tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-192739122011-12-16T08:30:38.205+02:00Few comments by Ulas Ergin on Russia, travel, arts, books, movies, music...Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.comBlogger2561100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-2987776729206073952010-10-24T14:39:00.000+03:002010-10-24T14:53:42.113+03:00

This movie was nominated as the Best Foreign Language Movie in Oscar, European Film Awards, Golden Globe and many others, see the IMDB page for all list. It has a total o 7 awards in several organizations.It is a nice and warm movie, Sanya's father is dead, they meet a soldier on a train with her mother, romance starts between the soldier and mother and they start to live together but it appears

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-37479565532560280642010-10-24T14:30:00.000+03:002010-10-24T14:42:14.843+03:00

This nice movie reminded me the Turkish movies of 60s, a young soldier is assigned as a driver for a Soviet Army General in 1962 in Sevastopol, Crimea, General's daughter is physically disabled and has a hard-spoilt personality but later a romance starts between these two...Doesn't it remind you Ayhan Isik and Belgin Doruk concept:)it was a nice movie, I can recommend this one to everybody.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-46022690595820894542010-10-24T14:20:00.000+03:002010-10-24T14:31:20.089+03:00

I did not understand much from this movie, this might be another sample representing that i am not an arts guy:) because it has several awardssee IMDB link

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-28868462713799994382010-10-06T23:01:00.000+03:002010-10-06T23:13:15.464+03:00

During Russian Civil war, a Red Army unit captures an important white officer who is believed to carry important information from Kolcak to Denikin [both are white commanders].The only female member of the team is a sniper who has shot 40 whites already but misses this 41th but takes him prisoner...after many events a romance occurs between this two..DVD of this movie is also sold on amazon.com

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-25547434067396603042010-09-15T23:15:00.001+03:002010-09-17T20:28:38.561+03:00

This Georgian comedy Mimino(means Falcon) is a nice watch, it is funny and warm. I would recommend it but I must say that it is not completely in Russian, some parts are in Georgian.More info here.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-19739861177193492912010-09-05T11:39:00.002+03:002010-09-17T20:28:52.208+03:00

Great! movie,I liked this one very much. Highly recommended!!Mała Moskwa is set in the 1960s in the southwestern Polish city of Legnica, where Krzystek(the director of this movie) was born in 1953. Legnica was the headquarters of the Soviet forces stationed in Poland from 1945 until 1990 and much of the city was a Soviet enclave closed to outsiders, including Polish citizens, during this time.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-4341967144653178742010-09-04T22:45:00.005+03:002010-09-17T20:28:58.924+03:00

Yet another famous Soviet Movie, The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye ) is listed in the 20 Must See Films list of Russian Life magazine (20 Must See Russian Films of course :) )Two soviet partisans separate from their group to go yo the nearest village and find some food but they are captured by the Germans, you can feel the cold and freezing snow ..one more time remember how wild and cruel is the war,

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-17961400867166080022010-09-04T21:55:00.002+03:002010-09-17T20:29:06.520+03:00

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors(Tini zabutykh predkiv) is another famous Soviet movie, but I personally did not enjoy it very much, maybe I did not get the implications or symbols. The movie has 8.1/10 on IMDB.The only good thing about this movie is you can see the daily village life, clothes, music in the Carpathian region.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-23037217206092911002010-08-22T13:04:00.004+03:002010-10-06T22:50:46.084+03:00

This '88 Soviet Movie is in fact not very interesting, its only point is the main actor is Victor Tsoi and this makes this movie important, worth seeing.For those who do not know him: He is one of the pioneers of Russian Rock with his group Kino during Perestroika years. You can watch his song "A star called sun" I personally did not like his songs in the movie very much, but for some reasons I

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-22110123131155433952010-08-21T19:54:00.004+03:002010-08-21T21:02:42.644+03:00

Other than Инфинити, there are several very good Russian pop songs, I would like to share some of them with you.ВИНТАЖ is a very good group, here are some songs of the group that I like.От Москвы до Нью-ЙоркаЕваПлохая девочкаМама МияI came into this X-Mode & DJ Nil in my 2005 trip to Moscow, their album is for sale on amazon.com but unfortunately their music videos are not widely available here

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-56661179616593390462010-08-18T21:44:00.002+03:002010-08-21T20:55:14.928+03:00

I love Инфинити !!!.This must be my first sentence of a topic on Инфинити, because I have their both albums "Где ты" and Я так хочу(2010) and they are great!. They are both excellent, all the songs, yes all songs with no exception are great in these albums.Both albums are very very good.Try to find them both.The official site of Инфинити is http://www.infiniti-music.ru/ and you can listen

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-23290691205230875962010-08-15T13:50:00.003+03:002010-08-15T13:54:01.451+03:00

Not a superb movie, but still can be seen to spend some time. Note the small girl's(Darya Balabanova) acting skills.I am quoting the plot from IMDB : "A university professor, who wants to slow down a little, moves with his wife and daughter, from the big city to a small town and starts a new job as a teacher in a girls' gymnasium. Something weird is happening with the class, they seem to hide

