Half a century ago, the Soviet dissent movement began when two young writers were put on trial for publishing their works abroad and “slandering the state.” We consider how this relates to modern events.

It has been a year since Boris Nemtsov was shot as he walked along a bridge near the Kremlin, yet Russians continue to gather at his assassination site.

On February 24, 1956, Khrushchev delivered his now infamous secret speech. It would change everything... sort of...

Thirty years ago tomorrow, the Mir Space Station was launched. It was a technological wonder of its time.

This week, Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill met in Havana. Why was this such a big deal?

The destruction of 97 kiosks around Moscow opens up the controversies of architectural preservation, the plight of small businesses, and the rebuilding of history itself. 

A few books we have received recently that we thought Russophiles should know about.

In honor of Evgeny Zamyatin's birthday, here are eight Russian sci-fi novels that reveal something about Russia and the world beyond.

Today is Chekhov's birthday (he's 156). We celebrate by kicking of several months of Daily Chekhov quotes, and share a few other things...

Quite often, I am intrigued by the juxtaposition of events that show up in our "On This Day" listings. It is almost as if there were a thin thread across time, linking things together that one might never expect.

The classic work of Russian journalism, Moscow and Muscovites, by journalist Vladimir Gilyarovsky (translated by Brendan Kiernan), received the prestigious 2015 AATSEEL Award for Best Scholarly Translation into English.

Under Stalin, a poem could mean life or death. For many poets, it was a one-way ticket to the Gulag. Today, poems can be a means to face cultural memories of arrests in the night, forced labor, and the silence demanded of people fearing those fates.