January 31, 2022

Valuing Values


Valuing Values
Shining exemplars of "Russian values." The Russian Life files

You know, we're living in a society.

Russia's Ministry of Culture, acknowledging and lamenting this, is in the midst of creating and implementing a new plan for 2022 with the goal of preserving traditional Russian values.

The project guidelines, entitled "Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values," are set to be officially enshrined in February. These values include patriotism, historical memory, and traditional morality.

The project seeks to strike against the "cult of selfishness" brought about by our brave new world. Namely, "the United States and its allies, transnational corporations, foreign non-profit organizations."

According to the Ministry of Culture, these institutions have adversely affected the ideals of the Russian citizenry, which has caused a sharp decline in beneficial patriotic feeling and good Orthodox morality.

Our hope is that we'll see more patriotic displays that border on the goofy.

You Might Also Like

  • July 01, 2020

"Painting Jesus Isn't Dangerous"

Moscow is seeing religious symbolism crop up in unexpected places. It’s not the first time, but there is something different about what is going on now.
Putin's Victorious Summer
  • July 08, 2020

Putin's Victorious Summer

This year's Victory Day parade was a sight to behold⁠— and we might be seeing its effects for the next 16 years.
Kalling All Krokodils
  • March 07, 2021

Kalling All Krokodils

The Soviet satirical magazine Crocodile, which ran from 1922 until the 2000s, was both a government tool for propaganda as well as space for artists, comics, and writers to engage in hard social and political critique.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955