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The Unz Review •�An Alternative Media Selection$
A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media
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The Last Reaction
The Wheel Turns, Ages Come and Go, And Thus Dies the Russian Reaction
•�October 8, 2021
•�800 Words •�519 Comments
It was never my mission to pursue "activist" goals so much as to try to accurately understand and explain how the world works, and at best, play some modest role in informing the debate in those areas that I hoped could make use of some of my insights. From that perspective, my record of my... Read More
11 Years of Blogging
•�January 15, 2019
•�2,100 Words •�106 Comments
It's now been eleven years (and six days) since I started blogging. Since this is not that big of a milestone, I am not going to recap the history of how I got there; you can check out last year's post for that. Instead, I'm just going to talk of developments in 2018, and plans... Read More
Cancer
•�November 21, 2018
•�1,100 Words •�153 Comments
A couple of months ago, I made an acquaintance with a provincial carpenter. This was rather convenient, since I would soon need to furnish my new apartment. I could either get a good quality but MDF-based factory made bed for around $300, or I could pay him $500 and get a very high quality bed... Read More
Open Thread 63
•�November 18, 2018
•�800 Words •�230 Comments
I'll go back to posting proper material soon enough, but in the interim, here's another open thread. *** * Glenn Greenwald: Trump DoJ prosecution of Assange is unprecedented threat to press freedoms but many vindictive Democrats support it * Atlantic: Declining marginal returns to science? In past few decades importance of new discoveries fell even... Read More
Open Thread 62
•�November 15, 2018
•�1,500 Words •�421 Comments
The Commieblock: Hopefully AquariusAnon appreciates this. I am very happy to see that Guillaume Durocher has joined The Unz Review. Only the best people! Here is a short intro to what he'll be writing about: You can browse his archives at Occidental Observer, Counter-Currents, and Radix. I a
Russian Oligarch Fleeced on Property Sale Actually Laundered Money for Drumpf
•�November 7, 2018
•�600 Words •�7 Comments
What do the current legal travails of a Russian "oligarch" (he has zero power) in Monaco actually have to do with him having gotten involved in a real estate transaction ("money laundering") with Bad Orange Man a decade ago? Let's have a look at housing prices in Florida: As one can see, they did indeed... Read More
Open Thread 61
•�November 3, 2018
•�700 Words •�145 Comments
Blogging October has been an exceedingly successful. While September was my all time record month (thanks largely to my post on The Idiocy of the Average), with 46,000 unique visits and 154,000 pageviews, this past month came close despite the absence of any viral posts - 37,000 visits and 145,000 pageviews. I am now consistently... Read More
Open Thread 60
•�October 26, 2018
•�1,500 Words •�313 Comments
PSA from Patriarch Kirill II on the Ukrainian question in Moscow. Just your normal billboard ad. :) INSOMNIAC RESURRECTED Longtime Russia watchers may recall the Austere Insomniac blog, which used to offer excellent analysis on the Ukraine and was first to introduce the term "svidomy" into the English language. Unfortunately, it later closed down, but... Read More
Open Thread 59
•�October 13, 2018
•�1,200 Words •�572 Comments
My very busy period has mostly come to an end so I should have more material soon. One of the best blogs on the Ukraine a few years ago was The Austere Insomniac (even if at least one commenter here will beg to differ). Good news! It's been resurrected: *** * Bolsonaro is now 90%... Read More
The End of the Gaming Rigs?
