We all know about the obligatory optimism of Socialist Realism; it's usually portrayed, somewhat simplistically, as an imposition of the politicians on the artists. Now it seems that Prokofiev may have tried to second-guess Stalin by re-jigging Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending - but Iosif Vissarionovich and his "assorted cultural henchmen" (hey, I've got some of those, too!) were having none of it (Independent).
The Lithuanian parliament has adopted a law forbidding the display of Soviet and communist-party symbols (Lenta.ru, in Russian). A similar law exists in Latvia and has been mooted in Estonia.
Two contrasting views of the Russia! magazine summer issue party in New York (New York Observer; Just An Online Minute) (thanks, LKJ).
The star Russian turns at Phillips de Pury's sales on Sunday and Monday - Semyon Faibisovich (top price £109,250), Erik Bulatov (top price £115,750), Natalia Nesterova (top price £61,250) Ivan Chuikov (£73,250) and Oleg Vasilev (top price £87,650) - held up well. The most striking result to my mind was £117,650 paid for a painting by Lev Tabenkin. A painting by Chichkan made £37,250: a sign of the expanding Ukrainian collectors' market. This said, many Russian works failed to sell, including two works each by Vulokh, Dyshlenko and AES+F, one each by Nesterova, Nazarenko, Pepperstein and Timur Novikov. (All quoted prices inc. buyer's premium).
Riots in the Mongolian capital Ulan-Bator, after Sunday's elections; the opposition party claims the result - a victory for the incumbent president Nambariin Enkhbayar - was rigged; video (Vesti, in Russian).
In Russia, the cult of Putin, in Ukraine - of Timoshenko? (Ekspress Gazeta, in Russian).
The first Leica M8 digital camera has been sold at auction to a Russian Leica collector for €24,000 (photography blog).
A round-up of Russian radio stations (Russia InfoCentre).
Oligarch publisher Mikhail Prokhorov's new magazine/TV channel/internet portal/club venture called Snob (the word has pretty much the same negative connotations in Russian as in English) has launched at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Kommersant, in Russian).
Nataliya Shmarenova, from Ukraine, has won the Mrs World title; but she loses it if she divorces in the next year (Kleo.ru, in Russian). So it's not a slam-dunk for her, because these things do put a strain on the marital bond. I was once a judge for the Moscow competition Miss Tolstushka - roughly, Miss Fat Lady - which was organised by Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper and held in the Luzhniki sports stadium in front of a football-match-sized crowd. I made what I thought was an elegant speech about the beautiful fat ladies in Russian art - Arkhipov's peasant girls, Kustodiev's merchants' wives and so on - but it seemed to go above everyone's heads and one guy in particular kept heckling me. The show-winner, who had to dance, sing, answer difficult questions and also perform a satirical striptease, returned home that evening to find that her husband - the heckler himself - had left her in disgust. How did I get that job? Well, I was on a plane to Moscow when someone opened a locker and a bottle of wine fell out onto my head. The owner, who turned out to be the organiser of Miss Tolstushka, apologised profusely, offered me a drink, we began to chat, and soon it was in the bag.