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-49341073629712770822010-08-15T13:43:00.003+03:002010-08-15T13:49:57.385+03:00

The Time of Troubles (Russian: Смутное время, Smutnoye Vremya) was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. At the time, Russia was occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Dymytriads, and suffered from civil uprisings,

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-73143559950626736912010-08-15T13:31:00.005+03:002010-09-17T20:29:29.581+03:00

Another anti-soviet propaganda book, the author which is himself a KGB officer also, claims that Russians forced Germans to attack them.He claims that due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Hitler had confidence in Russia that there won't be a war among these two.But Stalin planned to attack Germans suddenly and made preparations for this purpose, Germans sensed this an prepared a sudden counter

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-18743413607487299172010-08-15T13:25:00.002+03:002010-08-15T13:30:49.043+03:00

A 50mins Russian Drama,I am quoting the plot from its IMDB page:Masha, 16, meets Anya, 14, after a difficult breakup with her boyfriend. Anya is friendless, lonely, finding Masha more experienced and seductive. The two see a strange connection in each other which becomes an intense love-affair. Too late, the girls find out the fathers who have been missing from their lives are one and the

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-32884716006991725602010-08-15T13:20:00.005+03:002010-08-15T17:15:06.097+03:00

1200 pages of 19th Century Political History, read the contention among England, Germany, France, Austria and Russia for world politics and specifically for the great lands of Ottoman Empire that is just about to collapse.The very thick book is in hard-cover with a very low price compared to its value.See the details here. I am planning to start the next volume of 1200 pages, 20th century

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-39249236829745572142010-06-07T23:46:00.003+03:002010-06-07T23:50:26.633+03:00

Today,I started working again at IBTECH, the IT company of Finansbank where I worked between 2000 and 2006.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-12678047638512917472010-03-25T22:34:00.010+02:002010-03-25T22:59:18.961+02:00

I was in Moscow last month, for two weeks.It's been more than one year since my last visit and I really missed this city.Moscow has a mystical affect on me, I don't think the city is beautiful,but i still miss it,I miss the cold air, gray city, Cyrillic letters,metro and even the smell in the metro stations.This visit was art oriented:) I visited 'Picasso in Moscow' exhibition at Pushkin's

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-8672899922437877372010-02-21T21:51:00.003+02:002010-02-21T21:57:17.477+02:00

I guess the book title tells everything: Romanovs- End of a Dynasty . The books starts with days even before Nicholas ascends to throne, the political and economical background is presented, then tells the Nicholas rule, his wife Alexandra, Rasputin, internal politics, his resistance to forming Duma-parliament, and the end of him and his family.This is the only book among many that I read telling

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-75241315164607509312010-02-21T21:42:00.002+02:002010-02-21T21:48:14.890+02:00

12 is a very interesting movie! 12 people are members of a jury, locked down in a place to decide on a case,trivial case at first sight a Chechen boy kills his Russian step-father who is also a Russian army officer. The movie is takes place in a single place, the room that they are locked and there are mainly 12 characters, the jurors so easy to follow.I liked this movie,it is different and

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-68152480721133136572010-02-21T21:34:00.001+02:002010-02-21T21:39:29.952+02:00

Although the book title implies memories of a Soviet Spy in Turkey, this is not the case, I guess the title is chosen for marketing reasons.The book is on a KGB agent who was unhappy with the soviet system so voluntarily gave USSR secrets to 'western world'. During his KGB days his way also crossed with Ankara- capital of Turkey, that's all.Anyway, I briefly outlined he subject of the book,it is

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-26370961053312628592009-12-31T08:29:00.000+02:002009-12-31T08:29:00.215+02:00

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-69932727192773497152009-12-11T10:10:00.006+02:002009-12-11T10:37:06.493+02:00

Another interesting movie, let me first list the names of characters in the movie and you will agree with me:Khrushchov -you know him :)Brezhnev - you know him :)Mikoyan - you probably know him:)Semichastny - head of KGB who is replaced by Andrapov who later became Soviet PresidentShelepin head of KGB before SemichastnyPodgorny Chairman of Presidium of Supreme SovietSuslov - Politburo member, he

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-15449421678612366372009-12-09T14:36:00.005+02:002009-12-09T14:43:27.050+02:00

Althought I had presented negative opinions on Bucharest in my previous blog entry, I must admit that it has a nice side also: the parks.Bucharest has several parks in it where people can recreate.The wiki entry says that there are 11.I've only been to one of them,I 'guess' its name is Bordei from the list above.It was a small but nice,green park.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-24132760405923885662009-12-03T12:17:00.009+02:002009-12-09T23:26:40.701+02:00

After I ordered online my Canon EOS 500D (a.k.a Rebel T1i) for replacing my Sony Cyber-shot P200 that I bought from Garbushka/Moscow in 2005 which performed bad in low light conditions ....The camera does not come with a memory card so I had to purchase one,I looked at the forums and was totally confused.Reviews on amazon.com said some users had problems running with Kingston Cards, some users

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-42525094907225533082009-12-01T22:26:00.004+02:002009-12-01T22:33:38.395+02:00

