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Title: What Seemed to be Impossible... Was!
Review: Billington's unrivaled scholarship in the field of Russian history cannot redeem the overwhelming failures of this video documentary project. The Face of Russia attempts to present a survey of Russian culture - including painting; literature (fiction and poetry); film; music; architecture (both traditional styles as well as those imported from abroad); a little dance and theatre as well -- in three hours. Within 15 minutes, it becomes obvious that Billington must have resigned himself to narrating what amounts to a highly personal, somewhat idiosyncratic retrospective of those works of Russian culture that have stood out to him as particularly significant. There's not time to explain why, though. It comes across as subjective, formless, and vaguely irresponsible. Go to Russia for real, or read some of Billington's excellent books on the topic. Skip these videos.
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