•�October 5, 2018
•�1,200 Words •�119 Comments
Polish Perspective comments: Just a nerdy sidenote. I’ve been accepted into the Geforce Now beta; Nvidia’s game streaming service. Streaming services are going to move into the video game space after conquering both music (Spotify) and TV (Netflix). So I was curious about how the experience would be. The basic premise is that most gamers... Read More
Open Thread 58
•�October 3, 2018
•�300 Words •�189 Comments
The "House of the White Crane" teahouse is in contention with Cafe Receptor for the SWPLiest establishment in Moscow. Anyhow, apologies for the lack of posting. But in between my new job, finding/acquiring the ten or so documents needed for paperwork for said job, some new contract work, and the end of my refurbishment/moving into... Read More
Open Thread 57
•�September 29, 2018
•�800 Words •�524 Comments
More SWPL in Moscow - this place was a car park/dump a few years ago. My glorious NEETdom will (partially) end from the start of October. While I was never enthusiastic about getting a real job, this one happens to be centered around the intersection of Russian demographics, economics, and psychometrics. So it's essentially a... Read More
Open Thread 56
•�September 19, 2018
•�600 Words •�462 Comments
My remont is approaching its long-awaited end - and its most intensive and costly period. To compound matters, I have also been rather under the weather these past few days. Nothing serious, but in between that and shopping all day, that has left little energy for blogging. This will soon pass, but for now, here's... Read More
Open Thread 55: Chilli Pepper Thread
•�September 14, 2018
•�1,800 Words •�261 Comments
I have more chilli peppers than I know what to do with (about 20 kg worth of it). Any ideas? My "Stupid People" post has been phenomenally successful, generating almost 1,000 comments and more visits than other post of mine at the UR since The Road to World War III this April. It also generated... Read More
Case Against Maria Butina Continues Falling Apart
•�September 9, 2018
•�1,000 Words •�17 Comments
Government erred in claiming accused Russian spy Maria Butina offered to trade sex for political access The entire case is one big error, as I pointed out mere hours after Butina's arrest. Ironically, the Americans are prosecuting a Russian citizen who has helped spread American values in - or in the current rhetoric, exerted "foreign... Read More
The State of the Altsphere (September 2018)
•�September 2, 2018
•�700 Words •�148 Comments
Visits to alt media portals (via Similar Web). Sites I am particularly interested in are highlighted. The Unz Review has continued to do very well, surging well ahead of other competitors in the "alt media" (LewRockwell, Takimag, Marginal Revolution, TruthDig, TruthOut, Antiwar, VDare, Mondoweiss). We are now essentially level pegging with both The American Conservative... Read More
How Long to Learn A Language?
•�August 30, 2018
•�200 Words •�89 Comments
(via /r/MapPorn) This ranking by the Foreign Service Institute seems fairly plausible. I agree with the decision to move French up a tier, it is certainly harder than Spanish or Portuguese. My casual impression is that Romanian is a bit harder than the Iberian languages. Not sure if the two tier gap between Swedish and... Read More
Open Thread 54: Bucolic Thread
•�August 28, 2018
•�1,300 Words •�422 Comments
It's the end of summer. Time to have a proper Open Thread at last (with links). I should be moving into a new apartment by late September. It was in a dreadful state when I acquired it, and the remont (refurbishment) has used up most of my savings - and I still need to furnish... Read More
Virgin Buyers vs. Chad Pirates
•�August 26, 2018
•�100 Words •�44 Comments
These statistics (see below) are more or less what you'd expect: Unfortunately, Russia is pretty strict on enforcing copyright amongst government and commercial organizations these days. In light of recent events, it really needs to stop that. I also find it ironic that amongst ordinary people, it is Russian liberals/SWPLs (lowest life form on the... Read More
Open Thread 53
•�August 19, 2018
•�200 Words •�381 Comments
