What does the rating of RuNet’s most popular blogs have to do with history textbooks? Join us on an excursion into conspiracy theories, falsified history, and government ideology – RuNet’s standard fare!

How do you get from pie-seller to tsar’s favorite? Mostly by being a brilliant strategist – but having a tsar willing to turn a blind eye to your corruption helps, too.

It's that time of year again: dancing toys, mice, and candy, waltzing flowers, presents coming to life... But was this time of year always so closely tied to the Nutcracker?

It's 1612. There's no tsar on the throne and the Poles have entered Moscow. Some may have despaired – but one man took the opportunity to save the country and earn his place in history books.

We're all about public service. We just want to help you get through Halloween... You decide if the mask is scary or distinguished, awful or awesome.

The Russian Civil War was a messy affair, as civil wars so often are. Think you can identify all the colors? (Hint: Black is the color of anarchism.)

Scenery, stereotypes, satire, and politics – all in a day's work for RuNet! Join us to learn about Russians arrested for riding bears, all manner of vodka infractions, and a tiny bit of election talk.

Soviet sources praise the Bolsheviks for simplifying Russian spelling in 1918. Who was the real author of the spelling reform, and what was the Bolsheviks' actual role in making it work?

You think planting a flag on a piece of land makes you own it? Think again! With Sakhalin, it was just one step in the long back-and-forth between Russia and Japan.

This editorial, by author (of The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas) Dmitry Chen, appeared last month on Bloomberg.com, and considers how the current crisis in Syria has its roots 13 centuries ago.

In honor of International Translation Day (September 30), we demonstrate rather graphically the value of having a good, human translator.

Nikolai Bukharin, the Moscow revolutionary, was on the rise throughout the early twentieth century – but as we all know, what goes up must come down. Turns out you come down especially fast if you meet Stalin at the top.