The Petersburg Review — A Classic-Magazine Approach to Russian Gambling Cultural and Regulatory Commentary — Pre-Revolution Cardplaying Culture, Soviet-Era Suppression, and the Post-Soviet Regulatory-Framework Trajectory

VOL. 101 May 15, 2026 p. 62
FROM THE DEPARTMENTS

Three departments from the magazine.

FROM THE STAFF WRITERS CONTRIBUTING SINCE 2024

The Petersburg Review — *a classic-magazine approach to Russian gambling cultural commentary, pre-revolution cardplaying history, and post-Soviet regulatory-framework trajectory*.

The Russian gambling cultural-and-regulatory subject has substantial literary-historical depth that the operator-facing trade press does not engage with at length. Pushkin's Queen of Spades, Dostoevsky's Gambler, the Soviet-era suppression of cardplaying, the post-Soviet regulatory framework — these constitute a substantial cultural-historical subject for serious cultural writing.

The Petersburg Review treats the subject the way a classic literary magazine would treat any other consequential cultural subject. The Soviet-era regulatory record is documented alongside the 19th-century literary engagement with cardplaying culture. The contemporary post-Soviet regulatory-framework trajectory is documented alongside the broader Russian cultural-historical context that the framework operates within.

  • Pre-revolution culture
  • Soviet suppression
  • Post-Soviet regulation
  • Literary tradition
  • Compliance
  • Cultural history
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