THE OFFICIALS HAVE FOUND OUT THE NUMBER OF FOREIGN NON-COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS (FNCO)

A City of Many Contrasts Sunlight at Midnight: St. Petersburg and the Rise of Modern Russia By W. Bruce Lincoln Basic Books. 419 pp. $35.00. Reviewed by Gene Sosin Author, "Sparks of Liberty: An Insider's Memoir of Radio Liberty" ON A rainy evening in October 1986, I arrived in Leningrad ......

I can't fathom why the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg chose to open its season at the Metropolitan Opera House with a La Bayadère that took close to four hours in running time. And that is no exaggeration. By my trusty watch, I entered at 2 ......

During the short-lived coup in 1991, St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak almost single-handedly prevented Soviet troops from occupying the city. But with Russia in chaos and Boris Yeltsin in a fight for his political future, Sobchak has joined centrists in criticizing Gaidar's shock therapy--perhaps positioning himself for a national role....

BlackRock Inc. sold Jefferson on the Park, a 240-unit multifamily property, to Fairfield Residential for $43.2 million.

Midwives in Russia have a professional association: the Inter-regional League of Midwives of Russia. Establishing this has been a massive step forward for Russian midwives, which will enable them to take their place in the international community of midwives. The League joined the International Confederation of Midwives in 1999. History ......

Frozen foods sold in retail stores were practically unheard of in Russia until the 1990s. But the market offers enormous potential for growth, and the fastest growth right now is in ready meat products and pancakes. Dumplings, however, still dominate the market. Saint Petersburg-based Darya, which was founded in 1998 ......