Another '1984' book:) a future-prediction work written in 1970 by Andrei Amalrik,a Russian writer. Used copies of the books can be found on amazon.com.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-63343472018690739132009-12-01T22:24:00.001+02:002009-12-01T22:25:45.403+02:00

I do not want to give any positive or negative feedbacks about this movie since I undestood nothing, absolutely nothing.See yourself here.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-14622529154666886652009-11-25T17:30:00.006+02:002009-12-03T22:32:48.091+02:00

National Museum of Art of Romania is a huge building localed on Calea Victoriei. The museum is in fact consisted of two separate buildings, one is Gallery of European Arts and other is Gallery of Romanian Art.I first visited European Arts section and surprised to see masters as Rembradt, Anton van Dyck, Rubens,Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Younger....they were also rooms for Italian masters,

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-7446206038973332722009-11-25T17:23:00.007+02:002009-12-03T22:33:10.684+02:00

After one year,I am in Bucharest one more time.Not much has changed in Bucharest, even the huge artificial Christmas tree in Piata Universate is the same.Bucharest is a still gray,depressive city, exteriors buildings are not taken care of, most are old,ruined, gray, dirty....Even in the most expensive streets.But in the streets you can see many luxory cars, I guess the tax rate on cars is low so

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-89584180232170939522009-11-22T00:00:00.004+02:002009-11-22T00:09:22.466+02:00

After I visited Anne Frank's House few years ago in Amsterdam, I became interested in her story.I knew about her diary but only in last year I was able to read the book[shame on me:(( ].You can find my previous entry on Anne here.Althought the book title is my name is Anne Frank , the book is not written by Anne and even is not on her story.I guess this is a marketing issue.Anyway, the book is

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-71280986706677906902009-11-18T19:34:00.005+02:002009-11-18T19:46:15.511+02:00

A very nice novel! Indeed the book cover says that it is a memoir-novel so it has some historical information in it but I don't know which part is true and what percentage is fiction, still it was a very good reading.Grandduke Nicholai Romanov falls in love with an American prostitute Fanny and faces many troubles due to this relationship including the ones coming from Tsar and his own family.He

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-9246880881934386132009-11-18T19:19:00.004+02:002009-11-18T19:25:30.906+02:00

A boring novel takes place at the last days of USSR, everthing is corrupted....Young doctor graduates and is assigned to somewhere but faces problems of a dying state...

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-37859845731032381432009-11-18T18:50:00.005+02:002009-11-18T19:10:18.230+02:00

I was hoping to read days of Nazim in USSR & Moscow but this book dealt with his early career, his days in Turkey.The writer tries to find out whom Nazim was impling in his poems. There are many characters from 30s-40s-50s Turkey..many names that I am not interested in and many names that I have never heard, so this book was not a great interest to me...Still, you may find it here

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-24516207569331539092009-10-05T10:52:00.007+03:002009-10-08T11:04:33.298+03:00

My dear friend Mehmet Senvar-who has been living and working in Moscow for some time- has a blog that he shares in impressions and hints on Moscow as an insider.His blog as listed in Aeroflot's journal , mentioned in the list of best expat blogs! You may see the details here.Congratulations! Mehmet.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-4376013567100757372009-10-04T21:48:00.003+03:002009-10-04T22:02:04.390+03:00

Another very nice movie from the Russians! This movie, Gruz 200, was shot in 2007.The events take place in 1984, a young girl is kidnapped by a mad police officer... I liked the Soviet air of the movie, the houses,steets, clothes...nice thriller.The director Aleksey Balabanov is also the director of famous Brat movie which I reviewed shortly here,this time he made a better jog.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-4666813808471592592009-10-04T21:44:00.003+03:002009-10-04T21:54:48.647+03:00

This book, published in 1967 contains observations of Samet Agaoglu - a right wing politician in Turkey at that time - during his visit to Soviet Union.His observations are generally on high bureaucracy of the Soviets and the unefficiency of the system, poitical pressure on people especially the Turk and Muslim comunities, lack of necessary goods for the masses...I think most his observations

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-14597331198954609112009-09-27T22:34:00.006+03:002009-09-27T22:44:37.885+03:00

This is the weirdest movie I've ever seen.It was competely absurd.Movie genre is noted as 'Cyber Punk' but IMDB states as 'Bizarre,Absurdism,Absurd Humor,Surrealism'.Two Russians are transferred to an outer planet and they are trying to get back to earth.Meanwhile they meet with strange aliens[all exactly looking like Humans and knowing Russian] and those aliens have strange and funny

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-48999144424420362902009-09-19T20:55:00.004+03:002009-09-19T21:19:34.998+03:00

Last week I was in Hong Kong for 4 days. I was there to attend Sibos2009 event.Hong Kong has a terrible weather, humidity is too high, during my visit tempature was always above 30 and Humidity was %95 sometimes!All buidings, event the smallest groceries shop have strong air conditioners which make interiors fairly cold but when you step outside a building a hot and thick weather just slaps on

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-32195804558068216162009-09-10T17:44:00.002+03:002009-09-10T17:48:28.933+03:00

