Today, now that the huge dome of St. Isaac’s towers over the center of the city, not far from the granite embankment, the sumptuous Senate and Synod Building, and the iconic Bronze Horseman statue, it is hard to imagine that in its first incarnation this church was much smaller and located on the Admiralty Meadow.

Paul Robeson, the American singer and actor and a political activist, had a cake named after him in Russia.

There was a time when literary journals ruled Russian intellectual life. That time has passed.

In early May, everyone is feeling exhausted after a long, vitamin-deprived winter: schoolchildren are dragging themselves to the June 1 school-year finish line, and their parents are just starting to recover from the cold, dark winter. That’s when the holidays hit.

In the spring of 1989, elections were held: “alternative elections.” This redundant phrase, which today provokes smirks, back then had everyone in a state of euphoria. We had a choice!

“Pushkin is our everything,” Russians like to say. And sometimes it seems like he was everywhere.

Nestled up against the US border with Canada there is an unusually high concentration of Russian-
Americans. This requires some investigation...

An excerpt from the fine new novel Zuleikha, by Guzel Yakhina, about a woman's survival in Siberia exile, inspired by childhood memories of the author's grandmother.

A poem from the new volume Alcestis of the Underworld, by a regular translator of works published by Russian Life Books.

A time-travelling tour of Russia from aristocats to nosy bureaucrats

Russia thaws. People have thoughts. Not always good ones.

Why is Georgian food so popular in Russia? Turns out there's more to it than deliciousness.