Culture & Customs

Revolutions, including that Great October one, are not a popular topic in Russia today. Nonetheless, we take a photo feature look at how 1917 shaped Russia’s northern capital.

It wasn’t easy being a photojournalist in the Soviet era. Here are five gifted artists you should know, with samples of their work and tales from their lives.

A great writer lives on his stomach. And Sofia Tolstoya had a way in the kitchen.

The latest news on the travel front.

A train ride, a war hero, sunflower fields, and the Loch Ness monster - just another day on the road for the Children of 1917 team.

In which we move east to Samara, on the Volga River, and meet two centenarians living alone in very different ways.

In which we are reminded of a 1924 decision about train schedules.

Given the historical and personal realities she faced, Maria Konyayeva was very unlikely to live to 100 when she was born in 1917. And yet here she is.

For all the romanticism commonly associated with world travel, the brutal reality is that it is often a very un-romantic undertaking to move the meat that is our bodies around in the world.

Meet two more of our heroes whose long lives have surely been made possible by the care of their family and community.

Any good expedition has its lighter moments. We have collected nine such scenes from recent days into a one-act play for your enjoyment.

When Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was performed from besieged Leningrad on August 9, 1942, music suspended the horrors of war.