In 1948, when John was five, Guy Burgess came to stay for a holiday. John's mother resented Burgess and his close relationship with her husband, and began staging accidents to claim attention; she once reported being mugged in her car, and on another occasion set fire to the living room, suffering serious burns. She was later sent to a Swiss clinic for treatment. Philby was posted to the United States the following year. The strange life of John Philby, the son of "the most hated man in England", Kim Philby, a member of the notorious Cambridge Five spying ring. (via)
posted by The Whelk on Aug 23, 2009 - 16 comments

Moscow is home to the largest number of billionaires and in Russia, there are nearly 100 billionaires. Due to recent economic developments and the drop in oil prices, the oligarchs, who rose to prominence under Gorbachev, have lost a combined total of $200 billion. Help is here.
posted by gman on Oct 30, 2008 - 21 comments

With the potential 'crisis' with Russia, Georgia, Europe et al, the BBC tries to imagine what a new Cold War would be like starting with a tour of the budding Moscow tourist attraction called the Confrontation Cold War Museum. Sold off in an auction last year, the underground bunker now belongs to a private company that plans to turn it into an entertainment complex with a museum about the Cold War, a restaurant and even a spa. But it is already possible to hold fashion shows around the 600-meter-long network of bare, cavernous tunnels.
posted by infini on Aug 31, 2008 - 6 comments

As Moscow changes, so does its population of stray dogs. During Soviet times, Moscow's stray dogs foraged for food and avoided humans, since there wasn't much to be gained from begging. As the city became increasingly affluent, the dogs' behavior changed radically. Some recent adaptations include passive subway begging, observing stoplights, and a food scam called the "come-from-behind ambush." The stray dogs, whose population is estimated at 26,000, have even ceased some of their interpack warfare. Observe the Moscow subway dog here. [more inside]
posted by Afroblanco on May 29, 2008 - 26 comments

Decaying memorial photos at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
posted by parudox on Apr 11, 2008 - 14 comments

Something about the library inspires one to jump.
posted by phrontist on Apr 1, 2008 - 33 comments

Like Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron (made famous through François Truffaut's film L'Enfant Sauvage), a modern-day feral child, known as 'werewolf boy ' "who snarls and bites [has] escaped from a Moscow clinic just a day after being rescued from the wild." "The boy, who looks about ten, moves around with his legs half bent and 'was running with wolves and searching for food with them.' Police, who named him Lyokha, said villagers found him in a lair made of leaves and sticks in freezing temperatures." ^* [Feral Children previously on MeFi - 1, 2]
posted by ericb on Dec 21, 2007 - 15 comments

Russos takes photos of Moscow Metro construction. Also of a half-abandoned river port, a cool bridge being put together, and an old underground nuclear submarine base. But mostly of the Metro, behind the scenes. (Don't ask me how he gets access.) [more inside]
posted by parudox on Dec 6, 2007 - 4 comments

Urban as art in suburban Moscow.
posted by found missing on Jan 1, 2007 - 12 comments

The UBS Bank calculated how long it takes an average worker around the world to earn enough to buy a Big Mac. Workers in Tokyo were the fastest: Tokyo 10 minutes, New York 13 minutes, London 16 minutes, Hong Kong 17 minutes, Paris 21 minutes, Moscow 25 minutes, Rome 39 minutes, Beijing 44 minutes, Manila 81 minutes, Jakarta 86 minutes. Is this a fair comparison? Is it something that will change people's perspective about the rest of the world?
posted by PetBoogaloo on Nov 17, 2006 - 53 comments

Moscow's decadent post-Communism nightclub scene. Stalin's yacht pushes up the Moscow River at eight a.m., and nobody cares if you missed it. The world's longest-running after-party just keeps going. In a shipboard ballroom, Russia's lucky few tend to their good time. Music like a lot of loud nothing pounds through the girls lathered in Valentino, Gaultier, and Bulgari. Defying you with their eyes, they throw off a kind of heat that has never burned you before. The men with money and new style hang around the edges with satisfied smiles, their low-vibrating calm punching through thousand-dollar sunglasses. They'll kiss you, they'll kill you, you'll know where you stand.
posted by fet on Jul 25, 2006 - 50 comments

Vlad gives his views on the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As the anthem of Phystech promises, "we will disperse, when the time comes, in all the world, from Dolgoprudny"
posted by tellurian on Feb 28, 2006 - 3 comments

Taking NYC by Storm: The Moscow Cats Theatre. Also with dogs and clowns, apparently.
posted by Dr. Zira on Sep 17, 2005 - 15 comments

Buildings that never were: Unrealized Moscow - grand scale architectural projects from the mid 1930s to the early 1950s.
posted by iconomy on Jun 22, 2005 - 21 comments

