The pragmatic, politically relevant side of the recent visit of Medvedev to Poland is simple - the course on modernization, rapprochement with the EU and NATO. A kind of lightweight version of the "foreign policy restructuring", carried out by Medvedev, requires to build friendly relations with Poland. Poland is the most important state of Eastern Europe, which is part of the EU. The eyes of Poland, the EU often looks at Russia.

The country has a 4th sludge. The first is Beria, the second is Khrushchev, the third is Gorbachev, and here is the fourth. Between them - cooling, reaction. Each is like a thaw, hope reflected in culture. For the first - the story of the laureate of the two Stalinist prizes of Ilya Ehrenburg “Thaw” (1954), for the second - “One Day of Ivan Denisovich” Solzhenitsyn (published in the New World magazine in 1962), for the third - the film of Tengiz Abuladze “Repentance” (1984), for the fourth ...

From the editorial office. Exactly 30 years ago, Mark Chepmen shot the legend of Western music of the 20th century, one of the founders of The Beatles group John Lennon. On the anniversary of the tragic death of the great musician about Lennon, the critic and cultural figure Georgy Osipov, AKA “Count Khortitsa” recalls.