Bad news: No real poasting from August 13-21. Good news: There'll soon be travel reports for Novgorod and Bryansk (probably Ryazan too before the month is out). As my travel reports seem to be well received, I'll make a note to start doing more of them in the future. I have recent material/observations on a... Read More
Open Thread 52: Help Me Overtake Kylie Jenner
•�August 13, 2018
•�100 Words •�84 Comments
As of this day, less than 2/3 of the way through 2018, I have written 170,072 words [all of 2017: 221,850] of text in 198 [262] poasts. More people have viewed these poasts than during all of 2017. You have contributed 36,000 comments, which is already almost double last year's numbers - and more than... Read More
RO-POAST! the Romania Review
•�August 13, 2018
•�9,100 Words •�225 Comments
Central Bucharest, from my Airbnb apartment. *** Long awaited RO-POAST is finally here! As many of you know, I was in Romania early this June. Why Romania? It was nowhere near the top of my to-go list. As with Portugal, the adventure fell into my lap - one of my friends was getting married there.... Read More
Open Thread 51
•�July 21, 2018
•�1,100 Words •�178 Comments
Today is the centenary of the crushing of the Yaroslavl Rebellion against Bolshevik tyranny. I will have a post on that imminently. Romania travel post is still in the works. Given previous prediction failures that I would publish it "within a week," I will just settle on saying that it will likely be "sometime soon."... Read More
Open Thread 48: Penultimate Football Thread
•�July 11, 2018
•�200 Words •�155 Comments
So as I said I'm supporting Perfidious Albion over the Ustaše today, but convinced by Marko Marjanović's apologetics, I will settle back into neutrality once the Finals roll by. I have a feeling that the Eternal Anglo will win today, anyway (and yes, I wrote this sentence before their goal at 5 minutes). But at... Read More
Open Thread 47
•�June 23, 2018
•�700 Words •�372 Comments
You will have to excuse the paucity of posting this month. Many things going on. But I hope to get the Romania post out today. I predicted that Russia would win against Saudi Arabia and Egypt (both happened), but would lose against Uruguay. We'll see what happens tomorrow. * Turkey Presidential & legislative elections. My... Read More
Open Thread 46
•�June 13, 2018
•�400 Words •�579 Comments
My Romania post will hopefully be up in a few days. In the meantime, I'll share my impressions of the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which I flew for the first time on the way back from Bucharest. Overall impressions: Meh. As densely packed as any Airbus, and way more vibrations and creaking sounds than the average... Read More
Not Russia's World Cup
•�June 13, 2018
•�400 Words •�547 Comments
Untold billions of dollars spent on new football stadiums. Lavish spending on football players. The hiring of some of Europe's most expensive and prestigious coaches. Results? Russia is 45th in the football Elo rankings Russia is 70th in the FIFA rankings The Russian team has never been weaker in its entire history. My guess is... Read More
Open Thread 45: Transylbirean
•�June 7, 2018
•�600 Words •�549 Comments
Transylvanian Morning. I have been unable to follow most of the last week's comments, and probably won't catch up. But FWIW, I enjoyed the gearhead debates at Thorfinnsson's Take on Tesla, the Dmitry vs. Polish Perspective debate on who was or was not in Israel, and reiner Tor's instructions on cold showers. Now that I... Read More
Open Thread 43
•�May 31, 2018
•�1,100 Words •�229 Comments
Rediscovering the Russian Imperial traditions. Bliny on sour dough of buckwheat flour and sour dairy, served with sour cream, salmon, and red caviar at the apartment of a Finn whose family maintained the Imperial traditions. I will be departing for Romania very early tomorrow. Any last tips/recs? I'll be two days in Ploiesti for two... Read More
The Pearls of Lusitania
•�May 27, 2018
•�4,300 Words •�310 Comments
In late March/early April of this year, I visited Portugal. Now I have finally to come round to writing about it, as I have been promising to. First obvious question: Why Portugal? No reason in particular. Well, apart from it being cheap and convenient - as it happened, I only had to pay for the... Read More
Open Thread 42
•�May 24, 2018
•�2,300 Words •�273 Comments
