April 17, 2024 North Korean Holiday North Korea hopes to host vacationing Russians in a "tourist zone." Int'l Relations Russians Abroad Travel Russia File
March 10, 2024 A Rooftop Renegade A St. Petersburg tour guide has been punished for breaking locks on rooftop excursions. Law St. Petersburg Travel Russia File
November 05, 2023 Readers Respond: What We Miss about Russia We asked, "What do you miss about traveling in Russia?" We got pure poetry. Interview Travel Russia File
November 01, 2023 No Telegram Today Telegram users across Russia reported outages following an attack in Dagestan on a flight from Israel. Internet News Politics Religion Travel War Russia File
November 01, 2023 Then and Now Checking in with three young men who fled in the wake of last year's mobilization. Dissent Family Military Russians Abroad Travel War
October 31, 2023 An Unwelcome Arrival Protesters in Russia's Dagestan surrounded and attempted to storm a flight arriving from Tel Aviv, Israel. Int'l Relations News Russians Abroad Transportation Travel War Russia File
September 20, 2023 Pilgrimage Under Shelling: "Shana Tova" From Uman Despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, 35,000 Hassidic Jews went on a pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine, for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Customs Religion Transportation Travel War Russia File
September 17, 2023 Russian Cars Can't Finnish Finland has banned the entry of cars bearing Russian license plates. Int'l Relations Transportation Travel War Russia File
August 09, 2023 Young Chechens Face Passport Hurdle Chechnya restricts passports for under 30s for “Russia's interests.” Government Law Transportation Travel Russia File
May 24, 2023 FSB To Seize Passports The State Duma is going to give the FSB the right to take away passports at the border. Government Law Science Travel Russia File
March 05, 2023 Tourists from China Return To Russia Russia reactivates tourism from China for strategic reasons: to buy weapons from Beijing for the war in Ukraine. Int'l Relations Politics Travel War Russia File
February 21, 2023 Riding through Russia A female Russian motorcyclist has set a world record for riding from Magadan to Mirny across permafrost. Cities & Towns Geography Travel Women Russia File
February 28, 2022 to December 31, 2024 Free Russian Language Guided Tours Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY Russian-speaking guides conduct tours of the museum's highlights every Monday at 11 am. Art Exhibit
November 11, 2023 to September 15, 2024 Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West Wende Museum | Culver City, CA This exhibit highlights the resilience and creative power of people deprived of their freedom or their own place to live. Art Exhibit
22 Russian Crosswords Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
Bears in the Caviar Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar 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.
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.
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.
Woe From Wit (bilingual) One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
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.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
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.
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.
Driving Down Russia's Spine The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia.
Jews in Service to the Tsar Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
March 07, 2022 Russian Life Takes a Pause As the world reels from the horrific, criminal events being perpetrated in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, the Russian state, and the Russian military, all of us who nurture a love for Russian people, their culture and history, have been heartbroken. It is not easy to remain a Russophile when suddenly, all across the globe, the adjective “Russian” has become toxic. News Russia File
March 17, 2019 When Russian Cuisine Turns Georgian Why is Georgian food so popular in Russia? Turns out there's more to it than deliciousness. Culture Food & Drink History Russia File
September 14, 2019 Eight Russian Desserts To Make Your Mouth Water Forget vodka – dessert is the best part of Russian meals. Culture Food & Drink Russia File
February 24, 2023 Russia's Year of Horror After a year of horrific war, why does a magazine like Russian Life continue? Why not simply wash our hands of it and walk away? Culture History Journalism War Russia File
August 22, 2020 Sad Smiles and Kremlin Corruption Recounting a 2008 meeting with activist Alexei Navalny, before he rose to prominence. Government Politics Russia File
October 14, 2016 Five Wild Facts about St. Basil's Cathedral On October 14, 1991, St. Basil’s Cathedral was reopened after six decades. Here are five fun facts in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Cathedral’s rebirth. Culture History Religion Russia File
