KYIV -- In the basement of the Syayvo book store in Kyiv, hundreds of Russian language books stand piled, waiting to be pulped. The books -- ranging from everything between the classics of Russian ...

Russian-language books have been pulped. Russocentric museums have been pressured to shutter. Streets named after Russian sites, poets and Soviet army generals are marked for a change.

THE GIFT (378 pp.)-Vladimir Nabokov-Putnam ($5.95). Vladimir Nabokov has the gift of tongue-specifically Russian and English. Famed for his novels in his second tongue (notably Pale Fire and ...