May 25, 2021

Peter the Great's Sandbox


Peter the Great's Sandbox
Peter the Great looks over the window he busted into Europe, 2018 Sandfest. Wikimedia Commons user Kora27

Now that the ice and snow have (finally) been cleared away from the Peter-Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, it's ready for summer sand sculptures. The annual Sandfest has colonized the fortress's beach.

This year's theme is "A World Without Limits," presumably encouraging now-vaccinated Russians to return to life before coronavirus. After all, the 2020 festival was canceled. Russians can travel around the biggest country in the world, but not much outside of it, so the world has come to St. Petersburg in the form of grains of sand.

The festival features pandas from China, kangaroos from Australia, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, and the Pyramids.

Sand sculptors moved 3,000 tons of sand over twenty days of preparation.

This year's Sandfest opened on May 22 and continues until September 15. The sand is treated with... something... so it will last that whole time.

You Might Also Like

St. Petersburg
  • July 12, 2016

St. Petersburg

Mikhail Mokryshin gives us a short trip around Russia's northern capital and some unusual photos.
Speedos in January
  • January 19, 2021

Speedos in January

Pack your bikinis and speedos: it's time for Russian winter!
'Sup?
  • August 12, 2020

'Sup?

St. Petersburg saw over 2,000 attendees at its stand-up-paddleboard (SUP) festival this year, many in costume and with pets in tow.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
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...
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
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.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
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.

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