May 27, 2022 A Little Help from the European Family Finland agreed to help rebuild and reform Ukraine's education sector, and the country more generally. Education Government Int'l Relations Russia File
May 26, 2022 A Collaborative Effort The US Department of Defense is coordinating with nearly 50 countries to provide military aid to Ukraine. Government Int'l Relations Military News War Russia File
May 25, 2022 Bully Diplomat “My country is being bombarded, tens of thousands of people are dying in the bloody war of conquest that Russia has unleashed. If I make demands out loud, I can achieve more for Ukraine than writing diplomatic cables that often go unanswered. This is a matter of life and death, and every day matters." – Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk Government Int'l Relations News Politics War Quote
May 21, 2022 Russian Trains In for a Bumpy Ride German engineering firm Siemens is leaving Russia. Train travel is about to get far more difficult. Business Int'l Relations Transportation Russia File
May 14, 2022 An Apologetic Putin? Did Putin apologize for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's outrageous lies? Government Int'l Relations Journalism News War Russia File
May 09, 2022 Zelensky Returns After six weeks away, Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky made an appearance at Kiev's parliament. Government Int'l Relations War Russia File
May 05, 2022 Russian Troops Storm Mariupol Russian troops have begun to storm the Mariupol steel plant in Ukraine. Cities & Towns Int'l Relations Military News War Russia File
May 03, 2022 Gummy Bear Suspension The candy company Haribo halts production to Russia due to the Ukraine conflict. Business Economy Food & Drink Int'l Relations War Russia File
April 26, 2022 Russian Easter Amid Conflict Russia's 2022 Easter proceedings were tainted by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Holidays Int'l Relations Religion War Russia File
April 24, 2022 What the Invasion Means for Russians The Russian people may not be at the front lines, but they, too, will feel the effects of war in Ukraine. Economy Government Int'l Relations War Russia File
April 21, 2022 Match Point? Russia's war in Ukraine invades Wimbledon tennis courts. Int'l Relations Sports War Russia File
April 18, 2022 Help the Earth and Fight Putin German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck urges Germans to reduce energy usage to help wean the country off of Russian oil. Economy Environment Government Int'l Relations Russia File
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
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
Resilience: Life Stories of Centenarians Born in the Year of Revolution Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia The very word Siberia evokes a history and reputation as awesome as it is enthralling. In this acclaimed book on Russia’s conquest of its eastern realms, Benson Bobrick offers a story that is both rich and subtle, broad and deep.
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.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Murder and the Muse KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
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.
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.
Woe From Wit (bilingual) One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Bears in the Caviar Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Moscow and Muscovites Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Russia Rules From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
April 23, 2014 Peace, Land, Bread Peace! Land! Bread! This was the battle cry of the 1917 October Revolution (old calendar) that changed the history of Russia and indeed the entire world. Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, the tsars concentrated on centralization of their power and control. The most common way of doing this was to take power away from the nobility, appeasing them by giving them dominion over their land and workers. This soon developed into the oppressive, slave-style condition known as serfdom. History Russia File
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
August 22, 2020 Sad Smiles and Kremlin Corruption Recounting a 2008 meeting with activist Alexei Navalny, before he rose to prominence. Government Politics Russia File
May 07, 2015 The Most Useful Russian Inventions What do radio, television, the periodic table, and helicopters have in common? Russians were involved in developing all of them – and more! Reference Science Russia File
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 Russia File
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 Russia File