Safety Third.

Sometimes, I get this feeling, this itch at the back of my consciousness. This hushed voice whispers, "The good times are over, matey". I can't help ...

#escapism#moscow#thelxbook

The Human Pyramid

"Hey, boss. We are here." I open my eyes and find myself in the back seat of my father's limousine. I see his driver."Do you know the difference between Stalin and Hitler?" he asks me."All right, Olegych, tell me.""Moustache styling." He bursts into laughter. I smile. Olegych has been with us for mo

#thelxbook#escapism

A Sunny Day.

It's the first week of proper spring in Moscow. I find myself daydreaming, admiring the sunshine in my office's window. I am 20, blond, longhaired, tall and thin, wearing a custom-tailored grey suit with a salmon pink shirt. Next to me is our press secretary Damon, in his cheap suit, rocking a goate

#escapism#thelxbook

How I met your dog.

Thirteen years on the run. Musings and observations from a quadruple refugee who fled Russia in 2010 never to return. Since then, I've lived in Chisin...

#begi

Melancholy is a friend.

I wake up most mornings with an uneasy feeling. It's not a very loud emotion. It lingers there on the edge of my mind. In the last few years, I have d...

Moscow Born

Today, I read an outstanding essay by Jon Object - a Ukrainian musician who became a soldier after the war started. Brilliantly, he'd expressed the fe...

#war#russia#ukraine

ESCAPISM DOES NOT WORK

In 2008, my family had ”made it”. Between me and my parents, we owned a mean collection of exotic cars. However, wealth is only part of the story in R...

#escapism#naughties#autofiction

Every wedding is a battlefield.

Picture an old stone farm on the top of a Sicilian hill that got an Instagram treatment. A lavish table for 300 people is set outside, where horses us...

#social#breakdown#addictions#sex#alcohol

Isa - My Chechen Friend

In my childhood, Chechnya was the first real war I had heard of. It was happening as I went to school. Mutilated soldiers were coming home, and we had...

#naughties#moscow#chechnya#deadmocracy

Foundation

Imagine you are born in the first years of Soviet Russia. At only three years old, you escape the horror and bloodshed of early empire via a gruelling...

#book review#isaac asimov