John Rodden

John Rodden has recently written about such topics as "1984 Tops Bestseller List in Putin's Russia," "Russia vs. Ukraine: The Battle for Nikolai Gogol," and "Putin, Ukraine, and the Culture War." He can be reached at [email protected].

Posts by John Rodden

April 12, 2024

“Saint Christopher”: Hitch at 75

He would, of course, have blanched—or barfed—if you had ever addressed him that way (probably the only blasphemy he’d refuse to utter). Yet is it really any more outlandish than the conversations we had about another adamantly avowed atheist? Continue Reading...

October 17, 2023

How Did George Orwell Know?

The collocation in the title captures the thoroughgoing exploration of the topic in a phrase: George Orwell and Russia. Masha Karp is not the first to ponder George Orwell’s relationship to Stalinist Russia—and the relationship of both Stalinist and post-communist Russia to Orwell—but she is the first to frame a comprehensive, well-researched study around them. Continue Reading...