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11:38

Martin Cruz Smith Discusses Writing about the Soviet Union.

Writer Martin Cruz Smith. His latest novel, Polar Star, is his sequel to his 1981 best-seller Gorky Park. In Polar Star, Cruz Smith revives Arkady Renko, the intrepid police investigator hero of Gorky Park. Smith is also the author of Stallion Gate, a novel about the making of the atomic bomb. (Interview with Sedge Thomson)

Interview
23:03

Journalist Hedrick Smith Discusses the U. S. S. R. after Gorbachev.

Journalist Hedrick Smith. Smith has spent years covering the Soviet Union, as a reporter for the New York Times, as an author, and as a TV documentary producer and correspondent. He's just returned from the former Soviet Union, and his latest report, "After Gorbachev's U.S.S.R." airs this week on the public television documentary series, "Frontline." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Interview
16:44

Adam Ulam Discusses the History of the U. S. S. R.

Author Adam Ulam (OO-lom) ("om" as in bomb) Director of the Russian Research Center and Gurney Professor of History and Political Science at Harvard. His new book is "The Communists: The Story of Power and Lost Illusions 1948-1991." (published byScribner's). He's also the author of "The Bolsheviks.

Interview
22:23

William Taubman Discusses Moscow Today.

William Taubman is a political science professor at Amherst College. He was recently in Moscow as one of the scholars invited to help open up the archives of the government under Communism. He was able to get a sense of the day to day workings of the Soviet empire.

Interview
03:51

The Ideal Band for Russia Right Now.

World music commentator Milo Miles reviews the new album by the Terem ("Ter-yem") Quartet from St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). It's a group that couldn't have existed in the past. (Realworld Records)

Review
22:27

Stephen Handelman Discusses the Russian Mob.

Foreign Correspondent Stephen Handelman He spent nearly six years in the former Soviet Union as chief of the Moscow Bureau of the Toronto Star, where he covered the final years of the Soviet regime. His new book Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya (Yale) examines and uncovers the intricate networking of the post-Soviet criminal underworld. Handelman is also the author of Uncommon Kingdom. He is currently an associate fellow at Columbia University's Harriman Institute.

Interview
16:25

Mystery Writer R.D. Zimmerman Discusses His Experiences in Russia.

Mystery Writer R.D. Zimmerman (real name Robert Alexander). He is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, and has written mystery jigsaw puzzles as well as short mysteries that appeared on the backs of 15 million boxes of Total Cereal. His new book Red Trance (Morrow), is a Russian mystery of hypnotic detection. Zimmerman also talks about his business dealings in Russia, and the corruption he faced as a result.

Interview
18:23

Elections in Post-Soviet Russia

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Sarah Mendelson. She spent a year in Moscow working for the National Democratic Institute. Her work helped the Russian reformist political parties in their preparation of the Parliamentary and Presidential elections. The goal of the Institute is to bring modern Western campaign techniques into Russian elections. Mendelson also talks to Terry about being a young American expatriate in the former Soviet Union. She currently teaches poltiical science at the State University of New York at Albany.

21:34

Russia's Relationship with Serbia.

Journalist Fred Hiatt is a member of the Editorial page staff for the Washington Post. He's also the paper's former Russia correspondent. He'll discuss Russia's position on the Serbs, and the NATO bombings.

Interview
27:15

The History of the Alliance Between Russia and Serbia.

Journalist Serge Schmemann is foreign editor and former Moscow Bureau Chief for The New York Times,and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He'll discuss the situation in Kosovo, and Russia's response. And he'll talk about his own family's exodus from Russia, pushed out by the Russian Revolution. His new book "Echoes of a Native Land: Two Centuries of a Russian Village." Schmemann is the descendant of several families of the higher Russian nobility. He was born in Paris.

Interview
07:35

Underground Russian Rock on Tour in U.S.

Fresh Air music critic Milo Miles reviews music from Russian rock group Auktyon. The band is currently on tour in the U.S. Auktyon, like some other Russian rock groups, found their footing during the censorship-free period of glasnost in the former Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Review
30:53

Oil and the 'New International Energy Order'

With both the cost of and demand for oil rising, nations with large energy reserves are redrawing political and military alliances, and oil-rich countries like Russia and Venezuela are enjoying greater influence. Michael Klare, author of Rising Power, Shrinking Planet, calls it the "new international energy order."

Interview
44:49

James Traub On The Russia-Georgia Conflict

Russia and Georgia have signed a cease-fire, but the conflict continues. Journalist James Traub, author of The Freedom Agenda: Why America Must Spread Democracy (Just Not the Way George Bush Did), discusses the latest developments.

Interview
44:05

Putin Biography Chronicles Rise Of A 'Street Thug'

Media suppression, corruption and murder have marked the regime of Vladimir Putin, who is running for hi third term as president in Russia's election next week. His rise to power is spelled out in journalist Masha Gessen's new book, The Man Without a Face.

Interview

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