
Mikhail Zygar
Simon & Schuster
Mikhail Zygar
The war in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s motivations. The way Americans perceive Russia, and Putin. The state of American democracy. These large topics and others were explored in a conversation with an expatriate Russian journalist Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Cornwall Library.
Mikhail Zygar is a journalist, writer, filmmaker and founding editor-in-chief of the Russia-banned TV Rain, an online broadcaster now based in exile in the Netherlands. Some have described his journalistic approach as a new form of literature. At age 42, Zygar, a Moscow native, has acquired a seeming lifetime of experience, having also served as a war correspondent in Iraq, Lebanon and Darfur. In 2014, Zygar won an International Press Freedom Award.
His latest book, “War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine,” begins with a confession on Zygar’s part, and he adds in other contemporaries and forebears that include writers and historians who are “complicit” in promoting the notion of Russia as a “great empire,” he writes in his introduction.
“We overlooked the fact that for many centuries, ‘great Russian culture’ belittled other countries and peoples, suppressed and destroyed them,” he continues, adding that the words and thoughts perpetuating this notion of greatness in fact sowed the seeds of fascism and allowed it to flourish.
Before a full house at the library, Zygar talked with Joel Simon, an author, journalist and founder/director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
Zygar began by discussing what he termed the “four phases” of his career in journalism. It began at age 21, when he was sent to cover the Iraq War for the Russian business daily Kommersant. He said he landed the assignment because “I spoke Arabic” and the assignment led to more war correspondent work. After Iraq, he covered the war in Lebanon and then genocide in Darfur.
“At age 29, after all these bloody massacres, I needed to quit. To stop,” he said.
Simon asked Zygar about his role in 2010 as one of the founders of the TV station Rain, which was the only independent news channel in Russia.
“We were not only for the young people,” Zygar said. “It was mostly for the middle class to be able to get unbiased information about what was happening.” And Zygar said, during the first years of operation, Rain was very popular, with 20 million households watching daily. Then, in 2014, a month before the occupation of Crimea, Rain was effectively shut down by an order for all Russian cable and satellite networks to switch it off.
Simon & Schuster
“One by one, we lost 95% of our audience in one week,” Zygar said, who said he then began to focus his thinking on Russian history.
“Somehow I realized that broadcasting news for an audience was not enough,” he said. “I realized that I need to talk about history.”
“You’re a journalist,” Simon interrupted. “Why history?”
“If I’m thinking about the future of Russia, I should focus on a younger audience, and talk about values with them.”
Zygar, understanding that the “20-minus” age-based audience is riveted to social media, he created something to meet them where they are. Together with historians, journalists and others he launched “Project 17,” a simulated social network that retraces the Russian Revolution on a daily basis. Go to www.openhistoryarchive.com.
The new book was started before Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Bringing a journalistic framework to history, Zygar takes apart the narrative around the idea of Russian greatness, describing how the myth was constructed. How Putin justified the invasion. How Russian history justified all that Putin approached. “My mission is to start addressing … why we as Russian intellectuals missed that point. We have never started thinking about the propaganda approach to Russian history.”
Audience questions sought answers to where the war in Ukraine will be in one year, and if a longer war poses the threat to Putin, to which Zygar commented. “He’s gotten rid of the people who protested, and oil and gas revenues are enough.”
Asked another question about rising autocracy across the world, and whether the author thinks Putin might have intentions to expand beyond Ukraine, Zygar said, “It’s important to make Russia great again, not bigger.”
“He needs the war to be continued,” Zygar said in a nod to three and a half centuries of Russian myth-making. Zygar also is the author of “All the Kremlin’s Men” and is the recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists 2014 International Press Freedom Award.
FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.
Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).
Grade 10: Sophia Camphouse (Sharon), John DeDonato (Salisbury), Adelyn Diorio (North Canaan), Sydney Howe (North Canaan), Daniel Lesch (Cornwall), Finian Malone (Sharon), Meadow Moerschell (Kent), Jackson Olson (Salisbury), Logan Padelli (North Canaan), Ishaan Tantri (Salisbury), Ivy Zheng (North Canaan).
Grade 11: Lily Beurket (Cornwall), Olivia Brooks (Salisbury), Mollie Ford (Falls Village), Anna Gillette (Salisbury), Neve Kline (Salisbury), Alexa Meach (North Canaan), Ibby Sadeh (Falls Village), Celeste Trabucco (Kent) Silas Tripp (Falls Village), Alex Woodworth (Salisbury).
Grade 12:Tyler Anderson (Sharon), Zachary Bezerra (Kent), Bernice Boyden (Sharon), Daniela Brennan (North Canaan), Amelia Dodge (North Canaan), Madison Gulotta (Sheffield), Harper Howe (North Canaan), Tess Marks (Salisbury), Manasseh Matsudaira (Cornwall), Lola Moerschell (Kent), Diana Portillo (North Canaan), Olivia Robson (Salisbury), Gabriela Titone (Salisbury).
