Known as a female Chekhov and skilled at painting the human condition as hilarious and hideous in one stroke, Teffi is a little-known author you should get to know. 

Catherine I held the title of Empress 40 years before her more famous, “Great” namesake. As the first woman to rule Russia, she had great qualities of her own.

Even in the worst of times, we need to remember that the people on the other side are people too.

In which we look at the revolutionary year through the eyes of the people living through it.

Soviet revolutionary mythology had it that the Aurora’s shot, signaling the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution, was heard round the world. We check in to find out the latest on the cruiser, and to examine some of its own myths.

Where better to begin a literary tour of Moscow than at Mikhail Bulgakov’s notoriously bad apartment, which had an important cameo in his most famous work.

“It was a lot of fun during the Rivolushun. And I won’t never forget the Russian Rivolushun.” In which we look at the 1917 revolution through the eyes of schoolchildren at the time.

You probably know that Alaska was bought from Russia well over 100 years ago. But do you know why Russia claimed the territory in the first place? Hint: who doesn't love a fur coat?

One hundred years ago, in 1917, Russia was wracked by revolution, famine, foreign war, and domestic unrest. And yet, throughout 1917, babies were born, lives were started. 

How it was that in the eighteenth century Russian mythology was trumped-up in the Western manner? Who wanted it? And where did we get Lel, Yarilo and Zimtserla? We explain everything you'd want to know about Russian fakelore.

Vladimir Dudarev takes us to Siberia's wooden architecture and university capital, Tomsk.

Elena Kotova takes us to the streets, beaches, yoga studios and parks of Saratov, a city on the Volga.