I have downloaded this film from http://www.foriegnmoviesddl.com but unfortunately it was so boring that I could not advance to the second CD. IMDB point is surprisingly high as 6.9.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-9016856274803311312009-09-08T22:11:00.004+03:002009-09-08T22:16:18.806+03:00

Although the book's title is Mafia in the Soviets it does not mention the Godfathers in the sense we understand. The author claims that Soviet mafia system is different than its western counterpart.Mafia is a civil organization bribing police and poiticians and stealing from people in western countries while in the Soviet Union mafia is characterized as a state organization. I mean higher ranking

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-34277307136823860512009-09-07T22:43:00.006+03:002009-09-07T22:54:56.523+03:00

I have downloaded this movie sometime ago,but was down on my list then I saw Stilyagi and leart that the pretty main actress was also the star of this movie, Lilja 4-Ever so I decided to bring it to an upper position on my list.I am glad I did so it is a very nice movie with a sad theme.Here is the summary of IMDB "Lilja is 16 years old. Her only friend is the young boy Volodja. They live in a

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-13781289743515157012009-09-07T11:19:00.005+03:002009-09-07T11:25:00.845+03:00

Memoirs of a Kazan Turk born in today's Tataristan.The memoirs start during the Civil War era, just before the revolution, he went thought very troubling times... you might read this book as a thriller, an adventure book.What is interesting is todays politically corrupted Russia, being able to solve all problems by offering money to the officials existed long before Soviet days...it is not a side

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-80228296168300463662009-08-22T22:08:00.005+03:002009-08-22T22:13:16.141+03:00

Another sample of boring movie with many awards. The movie has 28 wins and another 12 nominations,see IMBD for details, by the way IMDB point is 8.1 with 10 thousand votes, i don't know why.This film is simply boring, i did not get its message.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-13655279295198334062009-08-22T16:31:00.003+03:002009-08-22T16:35:10.972+03:00

This two part nice documentary tells the story of Russian oligarks, how they became rich and powerful during Yeltsin era, with their own words most of the time.And how they lost part of their wealth and power during Putin period.Very nice material with some historical footage from 90s Russia.It is also available on Google Video.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-10080275319551501482009-08-20T21:13:00.004+03:002009-08-22T16:31:00.741+03:00

As the book title implies, the book is the life story of Haydar Aliev, second president of Azerbaycan Republic.The author mush have really tried hard to make this a book :) There is nearly no information in it,the book contains the longest preface i've ever seen in a book.In fact the book has only one paragraph to say "Aliev raised to power with great help from Yuri Adropov and fall from power

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-65255623613091316182009-08-20T21:05:00.003+03:002009-08-20T21:12:21.474+03:00

This book is one of the unknown treasures.The book tells the story of buildings[houses,hotels,state buildings] including the history, achitectural properties, famous peoples lived there once....on the Tunel-Taksim pathThe author is so succesfull that the book is very fun and fluent to read.Same author also as another book,Son Istasyon Venedik where he tells his interrail memoirs but unfortunately

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-44219209529807158392009-08-07T20:00:00.008+03:002009-08-07T20:10:44.937+03:00

Yet another unfamous but very nice documentary. The Red Stuff tells the story of Soviet Space Program. This is very unique and valuable since all documents on this subject deal with Sputnik,Soyuz and Gagarin. This documentary tells the story of other cosmonauts with nice soviet archieve footage and interviews with people who REALLY went to space.See DVD info on amazon.com or on IMDB.There is

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-34185911932371640092009-07-26T21:06:00.006+03:002009-07-26T21:22:05.322+03:00

This new (published in 2008) documentary is on a very interesting subject. The new elite of Russia - the oligarks- are now interested in buying art, some are buying it as investment, some are buying it for political reasons and some simply for the love of art.The result is simple: Russian art pieces worth millions and millions of pounds!! In the documenrary there were scenes from 2 auctions, the

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-43383742234086048112009-07-03T14:22:00.005+03:002009-07-03T14:30:31.393+03:00

Baroque is another nice Tashcen book.Artists featured: Francesco Albani, Caravaggio, Valentin de Boulogne, Jan Breughel the Elder, Annibale Carracci, Anthonis van Dyck, Adam Elsheimer, Georg Flegel, Luca Giordano, Guercino, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Jacob Jordaens, Willem Kalf, Giovanni Lanfranco, Charles Le Brun, Johann Liss, Claude Lorrain, Batolomé Esteban Murillo, Nicolas Poussin, Mattia

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-86339676942428230222009-07-03T14:15:00.005+03:002009-07-03T14:22:21.108+03:00

Taschen publishes great art books and Gothic is one sample.Here is the link to the whole series on amazon.The book is published on bright, high-quality paper, starts with history and basic description of the Gothic-era then each artists gets 2 pages with one or more paintings and a short history of lige.Artists featured: Giotto di Bondone, Duccio di Bouninsegna, Dieric Bouts, Robert Campin,

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-16862725933454213602009-06-25T17:43:00.008+03:002010-08-21T20:56:25.807+03:00

