Event Coverage Highlight

On May 1, 2025, the OPC hosted a panel with two journalists who discussed their memoirs of working in Russia.

Watch a playlist of video clips in the window above.

The conversation delved into decades of reporting from Moscow, personal histories intertwined with major Cold War events, and perspectives on contemporary Russia and its leaders. OPC Governor Beth Knobel, an associate professor at Fordham University who spent 14 years working as a journalist based in Russia, moderated.

Jill Dougherty’s book, “My Russia” recounts more than 50 years of her work and study in Russia, and Marvin Kalb’s “A Different Russia,” the third in a trilogy of memoirs, covers his work in Russia from the late 1950s into the early 1960s.

During the program, Dougherty talked about the process of writing her book, which she described as a “Cold War memoir, with reporting.” Kalb gives an overview of his book, which details the relationship between President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev and includes his firsthand account of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The program included a lively Q&A, with audience members asking questions about the outlook for Russia’s future, concerns about a possible war between the U.S. and Russia, the relationship between Putin and Trump, the decline of Russian studies in the U.S., and the perils of the Trump administration’s campaign to silence the Voice of America (VOA) news service.

Below are links to purchase the books.

A Different Russia: Khrushchev and Kennedy on a Collision Course

My Russia: What I Saw Inside the Kremlin