November/December 2015

The more foreign things you forbid or ignore, the smaller and less safe your world becomes.

Russia is in the lead in staking a claim for Arctic "land" and the ownership of what are estimated to be vast oil and gas reserves.

On the one hand, social media of late was overtaken by reaction to a bigoted act against the special needs sister of a famous model; on the other hand, controversy arose about Russians being a bit too nostalgic about the 1990s.

A look back at the premiere of the masterpiece Battleship Potyomkin, at what it chose to keep in and what it chose to keep out.

Why did Tsar Alexander I grant a constitution to Poland, a subject state of the Empire, and not Russia?

A look at Russia's on-again, off-again relationship with censorship since the time of Peter the Great.

Where we take on the knotty issues of how to start and end an email in Russian. Plus of course some of the stuff in between.

One hundred and fifty years go this July, the first part of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace was published.

It may have been built by Russian laborers, but the Kremlin and its churches has Italian architects to thank for its Third Rome design ethos. This is their story.

Is Russian poetry a shortcut to understanding the ever elusive Russian Soul? We aim to find out.

In a small village in northwest Russia, Nadia Sablin spent seven summers capturing evocative photos of her dear Russian aunts. It is a stunning portrait of their generation and the countryside.

The Russians and the Swiss have had a special relationship for over 200 years. It all dates back to a rather perilous crossing of the Alps by Russian troops that preserved Swiss independence.

The news is filled with stories of refugees, migrants and barbed wire, to say nothing of xenophobic laws and sanctions. So when we came across this award-winning comic book tale by a Yekaterinburg-based artist, we had to share it.

Moscow has seen a surge in food truck festivals. Jennifer Eremeeva went to check one out and found one of the most popular proprietors on site was offering an old Georgian drink filled with nostalgia... and tarragon.

Reviews of Eugene Vodolazkin's Laurus, Stephen Meyer's The New Tsar, and Svetlana Stephenson's Gangs of Russia.

Syrian refugees are also streaming through Russia to Europe, only along a not very hospitable path, and are forced to make the last leg on bicycles.