Culture & Customs

A look back at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, marred by an international boycott and the sudden death of the bard Vladimir Vysotsky.

Life is always stranger than fiction, or, in this case, it may have been imitating [bad] fiction. Or at least so it seems from the transcripts of the case against Anna Chapman.

Where we consider the work of Alexei Venetsianov's "Girl with a Birch Bark Container" and how Russians used natural containers to preserve things like sour cream, which is this issue's recipe.

The fiercely independent Russian National Orchestra, the finest of Russian classical ensembles, turns 20 this year. We look at how they have flourished against the odds.

A consideration of the Russian notion of lunch, Zinaida Serebriakova's painting "At Lunch," and a recipe for Raisin Buns that will warm your winter day.

Avatar has become the largest grossing movie in Russian history. But, more interestingly, a spin-off photo morfing site (which seemed to be connected to McDonald's Finland) allowed visitors to turn pictures of famous people into the blue Na'Vi. A Russian newspaper tried it with Medvedev and Putin. Here are the tinted results. First Putin:

A look at lubok and its use to promote etiquette, manners and morals at the dinner table. And a recipe for Steamed Trout.

A look at how Soviet propaganda made it onto people's plates.

After a three-year absence, Olympic champion Yevgeny Plyuschenko is staging a comeback.

Boris Kustodiev's "Merchant's Wife at Tea" is the takeoff point for a discourse on revolution, nobility and fine food, in this case Rogaliki - Walnut Crescents.

When it comes to bogeymen, China, Cuba, even North Korea can't hold a candle to old Mother Russia. This week, as tempers flared and theatrical protests abounded around health care, a woman offered this irrational take on proposed reforms at a town hall meeting ...