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Until a few months ago, Kyrgyzstan was just another quiet, corrupt, post-Soviet republic in Central Asia. But behind the curtain of obscurity, more challenging issues were simmering. Then, this past spring, things really started to get interesting.

Born 110 years ago, the poet Sergei Yesenin has repeatedly been the subject of a poetic personality cult.

One hundred years ago, on October 17, 1905, Tsar Nicholas made what turned out to be an ineffective attempt to bolster democracy and save his throne.

Where we look back and the now infamous incident of Khrushchev's shoe and the UN General Assembly.

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.

There is a Catechism that dominates American discourse on Russia today. Just flip through The Washington Post’s editorials, peruse American political science journals or listen (cringe) to a Joe Biden interview. It goes something like this:

Ok, I might be biased, given that at Russian Life we're focused 24/7 on things Russian. But lately it seems like Russians are popping up everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. 

A new movie opens July 30 starring Melanie Laurent and Alexei Guskov and it sounds like a fun summer diversion for Russophiles. We're waiting for our review copy to deliver a judgement, but here is a synopsis...

A very nice blog posting by Anatoly Karlin on the facts versus the talking heads (including Obama advisor McFaul) when it comes to interpreting Russian politics and public opinion. The facts don't lie, right? Meanwhile, a film festival in San Francisco in August has a couple of nice documentaries on offer, one on growing up in Russia, another on

The fine art of linguistic shortcuts and slang.