russian free press; it is its unprecedented attitude toward sex and women regardless of how painful the truth is. Besides, the novel is captivating. You can't put it away until it's finished. Mostly love events develop fast, unexpectedly, humorously and as a result - tragically. Armalinsky's language is bright, aphoristic, witty, sarcastic, punny and satirical.

Another important theme in the novel is disappointment in the institute of marriage. Boris states his position very clearly: "The purpose of a relationship with a chosen woman is to be with her only when you want her. In practice, alas, you have to be with her even when you are disgusted with her or when you are indifferent in order to have her near when you want her." Boris absolutely cannot tolerate the inevitable cooling of passion among spouses. He poignantly comments that "... lovers are shameless with each other because of overwhelming desire whereas spouses are shameless with each other because of their indifference to each other." When a man and a woman get too close in marriage, love is destroyed. Therefore, Boris maintains that "love is lasting only if there is distance between two people." This is not totally realistic because Boris accepts compromises forced on him by life. "The power of love I measure by the joy you feel when you sacrifice for the sake of your beloved without losing your dignity."

Armalinsky coalesced all the advantages of the epistolary novel, valued since ancient times starting from "calling things by their names" and expressing "non canonical" opinions to excitability and eroticism - the qualities inherent to the genre which made it so popular until recent times. The opening of Russian borders, freedom of speech, and "computerizing the whole country" may decrease the significance of letters as a major means of communication but at the same time may give Russians a new opportunity to read this remarkable novel in letters by Mikhail Armalinsky.