I found two of her albums on the net.One is titled Best of Alla Pugacheva (2006) but i did not find such an album on any sources:) And the other is even worse, its name is only alla so I don't know which albums i am talking about but i like two albums of her :)I like Million Roz,Primadonna,Arlekino,Madam Broshkina ...See this blog for more info on her.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-15304901873583559342009-06-17T21:24:00.003+03:002009-06-18T10:21:28.968+03:00

I have downloaded this movie sometime ago and heard about it at few places as a nice sample of Russian cinema. IMDB point is 8.7It was waiting in my queue of 'Russian movies to bee seen' .Last issue of Russian Life Magazine contained a list of 10 Russian Movies to be seen which included this one also so I decided to watch it immediately.By the way the list of the magazine can be seen on this

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-51678108682707347192009-06-17T21:13:00.006+03:002009-06-17T21:27:18.757+03:00

Yet another movie on some part of History of Russia. Nice coincidence that Catherine Zeta Jones is starring as Catherine the Great:)As the name implies the movie is on the empress of Russia. She was married to Peter III who is far from being a rule and under strong influence of others. Catherine starts a power strugle which ends with her being an empress.Nice movie(even though it is not well

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-52084538128381955672009-06-17T20:57:00.009+03:002009-06-17T21:22:28.349+03:00

I came across this movie during my search on movies about Anastasia and Romanovs. The movie was nominated for 6 Oscars and got 2 in 1972 including Best Costume Design.These two different covers are the original cover and the cover of the DVD release.The movie tells the story of last tsar NicholasII and his wife Alexandra together with their kids ofcourse.Tsar Nicholas' wrong desicions and bad

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-42233887304823054222009-06-10T00:17:00.005+03:002009-06-10T00:24:51.872+03:00

In my previous blog entry, I announced visitors from 100 countries, this time I will announce the number of visitors as 5000 starting from the time I installed the counter which is 8 months (September 2008).

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-87204160599288184792009-06-06T20:32:00.004+03:002009-06-07T13:07:25.953+03:00

During my web search on Turetsky Gambit I saw this movie as the most popular movie of 2005 outnumbering the Turetsky Gambit. With T.G $18M as the second and 9 Rota or 9th Company being the one with $25M according to this link.And Dinc Arslan's Turkish Invasion was publishing posts on Afgan-Soviet war those days due to the anniversary so the topic gained my interest and I downloaded it together

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-1190448893694930112009-06-06T19:54:00.004+03:002009-06-07T13:07:42.626+03:00

Well...I have 2 different and completely oppposite views about this book :) I could not decide on itFirst View: The book is good. In 1949 when the world was unaware of the Stalin crimes[I accept that they were exposed in 1956 during the famous 20th congress] he depicted everyhing like a phophecy,the Party, Innerparty[politburo], ThoughtPolice[KGB], Big Brother[Cult of Personality] ,Forced-labour

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-22218515010236208272009-05-24T11:32:00.002+03:002009-06-07T13:08:24.829+03:00

Havana,Cuba in 1958...American gambler is in Cuba for a big poker game but the Castro revolution is coming,he falls in love with a lady helping revolutionists...Old movie,from 1990 but Robert Redford is the lead role with Sydney Pollack as director,IMDB rating is low as 5.8 but still worth seeing if you have free time to see the pre-revolution athmosphere in Cuba.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-23881121952615242752009-05-08T21:07:00.006+03:002009-06-07T00:47:41.715+03:00

I heard about this movie from a Russian friend, lucky me! I did not hear about this great movie anywhere else!! I was nearly missing this great movie.The movie is about a group of young people known as Stilyagi[the snobs] who admire American style[clothes,music..] and want to be stylish as Americans in USSR during 50s. They face pressure from society, even from their own families and also

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-60148501269789977192009-04-29T08:29:00.000+03:002009-04-29T08:29:01.044+03:00

Red Tsar[or Gray Cardinal] Putin lead to awakening of the giant, Russia claims the author.This booklet[can not be a book] is like a collection of a series of journal columns written by the author but all the analysis are weak, repeating the well known facts and does not introduce anything new.Waste of money.Can be seen here.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-79287542665844120202009-04-28T09:02:00.001+03:002009-04-28T09:13:36.722+03:00

Yet another book with the famous question "Why/How did the USSR collapse'.This book has several conspiracy theories, Gorbachov being a western agent targetted specially for destruction of USSR.The author says that everyhing was wonderful in the Union,it should have never collapsed if the westerners did not play tricky games on them ...such funny stuff.Yes I agree,those might be true to some

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-31260778607581226592009-04-27T09:01:00.003+03:002009-06-07T13:08:52.097+03:00

I've read a few books of Zekeriya Sertel, and I've read about him in many other books.For those who have never heard of him: he was a well-known and succesfull journalist who was educated in Paris[he was a student of Durkheim at Sorbonne univ.] but starting of WWI made him go home. In 1919 he went to US and studied journalism at Columbia.He was the co-founder of Cumhuriyet newspaper with Yunus

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-46810251872801645282009-04-26T13:09:00.004+03:002009-06-07T13:09:12.999+03:00

