Soviet Union

McDonald’s marks 20 years in Russia

By The World ⋅ February 2, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

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Twenty years ago, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was still in power. But the Berlin wall had just come down. And the times they were a-changing. At this pivotal moment, in the bleakness of a Russian winter, a bright new sign came to Moscow. It was the sight of McDonald’s Golden Arches. That was 20 years ago this week. Analyst Masha Lipman was then and still is a resident of Moscow. Download MP3 (Photo: Fred Adler / BBC)

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CBC video archive: McDonalds in Moscow

Moscow’s crumbling Soviet architecture

By The World ⋅ January 25, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

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Russia has seen a dramatic surge in new construction in recent years, especially in cities like Moscow. But Jessica Golloher reports that some Muscovites worry that historically significant buildings are being sacrificed in the name of progress. Download MP3(Photo: Jessica Golloher)

Night Witches

By The World ⋅ November 5, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments ⋅ Transcript

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We take you back to World War II for today’s Geography Quiz. We’re looking for the first nation to put female pilots into combat. This nation had three regiments of female pilots, and during the war they flew more than 30,000 missions. Their enemies called them the Night Witches, and they are the subject of a new documentary by the BBC’s Lucy Ash. Download MP3

Ukraine’s language

By The World ⋅ October 26, 2009 ⋅ 6 comments ⋅ Transcript

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Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union 18 years ago. One of the first moves Ukrainian nationalists took was to make Ukrainian the official state language. But as Brigid McCarthy reports, Russian remains the language of choice and there’s a move to change that. Download MP3

Russia’s national lyricist, Canada’s language laws, and the rehabilitation of a code-breaker

By Patrick Cox ⋅ September 15, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments ⋅ Transcript

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This week, a look back at the career of the late Sergei Mikhalkov. During World War Two, Mikhalkov wrote the lyrics to the Soviet national anthem. Decades later, he composed the words for Russia’s national anthem– to the same piece of music. Also, a conversation with Keith Spicer on Canada’s 40-year-old language laws. Spicer was the country’s first enforcer of bilingualism. Finally, the British government apologizes for its treatment of Alan Turing, who helped break the Nazis’ war codes.

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Finding the right words

By The World ⋅ August 27, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments ⋅ Transcript

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mikhalkov150 Sergei Mikhalkov, the Russian who wrote the words of the Soviet and Russian national anthems, has died at the age of 96. He first wrote the lyrics for the anthem when Stalin was Soviet leader, but later rewrote them to omit references to him. Mikhalkov also wrote the words for the current Russian anthem adopted in 2001. Alex Gallafent took a look at the troubled anthem. >>> BBC coverage

A poet’s songs honor two Russias

By The World ⋅ August 27, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

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After the death of a prominent Russian poet, The World’s Alex Gallafent reports on the changing shape of Russia’s national anthem.

Geo answer

By The World ⋅ August 19, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

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For our Geo Quiz, we were looking for a city in Hungary that held a special picnic 20 years ago today, one that helped tear a hole in the Iron Curtain. The answer is Sopran . The World’s Carol Hills tells the story.

Russia’s reckless drivers

By The World ⋅ August 14, 2009 ⋅ 7 comments ⋅ Transcript

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Last year, an estimated 35,000 people died on Russian roads. Eleven hundred of those people were killed on the streets of the capital, Moscow. So, what is it that makes getting into a car in the former Soviet Union such a gamble? Cell phones? Texting while driving? Drinking? The answer might surprise you. Jessica Golloher reports. >>> What’s the worst place you’ve ever driven? Post a comment.

Space race memories

By The World ⋅ July 20, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

moonprint75 It’s been 40 years since the United States’ astronauts landed on the moon. It’s been one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind and it appears even more of a leap for some Russians to believe that the Americans actually landed on the moon first. Jessica Golloher has the details from Moscow.
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Former Soviet space official on US moon landing

By The World ⋅ July 20, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Roald Sagdeev, former director of the Soviet Space Institute. He recalls his reaction to the news 40 years ago to a successful US moon landing.
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Pentagon still kicking out linguists, Ukraine’s Soviet names, and a banquet of foreign idioms

By Patrick Cox ⋅ July 2, 2009 ⋅ One comment ⋅ Transcript

noodles In the lastest podcast, the Obama Administration is moving to boost foreign language speakers at the State Department and the CIA. But at the Pentagon there’s a problem: the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy has resulted in early discharge for more than 300 linguists, including 60 Arabic speakers. Also today, Ukraine wants to change the names of cities named after Soviet heroes, many of them Russian. And a conversation with Jag Bhalla, collector of foreign language idioms. Listen to The World in Words Podcast

Mikhail Gorbachev sings

By admin ⋅ June 24, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment ⋅ Transcript

He’s been sampled in dance tracks and he’s recorded an introduction to Peter and the Wolf. But former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev has never sung on an album. Until now. The World’s Marco Werman tells us about Gorbachev’s CD for his late wife Raisa.Listen

The Photographer

By Jeb Sharp ⋅ May 19, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments ⋅ Transcript

thephotographer_cover1 The World’s Clark Boyd introduces us to a graphic novel about a Doctors Without Borders mission into the war-torn Afghanistan of the 1980’s. Listen