December 09, 2019 Perestroika Without Pleasure This year marks the 30th anniversary of Yanka Dyagileva’s punk rock album Anhedonia, the greatest monument to perestroika that you’ve never heard of. Culture History Music
November 24, 2019 Too Much Catherine, Not Enough Greatness Two reviewers evaluate Catherine the Great through a gender and a storytelling lens. Film & TV History Reviews
November 16, 2019 No Shortage of Soup and Porridge! Seven types of kasha to last you all winter – from farina to kutya, and everything worth eating in between... Culture Food & Drink History
October 25, 2019 Saving Moscow - One Letter at a Time Activists in Moscow are crowdfunding to restore century-old signs, and uncovering traces of a buzzing and eclectic merchant city. Architecture Business History Moscow
September 28, 2019 The Twitter Wars of the Russian MFA All of Twitter’s a stage for the Russian Foreign Ministry to promote its view of World War II. History Int'l Relations Internet
September 06, 2019 Planting the Fourteenth Century Russian scientists have restored the steppe of Kulikovo – just as it was when the country's seminal battle was fought in 1380. Agriculture Environment History War
September 01, 2019 Scout's Honor Scouting has had a long and complicated history in Russia. And, not surprisingly, it gets a bit political. Children History
September 01, 2019 Maria Temryukovna Among “the Terrible’s” unfortunate wives, Maria Temryukovna, his second, is an interesting case. History Women
September 01, 2019 Yeltsin's Notorious Bridge Incident On September 28, 1989 – just a few months after Boris Yeltsin's triumph at the Congress of People’s Deputies – the police found a muddied and wet Yeltsin near a dacha community outside Moscow. History Politics
September 01, 2019 The Guns of Autumn On the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, we review the final events leading to its outbreak in 1939. History War
September 01, 2019 King Mushroom Mushrooms have always been a part of the Russian diet, going back to ancient times, Food & Drink History
September 01, 2019 Bite Marks Is Russia somehow different from other nations, or is it just like any other? History Int'l Relations
February 22, 2022 to February 22, 2032 Russian-Language Gallery Tour Brooklyn Museum | Brooklyn, NY Russian-language tour exploring our collection in depth, second Sunday of each month at 1 pm. Free, reservations required Art Exhibit
February 28, 2022 to February 23, 2032 Free Russian Language Guided Tours Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY Russian-speaking guides conduct tours of the museum's highlights every Monday at 11 am. Art Exhibit
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.
At the Circus This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Driving Down Russia's Spine The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia.
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.
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.
22 Russian Crosswords Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
White Magic The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Survival Russian Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
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.
Red Star Tales: A Century of Russian and Soviet Science Fiction For over 100 years, most of the science fiction produced by the world’s largest country has been beyond the reach of Western readers. This new collection changes that, bringing a large body of influential works into the English orbit.
The Best of Russian Life We culled through 15 years of Russian Life to select readers’ and editors’ favorite stories and biographies for inclusion in a special two-volume collection. Totalling over 1100 pages, these two volumes encompass some of the best writing we have published over the last two decades, and include the most timeless stories and biographies – those that can be read again and again.
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.
March 14, 2020 Coronavirus Coping: Russian Lit has the Answers Russian literature has an answer for everything. In the times of coronovirus, this is your guide. Art Literature CVSG
March 07, 2022 Russian Life Takes a Pause As the world reels from the horrific, criminal events being perpetrated in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, the Russian state, and the Russian military, all of us who nurture a love for Russian people, their culture and history, have been heartbroken. It is not easy to remain a Russophile when suddenly, all across the globe, the adjective “Russian” has become toxic. News
January 28, 2020 Meet Russia's favorite sable 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 Forget vodka – dessert is the best part of Russian meals. Culture Food & Drink
October 31, 2016 Why Stalin's Corpse Was Exhumed on Halloween The body of Joseph Stalin was removed from the mausoleum on Red Square on October 31, 1961. It may not be as spooky as Halloween, but the former leader still haunts Russia today. History Politics Social Issues
March 20, 2020 Vodka vs. Coronavirus Russia’s Ministry of Health discussed ways vodka can affect the coronavirus (spoiler alert: not much). Food & Drink Health CVSG Russia File
