"Ancient instincts work – I licked the thing."

–  Hermitage artist-restorer Galina Fedorova discovers a candy stuck to the ball gown of Grand Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, sister of Tsar Nicholas II.

A delightful Soviet winter tale about children, a big holiday tree, and the true meaning of Christmas: communism.

The stories behind three iconic pieces of Russian art.

In which we learn about the strong-willed and brilliant Anna Dostoyevskaya, the wife of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Catherine the Great's injunction to get vaccinated has recently emerged from a private collection.

An abandoned crypt found on a Russian school's property takes the phrase "bored to death" to a whole new level. 

A thoroughly incomplete list of ways to scratch your Dostoyevsky itch ahead of his 200th birthday.

Russia and Ukraine have a long history of disputes over beloved territory, to say the least… But this time, it’s Gogol.

"In connection with the incident, the State Hermitage was forced to apply to the prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg with a statement to conduct a prosecutor's check and assess the actions of a citizen for possible violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation, including in terms of public insult to the memory of the Defenders of the Fatherland.”

– Press Service of the St. Petersburg Hermitage, announcing it would be reviewing an artist’s behavior for potentially insulting the veterans of the Patriotic War of 1812.

An excerpt from To Break Russia’s Chains: Boris Savinkov and his Wars Against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks, recently published by Pegasus Books.

On December 12, 1801, 23-year-old Tsar Alexander I issued an ukaz. This particular decree was not something historians have considered extremely significant in the scheme of Alexander’s reign, but it merits attention for a few reasons.

Empress Elizabeth Petrovna breathed her last in December of 1761, in her St. Petersburg palace. By any standard, Peter the Great’s second daughter had lived an unusual life.