I find Nazim Hikmet's story a very romantic and sad one. He died far from this county with a great love againt his motherland.Eventhough his country punished him with prisons and exile for many years he expressed his aspiration to the very last moment.He had romantic affairs with few women, both Turkish and Soviet, he loved, he was loved.Zekeriya Sertel, exiled Turkish journalist, was with him

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-91306509335295784972009-04-26T13:02:00.007+03:002009-04-26T22:20:38.529+03:00

The novel is about a young girl, calling herself 'Lizka' and her relationships. The story starts in Soviet era, Lizka leaves her hometown and moves another town for work, hard days are waiting for her, the Union collapses, then a new era starts for her and the whole union.We are following these days together with Lizka's men.Nice read, short book.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-55007994475441602562009-04-10T18:02:00.004+03:002009-06-07T13:09:25.672+03:00

Another nice feature of Java is Generics and Auto Boxing introduced with version 5.see how it simplifies things below:assume we have a Hashtable that has String objects as keys and a Integer objects as the values.With generic this is defined asHashtable errorList = new Hashtable();errorList.put("error3",3); --autoboxing Enumeration fileNames=errorList.keys(); while(

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-11609860921313226902009-04-05T11:25:00.001+03:002009-04-10T17:49:55.905+03:00

The movie Defiance is very nice if you are interested in WWII or Soviet history. Otherwise it is still a good action,history movie starring the last Bond, Daniel Craig.It is about the true story of Bielski Partisans hiding the the forests of Belarus for more than two years building a camp for inhabitants and fighting against Germans during Nazi occupation of USSR in WWII.The Soviet Movie Come

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-48041384574590888752009-03-31T21:47:00.008+03:002009-06-07T13:10:17.198+03:00

I have mentioned about my first and second visits to Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow as well as my other visit to Tretyakov XX.Century Contemporary Art Museum.In my second visit to the old Tretyakov Gallery I bought two books from the souvenir shop.One of them[the one with the blue cover] is on the old gallery and the other one with the red cover is on the 20th Century Collection. Both books are hard

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-59039918294567289932009-03-31T16:55:00.005+03:002009-03-31T21:44:07.672+03:00

The stupid File.delete() API returns true or false depending on the result of the operation but if it is false you do not get any feedback.At last! in Java 7 we now have FileRef.delete() which throws an exception reporting the cause of the problem.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-77178219624490050042009-03-30T11:26:00.009+03:002009-06-07T13:11:02.618+03:00

I guess everyone had a need to monitor a directory for file creation/update sometime. Previously we used to accomplish this task by continiously polling files in the target directory such aswhile(true){File [] allFiles = dir.listFiles();processList(allFiles);waitForSomeTime();}Now we have a new way of doing the same task in an event driven manner.see java.nio.file package for handy FileSystem,

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-25602210935939020862009-03-27T09:33:00.002+02:002009-06-09T23:13:32.033+03:00

This movie is rather old[2003] and I've seen it sometime ago but i was suprpised that many people that I mentioned this movie about have not seen the movie and some even haven't heard of it.It is a very nice movie and especially valuable if you are interested in Flemish paitings or painting art in general.The movie is about the story of a painting of Dutch master Vermeer which gave its name to

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-20939723196097190532009-03-22T10:52:00.004+02:002009-06-07T13:11:33.371+03:00

I've seen references to this book in nearly all books on history of USSR. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov has the second man of the Soviets for a very long time,he was the prime minister between 1930 and 1941, and foreign minister between 1939 and 1956,he is named as a successful diplomat during WWII.During Khrushchev era he fell from power and expelled from the part. He is one of the few [if not

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-49850833179449154282009-03-19T00:13:00.006+02:002009-03-19T00:19:47.129+02:00

I've added a counter to my blog which was online since 2005 only in September 2008, today number of countries of my visitors arrived 100! since that that.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-68441497252069816112009-03-17T09:41:00.002+02:002009-06-07T13:11:59.385+03:00

This movie is hard to rate, one might grade it as super but also it is possible to call it boring...One man from today suddenly finds himself in Hermitage of 19th century..And walks throught the history of Russia.I personally liked the long views Hermitage rooms full of artpieces, particularly paintings.[so it may be graded as super]But the movie was so slow,dialogs were dull [so it is possible

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-44553569578911901872009-03-11T22:37:00.005+02:002009-06-07T13:12:26.057+03:00

In my first visit to Tretkakov Gallery I was upset that I could not meet a single sample of Socialist Realism artworks, later on I learnt that the is 'one more' Tretyakov for this.In my second visit to Tretyakov, I got information on how to access to this other gallery thanks to the English speaking lady in the information desk. In the souvenir shop of the museum I bought two books both titled '

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-16782475833579359102009-03-03T09:16:00.006+02:002009-06-07T13:12:41.082+03:00

I have visited the largest collection of Russian arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery before but I was unable to see the Icons hall since it was closed at 17 o'clock. So this time I payed another visit to the temple of Russian art in Moscow.As before several halls contain good samples of Russian paintings, I personally liked Repin for his portrait works which looked like photos, Nikitin and Shishkin

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-16225552720155972852009-03-02T21:43:00.002+02:002009-06-07T13:12:48.933+03:00