Grade 9: Krystin Ackerman (North Canaan), Travis Barber (Cornwall), Max Bochnovich (Salisbury), Nico Bochnovich (Salisbury), Logan Bronson (Cornwall), Zaira Celso-Cristobal (Sharon), Sadie Chapell (Salisbury), Tess Churchill (Salisbury), Niki Clark (Salisbury), Caitlin Devino (North Canaan), Louise Faveau (Salisbury), Celestia Galvin (Sharon), Samuel Garcia Pulido (North Canaan), Beatrice Gifford (Kent), Madeline Johnson (Salisbury), Marlow LaPointe (Falls Village), Ayden Lemmy (Falls Village), Paul Losh (Falls Village), Chase Lowell (North Canaan), Lily McCabe (Salisbury), Logan Miller (Falls Village), Bridger Rinehart (Salisbury), Vilija Salazar (Salisbury), Camila Sanchez Guerrero (Cornwall), Camdyn Tallon (North Canaan), Schuyler Thompson (Falls Village), Juliette Trabucco (Kent), Payton Wagner (North Canaan), Jessica Watkins (Kent), Olivia Whitney (North Canaan).
Grade 10: Bennett Wyatt Bayer (Salisbury), Selena Black (Cornwall), Georgie Clayton (Salisbury), Christian DeDonato (Salisbury), Natasha Dennis (North Canaan), Layla DiDomenico (Kent), Carmela Egan (Salisbury), Kellie Eisermann (Salisbury), Levi Elliott (Millerton), Lydia Fleming (North Canaan), Grace Graney (Falls Village), Alexa Hoadley (Kent), Jonas Johnson (North Canaan), Aiden Krupa (Torrington), Makenzie Lidstone (Salisbury), Francisco Mendoza Ratzan (North Canaan), Daniel Moran (Norfolk), David Nam (Sharon), Gustavo Portillo (North Canaan), Rivers Richard (North Canaan), Darwin Wolfe (Falls Village), Nathan Zani (Ashley Falls).
Grade 11: Elizabeth Allyn (Salisbury), Steven Barber (Cornwall), Victoria Brooks (Salisbury), Katherine Crane (North Canaan), Richard Crane (North Canaan), Arianna Danforth Gold (Cornwall), Mia DiRocco (Cornwall), Shanaya Duprey (North Canaan), Allegra Ferri (North Canaan), Elizabeth Forbes (Wassaic), Maureen Graney (Falls Village), Taylor Green (Kent), Chloe Hill (Salisbury), Adam Hock (Kent), Hannah Johnson (North Canaan), Madelyn Johnson (North Canaan), Delanie Keeley (New Marlboro), Madison Melino (Austerlitz), Ayden Wheeler (Amenia).
Grade 12: Lucas Caranci (North Canaan), Sidney Crouch (Cornwall), Dylan Deane (North Canaan), Tessa Dekker (Falls Village), Cole Dennis (North Canaan), Leah Drislane (North Canaan), Sara Huber (Salisbury), Dustin Kayser (North Canaan), Rosemary Koller (North Canaan), Kylie Leonard (North Canaan), Katelin Lopes (Falls Village), Khyra McClennon (Amenia), Jassim Mohydin (Salisbury), Patrick Money (Kent), Mason O’Niel (Salisbury), Tristan Oyanadel (Falls Village), Wendy Santiago-Leyva (Salisbury), Elinor Wolgemuth (Salisbury).
Grade 9: Edwin Alonzo Alonzo (North Canaan), Robert Boyden (Sharon), Peyton Bushnell (Falls Village), Winter Cheney (Cornwall), Ayva Fenn (Torrington), Luca Floridis (Salisbury), Angel Gonzalez (Salisbury), Kogan Lawrence (Amenia), McKenzie Lotz (Ashley Falls), Dany Martinez (North Canaan), Wyatt Merwin (Salisbury), Nathan Young (Cornwall).
Grade 10: Byron Bell (Cornwall), Sofia Bindley (Cornwall), Karen Chavez-Sanchez (Salisbury), Braeden Duncan (Salisbury), Wiley Fails (Salisbury), James Flores (Kent), Jasper Oyanadel (Falls Village), Marlene Perez (North Canaan), Carson Riva (North Canaan), Ryan Segalla (Salisbury), Alanna Tatro (North Canaan).
Grade 11: Peter Austin (Kent), Everet Belancik (Cornwall), Carlos Castellanos Cruz (Falls Village), Ashton Cooper (Salisbury), Christopher Crane (North Canaan), Nicholas Gonzalez (Cornwall), Kierra Greene (North Canaan), Marc Hafner (Falls Village), Abram Kirshner (Kent), Riley Mahaffey (Amenia), Simon Markow (Cornwall), Isabella Pugo Dominguez (North Canaan), Deiby Romero Gualan (North Canaan), Gabriele Rooney (Falls Village), Melanie Rundall (Kent), Ava Segalla (Salisbury), Lauren Sorrell (North Canaan).
