October 2012
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You be Il-in’ - Party Time with the Ills of North...
In the history of the post-modern world, there have been very few transfers of power from father to son in a ruling dictatorship. One of them occurred, twice, in the most closed and isolated society on Earth - North Korea.
North Korea: a land where information almost never escapes to the outside world.
When the Kim Il Sung died, the people of North Korea went into mass hysteria. North Koreans...
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Inappropriate Joke at the Inappropriate Time
Dedicated to my dear friend, Sue Scott, who can use a good laugh. I hope that this story will be an OK substitute!
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It was January 1995. I was part of a business delegation on a trip from Moscow to Uzbekistan. Our flight left at 2am.
All the businessmen on the trip were American. We met at an office to go in one of the delegates van...
September 2012
2 posts
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Drunken Day at the Dacha
Dedicated to my dear friend Yasha and his wonderful, loving family.
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My friend Yasha invited my sister and I to his family dacha, a country home. Yasha is like my Russian brother.
A dacha invite is an honor. The dacha is the place where Russians go to let their hair down, forget about their cares and be surrounded by family and nature. All famous figures in...
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Born Again, Not Boring Again. Safe for work, but...
I worked on a few projects with a German named Dietmar*. Dietmar was a pleasant man, but with a Teutonic intensity lacking much humor. I don’t remember him ever laughing.
“I am a healer,” he told me with his thick German accent. My head conjured up visions of selections, to the left, to the right. I thought of the dentist in the Marathon Man - “Is it safe?”
Dietmar told me how he...
August 2012
3 posts
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OLYMPIC SPECIAL! Bad Will at The Goodwill or How I...
Dedicated to my lovely and loving sister, Hilary and Ted Turner, Legend.
Emblem of the 1980 Olympics
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Moscow was host to the 1980 Olympics. For many average Americans, it was going to be a huge opportunity to have a peek behind the Iron Curtain. Then in November 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and in January 1980,...
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TO HELL & BACK: Firsthand account of a Russian...
The Curse of Butyrka
By Neil Glick
The word Butyrka conjures up memories of hell for those who know it. I spent only a few hours in this prison in 1996 and have pity for those who had to spend a night or more there.
The Butyrka is a stone fortress in Moscow built in 1771 as a prison by Catherine the Great (it was expanded on by later Tsars and General Secretaries). Solzhenitsyn spent his last...
July 2012
12 posts
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Siberia can be such a crapper. Literally.
Siberia, land of snow, land of prison camps, and the then home of a friend named Andrei.
Andrei was a super friendly, handsome man, salt of the earth. He grew up on a kolkhoz, a collective farm. Andrei was right off the farm. He could take a living cow and in just a few hours could kill, butcher, carve up the meat, and tan the leather. He could every part of the animal.
My American friend...
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Close Encounters of the 5th Kind; Aliens probe...
Early one morning my friend Joseph called me from L.A.
“There is a guy named Chris coming to Moscow and he wants to talk business. I gave him your number, and he should be calling you in a week or so.”
Joseph explained that he didn’t know much about this Chris, only that he was a “friend of a friend” and his business plans sounded ‘interesting,’ but he did not have the credibility to pull off...
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Black, like you, and I don't like you; Russians,...
For my friend W. Ralph Eubanks
“Run to pursue a minor mitzvah (good deed/commandment) & flee from a transgression.”
Rabbi ben (son of) Azzai, Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 4:3
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It was late one winter Saturday evening/Sunday morning. I was driving from the suburbs past Yugo-Zapadney in the Southwest area of Moscow. I had dinner with...
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Here is the song highlighted in the “Musical...
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Musical Secrets of The Kremlin
Dedicated to my Mother, who fostered in me a love for being creative and appreciating the creativity of others.
It was a summer evening in 1994 around 9:30pm and Irina, my former colleague, called me.
“Neil do you remember my friend Pavel? The man who conducts the Presidential Orchestra?”
Pavel Ovsyannikov makes an impression. He is 6’5” tall., People’s Artist of the Russian Federation and...
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June 2012
15 posts
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My Most Embarassing Moscow Moment
My friend Adam and I had decided to go the famous television tower, Ostankino in the North of Moscow. We were going with some Russian buddies, Roman and Volodya. I had a few hours to kill, so I decided to go shopping — my favorite way of passing the time in Russia.
Shopping in Moscow in 1993 was an incredible feeling. You could leave home with $100.00, buy tons of arts, antiques, and...
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The First Russian Emmy Awards
Dedicated to my friend the late Mikel Pippi, who always had faith in me. Thank you.
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My dear friend, the late Mikel Pippi, was doing work on behalf of the City of Los Angeles in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He had a background in entertainment and ended up getting connected with the TEFI Awards in Moscow. These awards were were for excellence in television (like the Emmy).
This was...
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My Concert for Bangladesh in Moscow. The stage was...
The Bangladesh Chamber Meeting
While I worked at the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, my boss and I had an arrangement when it came to relations with different organizations and countries of the world. He had Europe and all ‘good vacation spots (like the Bahamas)’ and I had the rest of the world.
When the Bangladeshi Chamber of Commerce and Industry called our office, I knew I would meet...
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Ida's Apartment & the Piano or Culture literacy...
Through my friend Irina K. I met a woman named Ida. Ida was from a very well-to-do and important Russian and Soviet family. She was a widow and lived alone, but she was not melancholy. She had her circle of friends, and I was lucky to have crossed her paths many times.
Like most well to do Russians, Ida had both a 4 room apartment in the center of Moscow – a prestigious location for anyone in...
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My Favorite Russian Names - and I thought Ivana...
The Best First Name
One end of Red Square in Moscow features the multi-colored, domed, iconic symbol of Russia, St. Basil’s Cathedral, or in Russian, Vasily Blazhenstvo. Basil in Russian is pronounced Vasily. Maybe you’ve heard it in some James Bond-esque film. “We must capture Vasily with those plans, otherwise the world will be destroyed!” Stalin also had a son named Vasily. Vasily Stalin...
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From Russia with stories...
From March 1993-October 1997, I lived in the most dynamic city in the world, Moscow.
When I lived in Moscow, I used to joke to my friends in America that I had “a story a day” about my life there. It was such an amazing adventure as so much was changing so rapidly before my eyes.
Every decade had it’s most amazing place to live. That place life was on the edge. It was the...
