Oppa Stalin Style

This is what happens when Rachel Ostrow and I get together to do a paper for our Russia class...

Oppa Stalin Style...
(Stalin Style)

 I've got some enemies of state, girl...
and I'm gonna purge 'em
Sending my Jews to Birobidzhan
...coz I really do not want 'em
Just got myself some Baltic States
...aren't I f*cking awesome?

Check my coll-ec-ti-vi-zation

Treating minorities with so much institutional disdain
Deporting Chechens and Tatars from mountains to plains
Forced famine in Ukraine coz I stole all their grains
You don't wanna be next on my terror campaign

Eh - Soviet Ladies...
O-o-o-o-o-oppa Stalin Style

Fair Vote For Russia - Protests in DC

This afternoon, I was at the DC protests against electoral fraud in the 4th Dec Duma elections. Around 100 people came so the turnout wasn't great. BUT 100,000+ protested in Moscow and that's a huge victory for Russia!

Back to DC, here is what you missed outside the Russian embassy:
1. I was one of the first people to get there. The police told us to go to the other side of the road. Not sure if these were DC police orders or the embassy had asked the police to tell us to stay away from the building
2. Nice peaceful protests. It was a slow start but then the crowd built up. Lots of interesting signs and posters. Some volunteers were distributing white carnations and tulips, as well as white ribbons - symbols of the protests
3. The first news channel to get there was...(drumrolls please)...Georgia's Rustavi 2! I'm sure Saakashvili is very happy with the developments in Russia! Kremlin-backed RT joined later and the Russians didn't seem too happy about that; some even called them, "shpioni" (spies).
4. A couple of guitar-'imeyushie' even played a few songs that I didn't recognize. I thought they'd play Viktor Tsoi's 'Peremen' - which I hear has become something of an anthem for these protests in Russia - but I guess it hasn't caught on everywhere else yet.
5. We had a signboard asking people driving by in cars to honk in support of a fair election in Russia. I was quite happy to see that many did!

Memo to self for any future participation in peaceful protests:
1. If the temperature is anywhere near 0 degrees, carry a pair of gloves
2. This is yet another reason why you should learn how to play a musical instrument
3. Even if you don't have all the materials to make the perfect signboard, scribble something on an A4 sheet in bright red pen. It's more fun that way!







Ok now I better get back to writing my paper, 'Predicting a Revolution in Russia.' I picked the topic in November but never in my wildest dreams imagined anything was possible or that things would become so interesting! Bravo Rossiyanini - you make me so proud!

20 years since the collapse of the USSR!

A historic day today - for two reasons: 1. it is the 20th anniversary of the Soviet collapse; 2. this is the only time I will agree with Vladimir Putin and say that it indeed was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century."



So here I remember the great state with some nostalgia and some fear, with a prayer for those who never saw freedom in their lifetimes, and hope for those who are currently fighting for their rights in Moscow and other cities across Russia against the electoral fraud committed by Putin's United Russia in the 2011 Duma elections.

Going back to humming this old Soviet tune: Moi adres ne dom i ne ulitsa, moi adres Sovetskii Soyuz (my address isn't a house or a street, my address is the Soviet Union.

Praying for Steve Jobs's legacy to continue...

If Steve Jobs hadn't died yesterday, American news media would have been talking about the 10th anniversary of the US-led Afghan War. I hope someday peace will return to the country and its kids will have a normal childhood playing Angry Birds on an iPad. iAmen!

Bilateral Life

Just last week, started a new blog with Russia & India Report - part of the Russia Beyond the Headlines project.

Called Bilateral Life, the blog perfectly describes my story (so far) i.e. born to one nation and forever longing to be in another!

Here's the intro. Hope you guys find the blog interesting. Comments and feedback always welcome!

With an Indian passport and self-proclaimed Russian heritage, Aanchal Anand took a year out to fulfill her childhood dream of living in Russia and learning the language. Whether it’s walking on the frozen canals of Petersburg, visiting Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow, eating pirozhki with locals along the Trans-Siberian railroad, or rubbing shoulders with Mikhail Gorbachev – she has been there and done it all. With this blog, she shares her adventures, reveals the best travel-tips, and brings to you the socio-cultural and political aspects of life in Russia, often with an Indian twist! Aanchal has a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. This year, she begins her Masters at the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC to major in Russian and Eurasian studies. You can follow her on Twitter @aanch31, send story suggestions to bilateralDOTlifeATgmailDOTcom and tell us what you think by leaving comments on blogposts.

A Writer's Guide to PR

I've recently started taking myself more seriously as a writer. So I'm reading more, scrutinisng more and doing much better against the dreaded writer's block. I've also joined a couple of writers' and freelancers' groups on LinkedIn - an incredibly useful source for at least 3 reasons:

- Being a writer can get lonely but when you find other lonely people like yourself, guess what happens? You stop feeling lonely
- It's an excellent way to be in the right company. I find that incredibly powerful and hope that some of their authorly awesomeness would rub off on me
- It's the one place I've found so far with oodles of excellent free advice for writers! I'm now going to share one that author Leslie Stern (whom I recently friended on Facebook) told me:

First PR rule for writers: market yourself everywhere.

It's so simple that it almost didn't inspire me. BUT it did kick me in the right place and made me wonder why I had never thought of it myself. To see that advice through, I've decided to post links to my previously published online articles on this blog. After all, like charity, PR begins at home! :)

Gorbachev's 80th birthday event

As I already covered in an earlier post, I got the chance to meet Mikhail Gorbachev on 21st March 2011, when he celebrated his 80th birthday with journalists at Moscow's Dom Zhurnalistov.

I didn't manage to take photos with him - because I was so much in awe that I forgot that I was holding a camera! But a journalist there did take some and she promised she would send them. When I thanked her I added a polite "whenever it is convenient" - words I have since come to regret.

So I'm still waiting for her to reply - and hopefully she will indeed send them*. But meanwhile, I found this photograph of Gorbachev holding the flowers and birthday card I gave him:



Here is the rest of the photo-essay put together by her for the newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.

*PS - I just received my photographs. Excellent quality because the journalist's was a professional camera after all :)