In early September 2002, the fashionable New York restaurant Cipriani threw a party for widows who had given birth to children by their husbands killed on September 11, after their deaths. Among the 60 mothers with babies in their arms was one man: his wife gave birth a few days before the attack that killed her. There was barely any chance to have lunch properly: the little ones, who a year earlier had not yet been born, were screaming, being fussy, demanding attention. Today these children are already 25 years old. Just think. In this quarter of a century, an incredible amount has happened. But September 11 is not forgotten. I remember that day in every tiny detail.

#America #security #historicalmemory #personalexperience #society #freedom #USA #theterroristattacksofSeptember112001

Read more

Užupis is one of the strangest places in Europe. This city district has its own Constitution, president, ministry of foreign affairs, currency, anthem, and more than five hundred ambassadors around the world. All of this is not entirely serious—it's a game, an art performance, a collective joke that has become part of the city’s identity. But it’s not just a joke, either.

#theartists #Vilnius #lifeinEurope #art #JonasMekas #Lithuania #reportage #republic #freedom #sentimentaltravel #Užupis #philosophy #artists

Read more

Russian authorities have been restricting internet freedom for years. But recently, these restrictions have reached unprecedented levels and even surpassed China’s Great Firewall. The blockades are undermining the economy and sparking protests, yet the FSB, which now oversees control of the Russian internet, is not backing down.

#business #InternetblockinginRussia #state #theInternet #ArtificialIntelligence #China #acrisis #Nepal #Putin #Russia #freedom #securityforces #FSB #censorship

Read more

On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began in the United States with Confederate rebels firing on Fort Sumter. Historians still debate its underlying causes even in the 21st century. Both in America and abroad, the legend of the Lost Cause remains popular—a tale of the South’s heroic struggle against the relentless march of heartless Northern capitalism. According to this legend, slavery played little role: the irrepressible romantic Southerners were simply defending their unique culture—balls, beautiful ladies, horseback rides, and everything else «gone with the wind.» But what really happened?

#America #AmericanCivilWar #Nineteenthcentury #industrialization #historicalmyths #historyofcapitalism #slavery #freedom #NorthandSouth #rawmaterialseconomy #technologicalprogress #extensivefarming

Read more

In ancient times, it took the Jews forty years to mentally overcome slavery and enter the Promised Land. How long will it take us to overcome the Soviet past?

#AlexanderMen #AlexanderSolzhenitsyn #AndreiSakharov #Bible #BorisYeltsin #Germany #state #democracy #Jews #WestandEast #ImmanuelKant #KoradAstiauer #Nazism #Restructuring #aftertheUSSR #Orthodoxy #slavery #reformsinRussia #freedom #ThirdReich

Read more

Borders between Russia and Europe are closing, and censorship is intensifying — how can bridges be built between those who left and those who stayed? Musicians, artists, activists, and journalists who left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine discussed this in Vilnius. We publish their conversation.

#WarinUkraine #EastandWest #discussion #europe #Lithuania #Naoko #repressions #RussianantiwarAMY #SashaKazantseva #freedom #Emigration

Read more

Today marks two years since the death of Alexei Navalny. On the eve of the anniversary, five countries (the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands) issued an official statement that several independent laboratories had confirmed his poisoning with an extremely toxic substance—in essence, a chemical weapon. Only the Russian authorities had both the means and the motive to use it in the polar colony. On the anniversary of Navalny’s murder, the editorial team of «Most.Media» publishes a polemical essay by our reader I.B. from Russia. The anonymity requested by the author is necessary: the Russian authorities continue political repression against Navalny’s supporters even after his death.

#democracy #dictatorship #discussion #historicalmemory #Bulk #opposition #aftertheUSSR #BeautifulRussiaoftheFuture #Putin #householdtype #repressions #Russia #Sakharov #freedom #thick #themurderofAlexeiNavalny #FBK #Christianity #essay

Read more

On December 5th in California, Frank Gehry passed away—a fearless experimenter and visionary who changed perceptions of his profession and invented new tools for it. He broke the rules, followed his own desires and imagination, and transformed the world around him. And now, with sorrow, we speak of him in the past tense.

