Our definition of a Russophile is not someone who blindly embraces all things Russian as superior, but someone who is innately fascinated by Russia because it is different, because it is interesting, because it is important.

We're holding a fiction contest, asking for short stories based on the intriguing cover of our July/August issue. Click thru for full contest rules and instructions.

A recent letter that the editors of Russian Life received from one of its respected readers was directed at Mikhail Ivanov and one of his “Survival Russian” columns. We felt it deserved a longer response than space in the magazine allowed.

To celebrate our 55th anniversary, we're holding a subscription contest. Appropriately, there will be 55 prizes, which means some pretty good odds of winning for everyone. 

For a Russophile, it can be frustrating to find out about an interesting event related to Russia after it has just happened. On the flip side, it can also be rather difficult to find out about new events far enough in advance before they happen, especially events in your area, so that one can attend. 

We are EXCITED to announce that Anne O. Fisher's translation of Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov's classic novel, The Little Golden Calf, which we published in 2009, has received the 2010 AATSEEL Book Award for Best Translation into English.

Alexander Pushkin famously called translators "the post-horses of literature." Well, two thoroughbreds who have worked with us on Russian Life and Chtenia have just been awarded grants from the National Endowment of the Arts to bring some important works to English. First, Anne Fisher, translator of our book, The Little Golden Calf:

HOT OFF THE PRESSES! Our new novel, Fish: A History of One Migration, written by Peter Aleshkovsky and translated by Nina Shevchuk-Murray, has just arrived from the printer. They did a wonderful job and Fish will start shipping tomorrow morning.

The Louisville Courier-Journal has a nice feature this morning on Anne Fisher, the translator and driving force behind our new translation of The Little Golden Calf. It talks about how the book went in and out of favor with the Soviet regime, and how Anne was inspired to bring the work out in English because it had been so instrumental in forging her own understanding of all things Russian.

A response to another publisher's blog post about our comparative analysis of two competing translations of Ilf and Petrov's Zolotoy Telyonok...

I just stumbled across this nice interview (July 07) of Victor Bogorad, who does the cartoons for our Survival Russian feature. Too bad the video is not archived online... 

A look at the magazine's beginnings in 1956 (as USSR) and of its partner publication, Amerika Illustrated.