Culture & Customs

Nikolai Gontar leads us on a trip to the Republic of Mariy El, home to layered pancakes and some very unusual architecture.

Olga Titova takes us to Tver, a main city located between Moscow and St. Petersburg, a land of candles and goats, bridges and rivers.

Last week tiny Kinerma was named as this year's "most beautiful Russian village." As it turns out, Kinerma was a stop on The Spine of Russia project...

On Victory Day, Russian photographers Mikhail Mordasov and Ignat Kozlov captured images of World War II veterans and young Russians who are the same age as the veterans were when they went off to fight in the war. They asked each of their subjects two questions: "What should one live for?" and "What should one be willing to die for?"

Mikhail Solunin, 28, takes us on a tour of Nizhny Novgorod, at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers.

It can't be easy to make a mark in a sport where your grandfather long ago made your family name legendary, but Victor Tikhonov is giving it a snapshot.

Last fall, Russian Life editor Paul Richardson and photojournalist Mikhail Mordasov set off on a Kickstarter-funded, month-long, 6,000-kilometer road trip between Russia’s northern and southern borders.

In celebration of Tsar Alexander III’s coronation in May 1883, the renowned artist Viktor Vasnetsov designed menus for a series of festive dinners.

Russia’s law on foreign agents may be getting increasingly draconian. In its latest iteration, any charity could be deemed a political tool of international forces.

After you finish strolling St. Petersburg's Nevsky Prospect, you'll want to visit these five must-stroll streets in the Northern Palmyra, to get a feel for the rest of the city. 

2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Revisit the history on this tour of St. Petersburg and Moscow's war sites – the ones you may not find in the guidebook.

On April 14, 1671, Cossacks captured rebel leader Stenka Razin and ended his rebellion against the tsar. Here’s some background on Razin’s uprising, and what it meant for the fate of Russia.