Current Events

Marzio G. Mian’s travelogue of the Volga River [“Behind the New Iron Curtain,” Letter from Russia, January] bears a profound sense of despair, well known to those of us who grew up in Russia. His piece considers the perplexing questions: How can a nation long known for its resilience against evil carry out so terrible an attack on its neighboring state? How can Russians rest while their government drops missiles on the homes of innocent Ukrainians? To these seeming conundrums Mian offers several plausible explanations. One is a lingering Soviet imperial syndrome; another is a…