Other assorted items from around the Russian world.

"A classical authoritarian power... does not pay that much attention to what the population thinks, and when it does, this attention is usually limited to a bunch of platitudes loudly proclaimed as the official ideology..."

Russian officials participating in the subbotnik spring cleaning take a page from Lenin's book (the one about propaganda).

Russia's Central Bank believes people's financial illiteracy and economic troubles stem from bad messaging in Russian folk tales. Could it be true?

How salt riots and a young tsar led to a Zemsky Sobor and a new body of laws, The Council Code.

Stats on HIV, salaries, doing business, death from bad eating habits, and more.

The Panama Papers shocked the world this week with tales of corruption among the cream of the world's political crop. Here's what the allegations mean for Russian politics, economics, and society.

What does it look like when a whole town empties out and there’s nothing but a few decaying buildings to prove anyone lived there at all?

Alexander Solo is documenting "monotowns" in Russia. He shows us a couple in Leningrad Region, where he lives.

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. 

Alexei Stakhanov mined 102 tons of coal in under 6 hours, sparking the Stakhanovite movement. But did he really do it all by himself, by his own initiative? The son of a miner from Blagoveshchensk recalls evidence of unnamed assistants and fishy bureaucratic orders.
 

As oil prices drop, the Russian economy finds itself facing an ever bleaker future. Is someone targeting Russia? Russian bloggers weigh in.