Below: Pedestrian alley between Mir St. and Pionerskaya St. on election day; the team gathers on Ethan's birthday

Below: Visiting Alexander Poroshin's studio (see Poroshin exhibit opening at the City Library)

Below: A patriotic assembly for the city's students, at the Oktyabr Cultural Center; recognition of the city's military heroes, followed by talks by veterans of World War II, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and the wars in Chechnya--with interludes for music, dance, and demonstrations; and conclusion by the mayor

Below: A Grieg concert on December 8 at Elektrostal's Paustovsky Central Library: "Be Yourself," featuring Murad and Zalmina Abuev, singer Antonina Yegorshina, and students of the Scryabin Piano School in Moscow

Below: The NHI design students' exhibition opening at the Art Library, December 14

Below: later that same evening, at the LUBR gallery, visiting Mikhail Sotnikov's Montenegro exhibition

Below: evening for Friends

Below: 10th anniversary program for the literary-musical theater "Ozarenie"

Below: Scenes from several Russian discussion/debate television programs: The People Want to Know; To the Ramparts; Sneak Preview. The People are discussing the merits of the Orthodox patriarch's proposal to form a government-level social commission on morality; the Ramparts debators are tackling economic reform and the power of the "oligarchs"; and the Sneak Preview-ers are talking about the new TV serialization of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Below: Anton's class, December 22

Below: Institute New Year's party on December 24

Below: re-opening of the Exhibition Hall after restoration work; exhibition of children's art commemorating the 40th birthday of the Children's Art School