On this day 345 years ago, Alexander Menshikov was born into a poor peasant family. No one could have predicted to what heights he would rise.

Everyone in Russia knows the great writer Ivan Turgenev, whose 200th birthday is today, and they make his acquaintance in three stages. 

A look back at year end stock-taking, at changes that have been promised in years past, and promises that have been un-kept.

In which we review The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessions from Russian Literature, by Viv Groskop, and Restless Empire, by Ian Barnes.

President Vladimir Putin has elevated the philosopher Ivan Ilyin by referring to his ideas in speeches and even making works by Ilyin required reading. We delve into his murky past.

Thousands of war refugees are flooding Europe from the East. No, this is not a story of today, but of the world a century ago.

An American writer consumed by Anna Karenina goes in search of the great writer’s little-known refuge beyond the Volga, near Samara.

In Soviet times the Bolsheviks got all the credit for simplifying Russian spelling in 1918. Who really pushed that simplification through - and what did the Bolsheviks actually do to help?

Today is the 190th anniversary of the great writer's birth. We thought we would share a few readings to get you in a Tolstoyan spirit.

Stepping through hundreds of years of history, we look back at signal events that have occurred in these fall months.

In 1992, a famous American dancer visited the formerly closed seaport of Vladivostok. Then everything blew up.

In which the author visits Kalmykia to meet with survivors of a horrific genocide few remember.