I was in Moscow for two weeks at the end of February.I had a chance to visit a few places. Ice Sculptures exhibition was one of them. I heard about the exhibition from another Moscow blow in this post. The exhibition was located in the botanic garden of MGU, near Prospect Mira.Luckily I visited the exhibition in the evening, after work. Since the illumination effects make sense in the evening I

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-15239896450579466212009-03-02T21:38:00.004+02:002009-06-07T13:12:57.960+03:00

On a snowy Moscow morning I visited the Central Museum of Armed Forces[also known as Museum of USSR Army] on M. Tsvetnoy Boulvard, localted on the Soviet Army Street No:3The museum looked nice it has lots of photos and stuff concerning Red Army, starting from 1900s I guess.I can only guess because there was no single piece for paper written in English. I guess the museum is intended for ex-Soviet

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-9739275760669057002009-03-02T10:34:00.004+02:002009-06-07T13:13:10.562+03:00

I just finished reading the Jan/Feb '09 issue of Russian life magazine which contained an interesting article of several pages titled "Ideology Returns to Russian Art"In brief, the article says that the Russian Art community was under high pressure during Soviet days, a new ear started in 90's where free art products were generated. The article claims there is a turn-back these days, state is

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-39330396987939163842009-03-02T10:18:00.005+02:002009-06-07T13:13:19.201+03:00

Very nice Romantic Comedy. The director and most of the crew is Russian, but main actress is American, so the language of the movie is English and Russian, but mostly English.The year is 1885, Jane visits her father who lives in Russia and tries to sell a self-invented wood chopping machine to Russian authorities. Jane eventually falls in love with a young Russian officer. Unfortunately the

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-78434664338605364372009-02-01T21:27:00.004+02:002009-06-07T13:13:30.555+03:00

The Good Shepherd is a very good movie with Matt Damon, Angelina Jonie, Alec Baldwin and Robert de Niro[also the director of the movie].The movie starts with the dramatic failure of American intelligence service during the Bay of Pigs invasion on Cuba due to a leak[which is not still identified today].Anyway, Matt Damon's character is in charge of the operation and he now has to find the leak.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-73542538518486523422009-01-27T23:12:00.006+02:002009-06-07T13:13:43.448+03:00

Nice movie with 6.9 rating from IMDB. The film takes place during 1877 Russo-Turkish war (remember Siege of Plevne and Gazi Osman Pasha)The movie was a nice watch I can recommend this to everyone.I did not know that there was a novel with the same name on which the movie is based. See the below links for more infoThe Turkish Gambit (Movie)The Turkish Gambit (novel)Turkish Gambit movie available

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-19626960195670952362009-01-27T22:59:00.008+02:002009-06-07T13:13:51.195+03:00

Potselui ne dlya pressy [A Kiss - Not for the press] deserves its 3.6/10.0 IMDB point. There is nothing special about this movie except that the main character impiles Putin.Alexander Alexandrovich has a secret job, worked in Berlin for a while, speaks German very well, married to an air hostess, has two daughters, right arm of St. Petersburg's governor, becomes the president of Russia just like

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-54035907188817928902009-01-25T18:13:00.003+02:002009-06-07T13:13:59.557+03:00

This new book by Boris Kagarlitski is an economical history of Russia starting from 7th century. There is really nice analysis in this book, x happened and this had effect y and z which caused t in Russian economy. Every connection is nicely presented in but... i guess the audience is not the average reader but rather academical people since it becomes boring after some point and the volume is

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-11238583280448043742009-01-18T22:36:00.003+02:002009-06-07T13:16:02.456+03:00

Another movie with awards but no-taste. According to IMDB the movie has 7 wins and 5 nominations but I did not see anything special with this movie.An ex-soldier goes to St. Petersburg from Moscow to visit this brother and becomes a bloody murderer, nothing special...

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-87846447218714758542009-01-18T22:23:00.003+02:002009-01-18T22:30:41.426+02:00

This book published in 2007 is a very nice history of Russia.The author is an academician on this area. The book starts with the formation of Russian nation starting with 7th century and goes on till Putin era.I liked this book because it is written in cause-reason manner, not only the causes were given but also the reasons. Affects of events in Europe to Russian economy or politics..etc. The

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-79765795547392254392009-01-14T14:20:00.001+02:002009-06-07T13:16:06.444+03:00

Before I met this book I barely remember Litvinenko from the news, I remember that a former KGB agent fled to UK and there has was poisoned by KGB. I remember that the press followed this event for a while and he quickly died.His book titled "Litvinenko Death of a dissident" is not about only Litvinenko case, it is a wonderful book depicting the events after the fall of USSR.The book is written

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-27069223770052864662009-01-10T20:52:00.005+02:002009-06-07T13:16:16.605+03:00

Wonderful! This is one of the best war movies I've seen. Thanks to Dinc Arslan for recommending this movie to me, otherwise i would definitely miss it since it is not a well known movie.A soviet tank unit gets lost in Afgan deserts looking for the war to Kandahar, their commander is a maniac and they'll find themselves in trouble with Afgan mucaids.IMDB rating is 7.3 and the movie can be

