June 28, 2020 The Nose Knows By The Editors Dancing noses, we have dancing noses, people! This week's video of the week is courtesy of Gogol, Shostakovich, and The Royal Opera. Art Literature Music The Weekly Russia File Video of the Week Russia File
February 12, 2020 Statistics Highlight Vodka Hotspots By Griffin Edwards Curious about vodka stats? Russia's Research Center for the Federal and Regional Alcohol Markets has you covered. Food & Drink Health The Weekly Russia File Russia File
February 05, 2020 Russian Bears, Language, and Tomato Paste By The Editors Bear with us: this week's Odder News lacks a theme. Instead, we have tomato paste, emotion workshops, and Russian pandas. Animals Culture Food & Drink Government The Weekly Russia File Odder News
January 31, 2020 Do Russians Dream of Electric Sheep? By Griffin Edwards A study finds that the majority of Russians don't understand AI, just like the rest of us. Economy Science Statistics The Weekly Russia File Russia File
January 29, 2020 The Motherland Calls... Reenactors By Griffin Edwards Military reenactors mark the 76th anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad with plenty of pyrotechnics. History Military St. Petersburg War The Weekly Russia File Russia File
January 28, 2020 Big Banks Are Watching You By Griffin Edwards Russian banks to start testing biometric ATMs. This is probably a good idea. Business Economy Science The Weekly Russia File Russia File
January 25, 2020 Prime Amazons Uncovered in Russia By Griffin Edwards Russia has everything, including Amazonians. History Science Women The Weekly Russia File Russia File
January 20, 2020 How to Become a Millionaire: Go Postal By Griffin Edwards The Russian Postal Service made more than 170 millionaires in 2019. Economy News Statistics The Weekly Russia File Russia File
January 09, 2020 Talk about Inflation! By Margaret Godwin-Jones You won't believe how much a woman in Chelyabinsk is asking for her 1000R bill. Economy News The Weekly Russia File Russia File
December 26, 2019 Best of The Russia File 2019 By Tiffany Zhu We re-share some of our favorite stories from 2019. They may not be the most noteworthy or newsworthy stories, but we felt they were the most fun. Humor Int'l Relations Music The Weekly Russia File
December 19, 2019 Tik-Tok Goes the Progress Clock By Katrina Keegan Political entities and 97-year-old veterans on social media, transgender marriage, and sushi at office parties show Russia is ready for 2020 Humor Internet News The Weekly Russia File
December 12, 2019 Exorcising the Spirit of Upside-Down Christmas By Tiffany Zhu Ded Moroz and kindergarten parents conceive of the Christmas spirit very differently. Also, Russians may have domesticated the first dog. Holidays Humor Science The Weekly Russia File
April 29, 2021 to April 29, 2021 Communism Through the Lens: Everyday Life Captured by Women Photographers Zimmerli Museum | New Brunswick, NJ The exhibition Communism Through the Lens: Everyday Life Captured by Women Photographers in the Dodge Collection highlights the unique – and often overlooked – photographic innovations by women who shaped the history of photography during the 20th century. Art Exhibit
May 02, 2021 to May 02, 2021 Three Sisters Live Stream Performance Online - Pushkin House | London, Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters probes the lives and dreams of Olga, Masha, and Irina, former Muscovites now living in a provincial town from which they're desperate to escape. In this powerful play, a landmark of modern drama, Chekhov masterfully interweaves character and theme in subtle ways that make the work's climax seem as inevitable as it is deeply moving. Theater
May 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021 20th Annual Russian Arts and Culture Festival Virtual | N/A, N/A The City of West Hollywood administration invites everyone to join a virtual celebration of Russian Arts and Culture this May. An array of musical events, activities for kids, workshops, virtual tours, concerts, contests, interviews with interesting people, and much more will comprise a month-long celebration. The program of our events will be published on the website of the festival and in the Facebook group. Festival
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Jews in Service to the Tsar Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Fish: A History of One Migration This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Woe From Wit (bilingual) One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
The Samovar Murders The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Bears in the Caviar Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Moscow and Muscovites Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin.
Marooned in Moscow This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Moscow Eccentric Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia The very word Siberia evokes a history and reputation as awesome as it is enthralling. In this acclaimed book on Russia’s conquest of its eastern realms, Benson Bobrick offers a story that is both rich and subtle, broad and deep.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Murder at the Dacha Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
June 22, 2020 Why Invading Russia was Hitler's Downfall By Alice E.M. Underwood June 22, 2020, marks the 79th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Russia that changed the course of WWII and, perhaps, history itself. History Social Issues War
March 17, 2019 When Russian Cuisine Turns Georgian By Tiffany Zhu Why is Georgian food so popular in Russia? Turns out there's more to it than deliciousness. Culture Food & Drink History
January 28, 2020 Meet Russia's favorite sable By Maria Antonova Siberian sable fur was once Russia's biggest luxury export, but now we can't get enough of Instagram star Umora, the sable inspiring Russians to never look at fur coats again. Animals Internet Interview
September 14, 2019 Eight Russian Desserts To Make Your Mouth Water By Tiffany Zhu Forget vodka – dessert is the best part of Russian meals. Culture Food & Drink
March 20, 2020 Vodka vs. Coronavirus By Margaret Godwin-Jones Russia’s Ministry of Health discussed ways vodka can affect the coronavirus (spoiler alert: not much). Food & Drink Health CVSG Russia File
February 03, 2018 12 Myths/Truths About Russians and Vodka By The Editors Think you know your vodka? Take this True/False quiz (just 12 items) about Russians and their vodka and see if you are right about that... Food & Drink