Moscow 2018. Can't believe it has been almost a month since the last Open Thread. Quick updates: Was in the UK for a couple of weeks (as you presumably gathered). Apart from the march in London, I also took the opportunity to tick off Canterbury and the Tank Museum in Bovington. Unfortunately, I was not... Read More
Piracy Guide 2018
•�April 30, 2018
•�700 Words •�56 Comments
Just a PSA that in The Current Year there is absolutely no need to pay for almost anything. Save the money, use it to go on holiday, drink it away, give it to me ( ), etc. instead. This will also be a reference post for future review posts. Use Sci-Hub: Emil Kirkegaard has a... Read More
Open Thread 41: Khmeimonculi
•�April 27, 2018
•�900 Words •�373 Comments
Am in London again (that that I particularly want to be), will probably visit Aarhus, Denmark in mid-May (conference). Thinking of going to Denmark by train through the Netherlands, finances permitting. I have yet to visit the Dutch. I have finally picked up my copy of Heiner Rindermann's Cognitive Capital here. Will hopefully soon add... Read More
Open Thread 40: The Fallout Phase
•�April 15, 2018
•�700 Words •�594 Comments
I got the opportunity to meet up with commenter AP this week. Had a very pleasant conversation with him, if a pretty short one as was necessitated by his busy schedule. I had been hoping to do a long post on my travels in Portugal, not nuclear war, this week. Will hopefully get that up... Read More
Open Thread 39: Lurlsitania
•�April 8, 2018
•�800 Words •�199 Comments
Just back from Portugal. Will share impressions in a later post (most are positive). I'll be doing quite a bit of traveling this summer. I'll be in London again soon [business], will probably stop by in Denmark this May [because a certain event can no longer take place in London for political reasons], will be... Read More
Open Thread 38: PortURLgal
•�March 25, 2018
•�1,000 Words •�368 Comments
So, updates, updates. Our ROGPR podcast has been "acquired" by Sputnik & Pogrom. They are mainly interested in the videos produced by our main host Kirill Nesterov, which you can now follow at: [includes transcripts] Only available in Russian, unfortunately. Apart from having my phone stolen, I also tried out the phall curry at Aladin... Read More
Open Thread 37: Linkle Ice Age
•�March 1, 2018
•�900 Words •�442 Comments
Remarkable consistency. I will be traveling to London as of tomorrow, so poasting will be light for the next 7-10 days. If my flight takes off - a whole bunch of them have been canceled because the Brits don't know what to do about snow. Meanwhile, the North Pole is positively balmy, at above freezing,... Read More
Open Thread 36: PowULRful Takes
•�February 16, 2018
•�800 Words •�53 Comments
* Blog status: Main posts in the last couple of weeks: RationalWiki Hagiography Colonize Space… With Nukes IQ in Time and Space Russia Elections 2018: The Political Compass The Rybka Affair * Large bunch of interesting books that have come out recently. Heiner Rindermann with a huge (592 pages) academic synthesis of research on IQ/GDPcc... Read More
Thought for Food
•�February 6, 2018
•�1,200 Words •�115 Comments
Stream of consciousness-y post about some ideas (probably bad ones) that I have accumulated on this subject. Simas et al. (2017) - Food-Bridging: A New Network Construction to Unveil the Principles of Cooking 1. There are cultures that pair ingredients with shared flavor compounds, and those that contrast them instead (Ahn et al. 2011). High... Read More
Open Thread 35: The 100,000 Thread
•�January 30, 2018
•�1,300 Words •�71 Comments
This will be the first month in which Russian Reactions gets more than 100,000 pageviews (standing at 100,336 as of Jan 29). Highlighted posts since the last Open Thread: When Russians Were Americanophiles 10 Ways Life in Russia is Better than in America Coffee Salon Demographics 10 Years of Blogging Centenary of the Bolshevik Usurpation... Read More
10 Years of Blogging
•�January 9, 2018
•�1,100 Words •�30 Comments
January 9, 2017 marks the day I began blogging a decade ago. � I suppose now's as good a time as any to launch my second panhandling drive. If you like the words that I write, and want me to write more of them, you can personally make that happen: � My first (non-intro) post:... Read More
Open Thread 34
•�December 17, 2017
•�2,300 Words •�57 Comments
