Peter Kellner examines the reasons why the pollsters so badly underestimated the Tory vote in the 1992 election and asks whether it could happen again.

The late Ernest Gellner, a life-long anti-communist, deplored the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Here he explains his regrets-for those in the east who have had their moral universe shattered,...

The end of the cold war has left Nato with a diminished role. Will extending Nato to central Europe help revitalise the organisation and stabilise the new democracies? Or will it unnecessarily...

Contemporary Russian literature is suffering an identity crisis. Lesley Chamberlain describes how post-Soviet writers are struggling to escape the legacy of both 20th century repression and 19th...

You must have heard. There's been a terrible scandal..." The librarian's breast was heaving fast. "It would have been simple if you had come before, but now..." Her whisper subsided in a long Russian...

Ulyanovsk is a sleepy town on the Volga, but for over half a century it was a bustling shrine dedicated to its most famous son-Lenin. Robert Haupt took a river boat to the town in search of what...

A US diplomat caused an uproar when his analysis of Russia's political clans was published in a Moscow newspaper

Banned under communism, Playboy magazine became a legend among Russians. Artyom Troitsky, rock critic turned editor-in-chief, tells how the new Russian Playboy is shaping up

The next few months could see the emergence of a new and altogether less predictable Russia. Forthcoming Duma and presidential elections will see gains for nationalistic, anti-western politicians....

Russia is in the midst of a demographic crisis. Life expectancy for men is falling precipitately and is now below the level it reached under Stalin. Andrew Cowley examines the reasons