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-26657067650731607252009-01-10T20:33:00.005+02:002009-06-07T13:16:26.734+03:00

I heard about this movie on Turkish Invasion's wonderful blog post on Afganistan, the movie is in Afgan language with English subtitles. Emir is a small kid when Afgan-Russo war is started and he fled to USA with his father, several years later he goes back and sees the effect of Taliban and his country ruined with wars. It is a nice drama if you like this genre but nothing much on Soviet-Afgan

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-81530153794417901702009-01-05T11:47:00.005+02:002009-06-07T13:16:37.728+03:00

In this blog entry,I have told that I found an international english language magazine on Russia/Russians and subscribed.Russian life is a bimonthly magazine so published only 6 issues per year but unfortunately I did not receive few of the issues.And on another blog entry I mentioned a new magazine found named Russia Profile. I was considering not renewing my subscribtion to Russian Life due to

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-44439287935257770202009-01-04T12:59:00.002+02:002009-06-07T13:16:45.228+03:00

An American couple uses Transsiberian rail road from China to Moscow but their bunk mates are trafficking drugs which will cause many problems for the couple with mafia and corrupted police.An average movie, nothing special. If you have free time and nothing else to do, otherwise waste of time.Below is the map of Transsiberian route and here is the download link.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-62355870716641173642009-01-03T22:02:00.002+02:002009-06-07T13:17:01.588+03:00

I downloaded this movie as two separate CDs but after watching CD1 I was extremely bored and decided not to go on with CD2.Few days later I read somewhere about this movie and decided to look at IMDB page for it.It was quite unbelievable, it had 8.1/10.0 points with lots of positive comments, some people even rate this as best war movie ever. It was even in top 250 sometime ago.I was shocked so

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-20663910186008430302009-01-03T12:44:00.004+02:002009-01-03T12:58:44.944+02:00

A fourteen year-old Russian girl who is forced into prostitution dies during giving birth to her baby. The nurse finds her diary in Russian which will put her and also her family to danger since a very dangerous Russian Mob is involved.IMDB rating is 7.8/10. I liked it very much, It might even be seen only for lovely Niomi Watts.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-15365694519587245072009-01-01T22:51:00.003+02:002009-06-07T13:17:28.347+03:00

This time I come up with a review of a novel. Of course it is a fiction but the characters and most of the events are based on truth.The novel starts with Tsar Nicholas, reading a letter of Alexandra telling that Rasputin had a prophecy. And jumps to today,communism collapsed and people want the Tsarist regime back, even a referendum has been made and people voted for a Tsar back.So a commission

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-474420279447519932008-12-31T16:16:00.003+02:002008-12-31T16:17:58.575+02:00

Today we are welcoming 2009, here is a Soviet Era postcard with this theme.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-23046092519368035322008-12-24T22:20:00.002+02:002009-06-07T13:17:43.613+03:00

The official name of the BBC Documentary is Russian Godfathers but I believe it is misleading and Russian Oligarks should be a better name since the documentary does not discuss any of these men's relationships with mafia or murdering people etc.Instead they are represented as political opponents of Russian regime asking for democracy[blah!]It has a IMDB page located here.Anyway the documentary

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-15088068911743234522008-12-24T21:55:00.000+02:002008-12-24T22:34:14.262+02:00

I watched this movie sometime ago but forgot to write about it, i saw its name in a few places so wanted to write one or two sentences about it.This movie was famous but i did not understand why?, it was supposed to be the story of Cengiz Khan but the movie itself was lacking any storing, when the movie ended we are still waiting for something to happen...IMDB point is 7.4, i am losing my

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-87391351396486795882008-12-22T15:33:00.003+02:002009-06-07T13:17:57.023+03:00

Not bad...not good...if you have time...Sascha has a superpower and uses this to murder, he falls in love with Katya but they are traced by the police..To download see here. And IMDB link is here.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-28182403044122853712008-12-18T22:36:00.004+02:002009-06-07T13:18:16.427+03:00

This very nice book is memoirs of Turkish Journalist Zekeriya Sertel during his exile in USSR.The book contains his impressions,evaluations,remarks and comments on various sides of life in USSR. I found this book even more useful then Soviet Century.The book contains observations of pressure on people, bad effects of Stain era, Kolhoz system, Khruschev era, Family life and women, economy...

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-56922643786139601382008-12-18T22:30:00.002+02:002009-06-07T13:18:22.584+03:00

Great! Movie with 17 wins&5nominations. A villager wife, house husband went to war 4 years ago has to accommodate a Red Army Soldier who speaks Russian only, an SS-Solder who speaks Finnish only, and the lady only speaks Lapon-language.The movie is consisted of these three people, none of them knows and of other two's languages...Fantastic movie, I loved it. Can be downloaded from here.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19273912.post-55455137640270179022008-12-18T22:15:00.001+02:002009-06-07T13:18:30.471+03:00

What the hell is that? Absolutely stupid, boring movie, waste of time,i could not even finish it.It has 5.0 points on IMDB but it should be 2.0 at most.Still if you wanna download you may find it here.

Ulas Erginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17927658949819945356noreply@blogger.com0