Grade 12: Brandt Bosio (Salisbury), Jake Bosio (North Canaan), Madeline Collingwood (South Egremont), Ian Crowell (North Canaan), Madison DeWitt (North Canaan), Rose Fitch (Cornwall), Ava Gandarillas (North Canaan), Abigail Hogan (North Canaan), Antonis Karampasis (North Canaan), Ellanor Karcheski (North Canaan), Jonathan Leal-Santiago (North Canaan), Kyle McCarron (Kent), Ledvia Orellana-Lemus (North Canaan), Olivia Peterson (Sharon), Taylor Terwilliger (North Canaan), Emil Urbanowicz (Cornwall), Jayme Walsh (Salisbury), Abigail White (North Canaan), Junxin Zhang (Kent).
ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.
When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.
He is survived by wife Beverly (Botto), son David, sister Alice Pero and nieces and nephews in the extended family. He was predeceased by his parents David and Madlyn Dewitt and sister Peggy.
Memorial contributions may be made to any of the following non-profits.
Collaborative Cats Inc. PO Box 88, Ancramdale, NY 12503 www.collaborativecats.org
eba inc. dance theatre company, PO Box 145, Albany, NY 12201 www.eba-arts.org
Wave Farm transmission arts WGXC 90.7 FM PO Box 13 Acra, NY 12405 www.wavefarm.org
American Astronomical Society 1667 K Street NW, Suite 800 Washington DC 20006 www.aas.org
American Cancer Society 2678 South Road, Suite 103, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. www.cancer.org
A Celebration of Life memorial service will take place at a future date and will be announced on the funeral home website.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home, 37 Park Ave., Millerton, NY 12546. To send an online condolence visit www.conklinfuneralhome.com
SHARON — Winifred Anne Carriere passed away on March 6, 2025, at the age of 87. A resident of Sharon for many years, she later retired to Ancramdale, New York.
Born in New Haven to writers Albert Carriere and Winifred Osborn, Anne grew up in New York City. Raised in a Quaker family, she attended Friends Seminary, and The University of Wisconsin. Anne studied American Architectural History through Bard College’s University Without Walls. For her degree, she wrote a comprehensive history of the architecture of Sharon during its first hundred years.
Anne worked as an editor for her mother’s publication Professional Florist Magazine. She also served as Public Relations Director for South Street Seaport Museum, and later, as a legal secretary at the firms Paul Weiss and Coudert Brothers.
A writer throughout her life, Anne produced numerous short stories and poems. Her work was published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Herald Tribune. Best known is Anne’s children’s book “Jennifer’s Walk” published by Golden Books in 1973, and illustrated by her then-husband New Yorker magazine cover artist Arthur Getz. The book was inspired by the outdoor adventures of their young daughter.
Anne was an activist. She participated in the anti-nuclear movement, volunteering for the campaign Ground Zero. Upon retirement she founded the non-profit community service organization Ancramdale Neighbors Helping Neighbors. She helped develop the somatic nonviolence method, Aiki-AVP, editing its first training manual. Anne served as a Trustee for Fifteenth Street Quaker Meeting in New York City, and later served on various committees of the Bulls Head-Oswego Quaker Meeting in Clinton Corners, New York.
Anne was passionate about nature, and always preferred to be outdoors. She was an avid hiker, long-distance swimmer, cross-country skier, canoeist, and flower gardener.
She also was a voracious reader, and loved poetry, classical music, and humorous wordplay.
Anne is survived by her husband, William “Bill” Leicht of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, her son, Kurt Gubrud of Canaan, and her daughter, Sarah Getz of Sharon.
The family wishes to thank the staff of The Meadows, the memory care division of Brookmeade in Rhinebeck, for their compassionate care of Anne during her final years.
A memorial gathering will take place this spring at the Bulls Head–Oswego Quaker Meetinghouse with a date to be announced.
SALISBURY—Ilene Tetenbaum, 94, passed away peacefully at her home in Salisbury, on March 14, 2025. Ilene will be remembered for her unwavering devotion to her large family and her elegance.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Ilene was the daughter of Samuel Abrams and Blanche Brave Abrams.
She studied at the University of Maryland. While in Baltimore, Ilene met her future husband, Stanley, on a blind date. They married in 1948 and raised three sons, Stefan, Robert, and David.
Ilene loved to read and immerse herself in Jewish traditions and gardening. She was active in her synagogue and owned a florist shop called the House of Flowers.
Ilene and Stanley moved to New York City in 1978 and relished their vacation house on the Twin Lakes in Salisbury, which ultimately became their permanent home. Ilene volunteered at the Scoville Library and was involved in numerous writing workshops and book groups. Ilene loved being in the Berkshires where she created beautiful gardens that were enjoyed by her family and friends.
After 47 wonderful years together, Stanley passed away in 1995. Sometime later, Ilene met Irwin Leff, her future partner, who passed in 2017.
Ilene is predeceased by her dear brother, Paul Abrams. She is survived by her three children, Stefan (Stella), Robert (Roxana) and David (Anne); and eight grandchildren Olympia (Marshall), Roland (Jackie), Max (Jin), Lauren (David), Adam (Lowell), Michele (Brandon), Paul and Claire, and eight great grandchildren.
A celebration of Ilene’s life will be held this spring in Salisbury, Connecticut.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury, CT. www.scovillelibrary.org/about-us/support.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.