Cyberpunk Moscow. Sold off most of my Bitcoins when they were at $11k (1,000% profit, but from a very low base, so not rich). Ironically, what were monetarily very modest dribbles over the past two years that I have been taking Bitcoin donations ( have leapfrogged PayPal and become comparable to the sum total of... Read More
Open Thread 33: Linkman Soup
•�November 25, 2017
•�1,000 Words •�29 Comments
Dmitry Hvorostovsky, one of the Russia's best and most beloved artists, died this week of brain cancer. � * Andrew Higgins: Why Putin’s Foes Deplore U.S. Fixation on Election Meddling One of the few points on which many svidomy Ukrainians and progressive Americans differ with Russian liberals is that while the former basically view Putin... Read More
Open Thread 32: All URL Base Are Belong to Us
•�November 17, 2017
•�1,500 Words •�89 Comments
I am pretty bad with these puns. But this one might just be SSC-worthy. One of my goals for the rest of Anti-Bolshevik Month is to write a comprehensive alternate history in which the Russian Republic survives WW1. Randall Parker's question on Twitter: "Imagine a time traveler goes back to 1913 and kill Hitler, Stalin,... Read More
Open Thread 31: Amnesty
•�November 11, 2017
•�800 Words •�106 Comments
Communist Russophilia in all its glory. I have some important work non-blog related tasks to do up until Nov 16 so there'll be a temporary halt to my posts deconstructing the Red ideology, but rest assured that this important mission will be resumed. Speaking of that. Recently met up with a couple of elderly relatives,... Read More
Open Thread 30: Linke Park
•�November 5, 2017
•�1,400 Words •�85 Comments
It will be the centenary of the October Revolution in a couple of days - the original color revolution that finished off a great and rapidly modernizing empire and handed power to a gang of Russia-hating criminals. To mark the occasion, the next two weeks I will be documenting the dismal failure of sovok across... Read More
Open Thread: Snowcrash (Expanded Edition)
•�October 29, 2017
•�300 Words •�5 Comments
Spanish Occupation Government strikes back! So as you're probably aware, The Unz Review had a prolonged server crash. The data was unrecoverable, so Ron had to revert to an earlier backup, losing about a day's worth of comments. Apologies about that, but really, it's GoDaddy's fault. None of us are very happy with them. One... Read More
The State of the Russian Altsphere (October 2017)
•�October 25, 2017
•�1,200 Words •�20 Comments
Russian nationalists and "patriots" - much like the "Alt Right" and Alt Lite in the United States - each have their own media ecosystems, though overlap is inevitable. As in the United States, "patriotism" is at least an order of magnitude more prevalent than nationalism (indeed, it is one of the defining strands of Putinist... Read More
The State of the Altsphere (October 2017)
•�October 21, 2017
•�1,400 Words •�76 Comments
We seem to be doing pretty well, if SimilarWeb stats are anything to go by. The Unz Review is clearly the dominant website amongst the "Intellectual Dissident Right" (we are far ahead of VDARE, Takimag, and are even catching up on the normies at The American Cuckservative). It is also strongly competitive amongst the "Intellectual... Read More
Open Thread 28: The Chad Alan AI
•�October 20, 2017
•�1,900 Words •�93 Comments
* The legendary Major General Issam Zahreddine was blown up by a land mine in Deir ez-Zor. What damn bad luck. Surviving an ISIS siege for three years, only to go like that. * Iraq takes back Kirkuk. Seemingly prearranged return to the status quo of 2014. * Haaretz: White Nationalist Richard Spencer Gives Israel... Read More
� Earlier Items �
"Miscellaneous" Items Across Entire Archive
Anatoly Karlin
About Anatoly Karlin

I am a blogger, thinker, and businessman in the SF Bay Area. I’m originally from Russia, spent many years in Britain, and studied at U.C. Berkeley.

One of my tenets is that ideologies tend to suck. As such, I hesitate about attaching labels to myself. That said, if it’s really necessary, I suppose “liberal-conservative neoreactionary” would be close enough.

Though I consider myself part of the Orthodox Church, my philosophy and spiritual views are more influenced by digital physics, Gnosticism, and Russian cosmism than anything specifically Judeo-Christian.