And that's the thing about post-Communist songs. There are some splendidly catchy ones which are so laden with political baggage that they are utterly unsingable. Hearing the Anthem of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (available, if you're interested, on sovmusic.ru) makes my flesh creep in the same way that the Horst Wessel Lied does.

The velvet revolution's greatest impact was on the nature and pace of the economic reforms, some key aspects of which were molded by the industrial nomenklatura.

Neo-Kremlinology has contributed to Russian distortion by reducing the vastness and complexity of interacting causes to plots of palace intrigues and epic plays.

What sort of economic model will Raúl leave behind? And what strategies can restore genuine economic opportunity and freedom to the Cuban people? Please join us for a discussion of these topics and more, keynoted by Castro scholar, author and former U.S. intelligence analyst Brian Latell.

The reception in Moscow to U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul during his first few months on the job has been unusual, if not downright hostile, a lot more Cold War than Russian Reset.

A shrinking population coupled with a lower life expectancy, as is the case in Russia and other post-Soviet societies, may prove detrimental to economic growth and well being.

As the Russian protest movement expands and radicalizes in the lead-up to the March 4 presidential election, the key question is not whether Vladimir Putin--and Putinism--will survive.

What are we to make of Boris Yeltsin,the man who led post-Soviet Russia in its first nine years?