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There’s no doing without hay in the village. The cows eat it, and the sheep, and the hens need loads of it for their nests. And it comes in handy for people too, when they stuff their mattresses with it and lie on them forevermore, because the scent is just marvelous.

In which we visit a rather unique store in the Karelian village of Vedlozero. Which of course is far more than a store.

Sometimes the most incredible things can be hidden in plain sight. In this case, a main thoroughfare in the capital.

A crumble cake in Russia is something like banana bread in the US – the varieties are endless, and every avid baker has her “grandmother’s recipe” in their repertoire.

Two books reviewed: one on the origin of two perfumeries, another that is a memoir of an archpriest.

The progenitor of Russian Life got its start 65 years ago this fall. We talk to one of its famous early editors about what it was like to write about Russia for the world in that era.

Listening to the intensely chromatic compositions of Sofia Gubaidulina can be challenging. You wouldn’t put her music on to relax or to be energized. As with any avant-garde work, taking it in can feel like work.

It is astonishing to think that as recently as the eighteenth century – not the Middle Ages, not the days of Marco Polo, but in the supposedly enlightened eighteenth century – people still had only the vaguest idea of where Asia ended and America began.

By mid-October of 1941, Moscow seemed on the verge of falling to the Nazis. German troops had reached the city’s edge, and there were rumors of fascist tanks closing in.

At the beginning of July, the Russian government re-tire-d a form of folk art  dear to many: the lawn tire.

A shawarma shop accidentally delves into urban agriculture, much to the delight of city residents. 

After almost ten years, the Alexander Palace, the final home of the Romanovs, is back and open for visitors.