If you believe the papers, Russia is in the grips of протестное настроение, which literally means a mood for protest, but which might be better translated as “loaded for bear.”

It’s that time of year: Americans are busy making — and breaking — their New Year’s resolutions. Russians are too smart to put themselves through such torture.

Every autumn, Russians only have one question: Когда начнётся отопительный сезон!? (When are they going to turn on the heat?)

On the language of fall and a changing climate.

If it’s hard to gracefully say “no” in English, how much harder is it in Russian, where dissembling requires linguistic gifts that you might not have yet developed?

In early March, when Moscow is still buried under more than a meter of snow and people are buried under many inches of fur and heavy wool, there is nothing more annoying than Instagram photos of daffodils, forsythia and cherry blossom buds.

If a Russian fox met an American fox, would they get along? If Russian folklore is to be trusted, the answer is a definite нет (no).

Some thoughts on backwardness, falling behind, and the challenges of change.

To thank (blagodarit) is one of the Russian language's most beautiful words. We go in for a deep dive.

After declensions, cases, aspect, verbs of motion, pronunciation, and all the other trials of the Russian language, there is one more thing to learn: quotes, jokes and allusions. Let's do this.

These days, if you are reading Russian periodicals in order to improve your Russian language skills, you are getting lots of practice in ways to lie.

On how recent foreign borrowings is shaping the Russian language.