A journalist meets a painter in the distant outback of Siberia. They share a love for the untamed wilderness, and we learn a thing or two about the challenges of painting in the wild.

After years of threatening to ban cheap dormitory-like hostels and any other accomodation in residential buildings, Russian lawmakers have approved a measure that could cause many private individuals to stop renting out beds, driving up lodging costs for young travelers.

Other assorted items from around the Russian world.

In the spring of 1989, elections were held: “alternative elections.” This redundant phrase, which today provokes smirks, back then had everyone in a state of euphoria. We had a choice!

"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..."

A mysterious tragedy that killed nine students in the Urals in 1959 is suddenly making headlines in Russia.

Living on ice, the boorocracy, profiling perps, naming cities, and where smoking holds sway.

In which we review books on empire and disasters.

After President Putin was reelected there was a government reshuffling. But very little new blood.

On why #metoo is not taking hold in Russia.

In which we review a novel about Bulgakov and his love, Margarita (Mikhail and Margarita, by Julie Himes); Soviet Salvage, by Catherine Walworth; and The House of Government, by Yuri Slezkine.

Over the 70-year lifespan of the “most equal and democratic nation” known as the Soviet Union, just a handful of women rose to the rank of ambassador. A few more have attained this level since 1991, yet diplomacy in Russia remains largely a male preserve.