Blast from the Past

The end of the Cold War in Berlin 1989

Looking through my bookshelves for books to illustrate the photograph in today's Moffat News about our forthcoming (20-22 Sept 2013) Russian translation conference, I pulled out a massive illustrated tome entitled 'Russian Calendar 1947' published that year in Moscow by the Foreign Languages Publishing House. In 1947 Stalin was still running the then USSR with murderous effect. Sixtysix years ago, the Cold War started with the blockade of Berlin, famine in Russia and the Ukraine ( the number of victims is disputed, estimates range from thousands to millions) and various other bad, sad episodes. The Cold War was the era I grew up in.   We look forward to welcoming fellow Russian book and culture lovers to Moffat next week in the firm belief that  continuing free, open contacts and exchanges is the best way to ensure it never happens again.