Culture & Customs

Living on ice, the boorocracy, profiling perps, naming cities, and where smoking holds sway.

Krylov on how one negotiates with wolves. Hint: one doesn't. "Of wolves I’ve learned a thing or two. With them there’s only one sure truce."

Photos captured by an unknown Czech Legionnaire, during those troops’ long sojourn in Russia from 1916-1919.

Curling snow drifts along the Dnieper River remind of a Hokusai painting.

Russia has its own way of marking Twelfth Night (Ephiphany). But as a Christian holiday it misses the mark.

Stats on HIV, salaries, doing business, death from bad eating habits, and more.

In Russia, valenki are as near as you can get to the country's number-one footwear after regular leather boots.

We look back and some of our, and your, favorite stories from The Weekly Russia File during 2018.

If you want to see the majestic, historic side of St. Petersburg, yet experience an area where people actually live, you should head to Kolomna.

This week is all about the places where Russians and new cultural phenomena meet, for better and for worse.

This week goes intergalactic with a moon colony, two jedi masters, and several unhappy taxi drivers.

We have a trio of uplifting stories this week: a Russian rapper freed, a Russian beauty turned royalty, and a literal (and strange) military lift.