"Russian Oligarachs Want Immortality". Vladimir Bryntsalov has had a course of stem cell injections and feels no older than 20, though his biological age is about 60. Treatment will cost you $10,000-20,000 in Moscow. In many Western countries, such clinics would not even get the opportunity to open their doors. During a recent speech, President Bush denounced stem cell therapy as "godless."
posted by stbalbach on Mar 19, 2005 - 26 comments

Fabulous images of the Moscow Metro underground, also known as "the people's palaces". Click "M"s on the entry map to view gorgeous (often architecturally surreal) panoramic images, and visit the picture gallery for sweet details. Via Jorgen at Viewropa.
posted by taz on Jan 14, 2005 - 24 comments

Vladimir Aniskin, by day a farm equipment researcher (pdf), makes gorgeous Faberge-like creations, haunting and whimsical metaphors of war and peace, and more in extreme miniature. Moscow reporters have entered him in a competition (Russian-language page) for the strangest hobby practiced in Russia. Via the ever-brilliant aldaily.com.
posted by By The Grace of God on Dec 8, 2004 - 7 comments

Going to visit Moscow, the long way around. This past June Tim Harvey and Colin Angus set off on an entirely human-powered expedition from Vancouver to Moscow. The CBC has a page with running audio reports from the field. Who says the age of adventure is over?
posted by edgeways on Oct 20, 2004 - 4 comments

You may owe your life to this man If it weren't for Stanislav Petrov, many or even most of us reading this might be dead now - or never born, for the teens among us. At least according to this article, and the other links above.
posted by ramakrishna on Sep 5, 2004 - 34 comments

Moscow Life. 49 stories with images of life in and around Moscow, posted between 1995 and 2002. There's an introduction here.
posted by plep on Mar 18, 2003 - 6 comments

Russian Theatre Debacle : BZ Gas? BZ Gas.. your friendly 'non lethal' incapacitator. Originally designed for military use, (" Just blow their minds, move in, and take over") they gave it to 2800 soldiers at Edgewood before the CIA got hold of it. Due to shifting wind patterns, BZ's tendency to trigger maniacal behavior, and the difficulties of controlling the amount of BZ absorbed during combat undermined its usefulness as a nonlethal incapacitant. An overdose of BZ could be fatal - and those tests had been concluded on physically fit army troops. This little puppy is simple to produce , and shows up in films, the Bosnian Serbian Army and also South Africa. Oh yeah - some people call it a warfare agent , others call it a Calmative agent... ( tell that to the relatives of 115+ russians). People disagree whether its short term effects are anything from 6 hrs or 2 weeks and long-term damage is still unknown.. Lovely stuff.
posted by HeadSessions on Oct 28, 2002 - 47 comments

Gunmen hold about 700 hostage in Moscow theater Gunfire has been heard from a Moscow theatre where about 20 armed gunmen are reported to be holding the audience, believed to be about 700 people, hostage. More: Muslim members of the audience ... were also allowed to leave, Interfax said.
posted by falameufilho on Oct 23, 2002 - 58 comments

Matt Taibbi, co-founder of the eXile, Moscow's most caustic and painfully funny newspaper, has relocated to Buffalo, NY (?) to work his journalistic mojo there. That is, if he's not arrested over this editorial.
posted by GriffX on Jun 17, 2002 - 10 comments

Diggers of the Underground Planet We've had similar links posted before, but this one about the subterranean geography of Moscow really caught my attention. Discoveries include a 3,000 seat bunker under a cathedral, deserted chemical warfare labs, ancient stashes of the skulls, a second ring of metro stations that were never used and possibly a mass grave from the Stalin era.
posted by Irontom on Jun 13, 2002 - 18 comments

The ugly side of football: man dies in Moscow riots. The World Cup has been great so far, but it was only a matter of time before things got out of control.
posted by claire on Jun 9, 2002 - 25 comments

News actuality from September 11th, 2001, from the Television Archive. Live coverage includes programming from ABC, BBC, CBC Newsworld, NBC, NTV Moscow, and China Central Television.
posted by tranquileye on Jan 28, 2002 - 14 comments

Snow is falling throughout the WRAL-TV viewing area Southern snow. Better get milk and bread! It will be like going to the Kroger in Moscow, but you must have milk and bread. Wow, I love it when it snows hard in the South, what a magic time. Only once every 5 or 10 years do we see a foot of snow.
posted by crunchburger on Jan 2, 2002 - 7 comments

TV out in Moscow, due to fire in landmark tower. So, am I just too much of an old Cold Warrior, or is anyone else a bit twitchily nervous that after the TV press hammered Russian President Vladimir Putin over his handling of the Kursk disaster, now the TV just happens to be knocked out? Oh, and that Putin is saying how this incident shows that the whole economy needs more "security"? Hmm...
posted by aurelian on Aug 28, 2000 - 3 comments