Inside Brighton Beach's Babushka Beauty Pageant A lovely short film on Brighton Beach's Your Highness Babushka Beauty Contest.
Short Film: Anya A touching, short, CGI animated film looks at 20 years in the life of a Russian orphan.
Saving Steelhead in Kamchatka This beautiful film from YETI on an enviro-tourism effort to save Steelhead in Kamchatka is our video of the week.
From Tvorog to Protests Natalia was raised between downtown St. Petersburg and a small village. She is passionate about sharing all aspects of Russian life: both the good and the bad.
Shurpa: Gulnaz's Taste of Home Gulnaz has lived in many places: the Siberian North, St. Petersburg, Georgia, and Moscow. And shurpa has been with her wherever she went.
From the Urals to San Francisco Olga was born one year after the collapse of the USSR, but she witnessed both scarcity and communal living. Optimism and creativity have served her well.
A thirst for travel... and kefir Leo started traveling as a young man. Upon emigrating, he traveled around the world twice, and has been to 120 countries. At 84, he yearns for more.
Piter's People – Natalia Kapiturova We begin a new project, in which readers meet regular St. Petersburgers, to learn about their lives and their favorite places in the Northern Palmyra. First up: coffee!
Piter's People – Nikolay Predtechensky St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 as a port on the Baltic Sea, and about 10% of its surface area is water. So we meet a boat rental company owner and find out the best place for pizza in the city.
Piter's People - Katya Kotlyar Graphic designer, traveler, instagram explorer, Katya Kotlyar knows her home city inside out, and sees it as an artist would, as a beautiful backdrop for living.
Tchaikovsky Maria Plotnikova acquaints us with Tchaikovsky. No, not the composer, the town named for him in Siberia's Perm Krai.
Veliky Ustyug Yuli Lyubeznikov and Alexandra Ivanova show off their town, one of the oldest in the Russian North: Veliky Ustyug
Pyatigorsk Anton Podgayko left Moscow for Pyatigorsk in order to shoot in the Caucusus. He takes us along.
Beslan Photographer Oksana Yushko offers us a poignant look at Beslan, 12 years after the horrific tragedy there.
A Good Butcher In which a retired Polish butcher explains how to live to be 100 and serenades us on his trumpet.
Countdown to Departure So, what exactly have we been doing in the two months since the successful closure of our crowdfunding for this project?
Vadim Markelov Businessman, producer of barbells and weight machines, Petrozavodsk I am not ready to give some sort of high-falutin answer. Patriotism – what is it? Love for one’s country, we love it; the government, not so much, because we can distinguish between the two. We love the place we live, and all of those who surround us. This is a fact. But what patriotism is, I don’t know... I just don’t know what patriotism is, truly. That is all.
Valery Nikolaev and Larisa Ilyinikh University professor, Oryol (Valery) I am a patriot of my city and my country. Why? Of course there are many shortcomings and many problems in our country, but I probably don’t know a better country than Russia. Economist, Oryol (Larisa) I too am a patriot of my city and country. Most likely because I was born here and my famly and all of my life is here, and because I like it here.
Alexandra Turchenkova Vocal student at the Gnesin Academy of Music, Moscow I am now am studying in the Gnesin Academy, an academy which has a really huge musical tradition. And for a musician, there should be no limits, a musician should create and be capable of expressing herself. And I, of course, am lucky to have been born in Russia, and to know Russian, to be able to interpret Russian music, because I can feel it. I feel that the main patriotism of a musician is to be able to perform Russian music. But, of course, to always seek to widen her horizons and be engaged in music more generally, that is in its broadest sense.
Larisa Safronova Editor of the newspaper Elektron-TV, Krymsk I can say that I love Russia. But patriot, non-patriot, there are so many definitions of this word, both as a curse and as praise. Therefore I love my motherland and divide it into rulers and people, into what I have loved since childhood: school, parents, the city where I was born and raised, and in which I now live. That is everything that I love. But to be a patriot, does that mean to defend the national interests of one’s country? If they are just, then yes, I will defend it to the last. IF not, then I will also defend it. Perhaps that’s simply how we are built. Mine, ours. That’s all.
