"В звоне каждого дня
Как я счастлив
Что нет мне покоя"
(Mark Bernes)

Dear all, Guten tak, Halla dyrt all, benvenutti, люби друзи [link].

I didn't forget you and will shortly come up with more. Too many things happened recently.

by time:
1. Stars of Outer Space.
Absolutely fantastic occasion! I've been not only awarded with a nice diploma - with it came a book! A book of new beginning authors, writing the stories of kindness and peace in sci-fi. It was (is?) really nice to read. May be I will even translate some of the stories. For now originals are on [link] in the contest "Stars of Outer Space".
There have been also an excursion inside RKK Energiya, one of the most famous factories working for Space programmes. As you know, everything for Space is manufactured with a double. So each KA (space vehicle): KK (spaceship), sat or ISS unit has a double that is ready to fly but wasn't launched because the launch went right first time.
So, in RKK Energiya they hold doubles for a few most renowned KK on Earth - like the Soyuz for Apollo-Soyuz mission, Gagarin's (first human in Space) KK, Leonov's (first space walk) and Tereshkova's (first woman in Space) KKs, first sat called "sputnik", a few modules for Mir and for ISS, etc. All those are ready for launch and identical to those that were (are) flying. If something breaks in orbit, engineers of RKK Energiya break the same device on the double and then figure out how to fix it with what's onboard. Also, some of the most famous modules that returned from Space are held there: for example, original of Gagarin's module, battered and charred by re-entry.
There are also pictures of Moon made by the first KAs that reached it, some gadgets from Buran (shuttle) mission, the best space suits for spacewalks (for today), etc.
For Americans it can be interesting because of the "first dollar for joint programs", American t-shirts that were exchanged in orbit with astronauts and some medals and diplomas sent to Energiya from NASA for achievements in our common task - Space exploration for all humankind.
The excursion was held by the Team leader of civil cosmonauts. In short, Star city is the place for pilot-cosmonauts training (military pilots), Korolev city is the place for engineering cosmonauts training (civil: engineers, professors, etc.) This tradition of distributed teams of cosmonauts comes from the beginning of Space programme - non-military people were not made into military but remained civil before, during and after the flight.

2. IMDB
There have been a movie about a Western lady who were a spy of some Western intelligence (probably CIA) which was uncovered by KGB because of her love to a Russian guy (just civilian) and pressured quite badly. Then it goes on the horrors of KGB, BR (Bad Russians), [link].
I left a comment: can you imagine Russians making a movie about horrors of Western militarists? I can't either. Because this is called "inspiration of international hatred", something that is a grave crime in ex-USSR countries. This hatred to all things different from yours almost blew the world to bits several times by now. Get rid of it for the sake of life on Earth.
The comment was deleted because for IMDB finding one person who doesn't like the critique of the West is enough of a justification for deleting the comment! Currently I follow up on this in attempt to change the rules. After all, there is no personal offense in my comment and it is related to the movie.
The feeling is rather unpleasant: I've seen quite a lot of comments about Russia there which were both negative and very far from truth. At the same time it seems it's not allowed to critisise the West on IMDB... I don't feel like becoming another blog warrior, and will rather leave IMDB. It's one of very few English-language sites that I ever use, most of them are Russian-language anyway. I'm going to look for some Russian-language movie site. There must be many.

3. Inhabited Island.
This is really something shaking the world. Through Mak Sim (Maksim Kamerer from Moscow, Earth) I saw the world I was preparing to build twenty years ago. I recall visiting a sinagogue, reading the novels based in Noon Universe and finding beautiful connections between the two. Inhabited Island wasn't my favourite book, I'm rather much more into Space Apprentice, Amalthea, Andromeda, Moon Rainbow... But through Mak Sim you can see that world, the world that will be our home in a few more centuries. The more people like Mak Sim will walk the streets, the sooner this new world will come.
That was like a lightning in the darkness, like returning to your core, to why are you here.
Yes, we need to give credit to our Indian and Persian friends who got it right at least two millenia before Russians, we are not nearly the first, but it was nice to see the movie that gets it right: current world is not the future, it's the past. The future is the world without "developing" countries, wars, poverty or hunger, the world where a person of any religion (say, Muslim) and any descent (say, Bangladeshi) can have a luxury and freedom to explore their creative potential while staying where he or she were born and remaining who they are. The diverse and peaceful world without the need for forced assimilation, country robbing or terrorism. BTW, that's what increasing number of countries (including Russia) stood for, stands for and will stand for.
But back to the story. The music is just awesome with its wisdom and calm. The action is nice and done with humour. Some things like propaganda and how it affects people around you are very much what I experienced on my own skin while living in the West for the last 3+ years. That's what made me return home, BTW. The plot is strictly as in the book. All in all, a very accurate screening of Strugatskie. Boris Strugatskiy liked the movie as well.
In short: if you still did not watch this movie - watch it. At least just for the sake of watching Maxim, an ordinary human from Earth that will be our home in the future.