Culture & Customs

Fyodor Tyutchev (whose 115th birthday is today) was endowed with genius and good luck: a great Russian poet, he was not killed in a duel or in the Caucasus.  Nor did he rot in Siberia, but instead lived until he was 70 and died in his own bed. 

This week we’ve got sweet stories you’ll want as much as that second piece of pie: an injury-free minefield, Ryan Gosling, and dancing police.

This week was a grab bag of jobs well done, tear-jerkers, and meta-scary stories. Buckle up!

If you’re here for Halloween spooks, we can’t help you: all we’ve got this week are feel-good stories!

To thank (blagodarit) is one of the Russian language's most beautiful words. We go in for a deep dive.

Quotes, quips and asides spoken by those in the know (and not).

Ukraine will soon have its own independent Orthodox church, fueled by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Bloggers and twitterers this fall, in the lead-up to the mayoral elections, were effusive in their praise of Moscow living conditions. Was it real or staged?

What's news on the travel front.

We consider some of the best holiday treats, which are of course cookies, and then serve of a simple and delicious recipe.

An American writer consumed by Anna Karenina goes in search of the great writer’s little-known refuge beyond the Volga, near Samara.

A dog is a basic necessity in the village, and the bigger the dog, the better. Chado is decidedly not big.