#architecture #Germany #Twoleggedbelt #deconstructivism #Jews #historicalmemory #freedom #art #USA #ridingweight #painter #Emigration

Read more

In Paris, they said farewell to Erik Bulatov (1933-2025) — a brilliant artist whose works became the most recognizable symbol of Moscow conceptualism of the 1960s-1970s. He himself remained one of the leading figures of contemporary Russian art until his last days, even gaining the status of a classic and living abroad for more than 30 of his 92 years.

#VictorKabakov #war #state #childhood #dictatorship #bookillustrations #conceptualism #Moscow #thaw #Paris #aftertheUSSR #RobertFalk #freedom #art #artists #Emigration #EricBulatov

Read more

This fall, the 16-episode series «Chronicles of the Russian Revolution» by Andrei Konchalovsky was released on the Start online cinema platform. The creators of the series openly claim: all freedoms in Russia are only harmful. Which, however, is the norm for Russian historical series.

#AndreiKonchalovsky #state #dictatorship #historicalmemory #medina #society #aftertheUSSR #revolution #Russia #freedom #series #Stalin #TV #FSB

Read more

«I see no reason why democratic, free, independent Karelia, Ingria, Smalandia, or Amberland (even if some of these names still sound fantastical to some) couldn’t become part of the European Union or NATO in the foreseeable future,» says Ukrainian politician Oleg Magaletsky. A participant in the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Pride, in 2022 he founded the Forum of Free States Post-Russia — an international discussion platform whose participants aim for the breakup of the Russian Federation into several independent states. Most.Media publishes his conversation with Vadim Shtepa, editor-in-chief of the magazine Region.Expert.

#future #WarinUkraine #state #dictatorship #discussion #Empire #independentstate #society #aftertheUSSR #republics #Russia #freedom #Ukraine #federalism #Emigration

Read more

Today turns 73. He intends to live—that is, to rule—until the end of his days, though it’s not yet clear whether they will be his own or yours. And if you want to drink champagne to the repose of his soul (in which, admittedly, there are doubts), you’ll have to wait another twenty or thirty years. And I’m not being ironic. I’m talking about a sensible life strategy.

#VladimirPutin #state #dictatorship #DmitryKiselev #DmitryMedvedev #YevgenyPrigogine #kgb #MargaritaSimonyan #Bulk #society #aftertheUSSR #freedom #SergeyKiriyenko #Emigration

Read more

The brief period of the rise of Ukrainian literature and art in the 1920s-30s is called the «Executed Renaissance.» The intellectual and creative atmosphere of those years was so enticing that emigrants fleeing the Civil War began moving to Ukraine. But the golden age ended as abruptly as it began. «Most.Media» recalls the tragic biographies of the participants in this movement.

#20thcentury #Holodomor #CivilWar #dictatorship #historicalmemory #History #literature #poetry #repressions #Sandarmokh #freedom #theUSSR #Stalinism #Ukraine #Kharkov #Emigration #language

Read more

According to Mamardashvili, a human being is merely the potential to become a person. Preserving the person within the human requires constant effort. The same goes for Europe: to remain European, one must make an effort and cannot relax. A year after Mamardashvili’s passing, American philosopher Francis Fukuyama would declare the end of history, and Europe would relax. But history will return.

#internalemigration #Georgia #europe #intelligentsia #JosephBrodsky #endofstory #counterculture #MerabMamardashvili #aftertheUSSR #freedom #philosophy #FrancisFukuyama #essay

Read more

The law establishing the national messenger was signed by Putin at the end of June 2025. Since yesterday, it has been fully operational in Moscow and three other regions: schoolchildren and first-year university students are required to switch to Max.

#state #dictatorship #theInternet #China #instantmessengers #Moscow #society #Orwell #Putin #Russia #freedom #Stalin #censorship #digitalsurveillance

Read more