December 28, 2015 How to Celebrate the New Year Are you sure you know how to appease the Fire Monkey and get your New Year off to a good start? We have tips! Learn how to decorate your house, what food to serve, and what to wear to ensure good luck in 2016. Culture Holidays Humor Russia File
December 17, 2015 5 Reasons Silver is Precious As a metal, Silver means second place; as a period of poetic production in Russia, the Silver Age is unparalleled. The years 1890-1925 (give or take) stand out for the explosion of poetic voices, forms, and innovations. With help from the recently published Russian Silver Age Poetry, we explore what sets that period apart. Art Culture History Language Literature Russia File
December 10, 2015 A Survey of Russian Humor (and it rhymes!) There's plenty of talk about how Russia is dark and dismal, its writers pathologically depressed, and the general mood among the populace about as cheery as a Siberian winter. These stereotypes give short shrift to Russian humor... Culture History Humor Language Literature Russia File
December 09, 2015 The Course of Revolution Is Not Smooth With the temporary triumph of Russian workers in the 1905 revolution, every opposition party expects a piece of the pie. But not if it's the anarchist party! Just ten years after his own politically-motivated arrest and exile, Vladimir Lenin wrote a scathing critique of the anarchists' attempt to join the revolution and work toward a better society. History Politics Russia File
December 02, 2015 Poetry, The Russian Riddle, and International Politics What can we learn about Russia, now and throughout history, from its poetry? This month we try to find out, with help from The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, to be released later this month, as reviewed in the Nov/Dec issue of Russian Life. History Int'l Relations Literature Russia File
November 20, 2015 Ten Years of Napoleon In 1805 Napoleon was crushing the Russian army. In 1815 victorious Russian troops were stationed in the French capital under the just-signed treaty of Paris. And in between there was a peace treaty and yet another war. How did they have time for all of that? History Russia File
November 01, 2015 Thrown Out, Thrown Back On the one hand, social media of late was overtaken by reaction to a bigoted act against the special needs sister of a famous model; on the other hand, controversy arose about Russians being a bit too nostalgic about the 1990s. Social Issues
November 01, 2015 Arctic Rush Russia is in the lead in staking a claim for Arctic "land" and the ownership of what are estimated to be vast oil and gas reserves. News
November 01, 2015 Xenophobe's Paradox The more foreign things you forbid or ignore, the smaller and less safe your world becomes.
November 01, 2015 Temporary Rules A look at Russia's on-again, off-again relationship with censorship since the time of Peter the Great. History
November 01, 2015 The Italians Who Built the Third Rome It may have been built by Russian laborers, but the Kremlin and its churches has Italian architects to thank for its Third Rome design ethos. This is their story. History