“Maslenitsa week is usually accompanied by all sorts of food excesses, including plentiful blini eating. And in this regard, any overeating is harmful to the body.”

– Member of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection Dr. Boris Mendelevich on the potential pitfalls of eating too many blini

This popular holiday tradition has believers plunging into ice-cold water… voluntarily!

A panda in the Moscow zoo destroyed a pine tree. It was anything but an accident.

For a few Muscovites, Christmas came early, in the form of free Metro rides.

Russian Life wishes you a happy new year, complete with movies and marriages.

January 7 is Russian Orthodox Christmas, which calls for a Christmas dish. But the chosen one, kutya, is much more than a winter holiday treat.

Nothing says the Russian holiday season like rolling up to an office party with… sushi rolls?

Ded Moroz and kindergarten parents conceive of the Christmas spirit very differently. Also, Russians may have domesticated the first dog.

Pie not in the sky, vampires against anti-vaxxers, cooks for cats… not to mention self-improvement in advance of the New Year

Russians may not celebrate Thanksgiving, but we can still be thankful for Russia

A little-known holiday brings to the fore well-known debates about Russian politics.

The history of Russia Day is both complicated and controversial, with its origins in the dusk of the Soviet Union. Even its name causes confusion, with only about half the Russian population correctly identifying the holiday observed on June 12. We dig in to ferret out the facts.