July 01, 2019 Nikolayev's Birthday It was Nikolayev’s birthday, which in ordinary years would always start bright and early... but this was no ordinary year... Customs Humor Rural Life
May 01, 2019 Someone Else's Granny Even when you do a good deed, you need to pay attention, or you may chart a new road to humility. Humor Rural Life
March 01, 2019 Horse Power Belarusian Alexei Usikov has invented a new vehicle – a horsemobile, with the mighty horsepower of one horse. Humor Rural Life Transportation
March 01, 2019 In Putin's Footsteps Nikita Khrushchev’s great granddaughter, Nina Khrushcheva, and an expat living and reporting on Russia and the Soviet Union since 1993, Jeffrey Tayler, offer a poignant exploration of the largest country on earth. Regions Rural Life Travel
January 17, 2019 The Beauty, the Beast, and the Bumbling Public Official The post-holiday doldrums must not exist in Russia, where we find stories of hope, change, and a mayor that cares. News Regions Rural Life The Weekly Russia File Russia File
January 05, 2019 The Coldest Town in the World The Australian edition of 60 Minutes traveled to Oymakon last winter and brought back this story. Regions Rural Life Travel Russia File
January 01, 2019 A Winter's Tale (mostly about valenki) In Russia, valenki are as near as you can get to the country's number-one footwear after regular leather boots. Customs Humor Rural Life
November 01, 2018 People's Court In which the Rural Council takes up the case of “The Conduct of Nikolayev, N. N.” Law Rural Life
September 01, 2018 Two Fishing Tales Fishing can tell you a lot about life in the countryside, about sickness and health, chance and Fate, to say nothing of electricity and sausage Humor Rural Life
May 01, 2018 Avdotya and the District Medic When the district medic comes around, the stage is set for a skirmish between modern and traditional medicine. Rural Life
January 01, 2018 Retaking a Village A Russian entrepreneur and family save a village, start an agro business, and share a recipe for Tatar pies. Food & Drink Rural Life
January 01, 2018 Cats in the Fridge “We do buy newspapers, and why wouldn’t we? It’s all spelled out in the paper – what the weather’s going to be like, how many rubles there are to the dollar, when the district center’s going to have chickens for sale. No, how can you do without the printed word?” Rural Life
June 08, 2024 Songs of Faith, Love and Delight! June 8 First Congregational Church | Palo Alto, California San Francisco's Slavyanka Chorus invites you to a concert featuring a colorful tapestry of folk songs and sacred hymns by renowned women composers. Music
June 15, 2024 Roma Rhapsody Capital One Hall | Tysons, Virginia The Washington Balalaika Society Orchestra's Spring Concert, Roma Rhapsody, will be at 7:30 pm on Saturday June 15, 2024. Music
June 07, 2024 Songs of Faith, Love and Delight! June 7 St. Mark's Episcopal Church | Berkeley, California San Francisco's Slavyanka Chorus invites you to a concert featuring a colorful tapestry of folk songs and sacred hymns by renowned women composers. Music
June 09, 2024 Songs of Faith, Love and Delight! June 9 Star of the Sea Church | San Francisco, California San Francisco's Slavyanka Chorus invites you to a concert featuring a colorful tapestry of folk songs and sacred hymns by renowned women composers. Music
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
At the Circus (bilingual) This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Okudzhava Bilingual Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
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 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.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
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.
Tolstoy Bilingual This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious.
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.
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.
301 Things Everyone Should Know About Russia How do you begin to get a handle on the world's largest country? This colorful, illustrated guide will get you started...
Resilience ~ The Russian Version (Переживем) Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
April 06, 2020 A Russian Gift A look at how the Jesuits, Pope Francis, and Georgetown University all share an interesting connection to Russia. History Int'l Relations Religion Russia File
May 31, 2020 Inside Brighton Beach's Babushka Beauty Pageant A lovely short film on Brighton Beach's Your Highness Babushka Beauty Contest. Culture Pop Culture Russians Abroad Women Video of the Week Russia File
February 03, 2018 12 Myths/Truths About Russians and Vodka Think you know your vodka? Take this True/False quiz (just 12 items) about Russians and their vodka and see if you are right about that... Food & Drink Russia File
February 20, 2014 Russian Genealogy A comprehensive listing of resources, online and off, for researching your Russian roots, courtesy of Ginny Audet. History Reference Russia File
January 10, 2014 Why Don't Russians Smile? It is a common trope that Russians never smile. Which of course is interpreted to mean they are unfriendly, gloomy, sullen – positively Dostoyevskian. This, of course, is a complete misreading of body language and cultural norms. Culture Humor Language Russia File
September 07, 2021 Using Laughter to Cope These eight outstanding Soviet comedies show some of what has made Russians laugh over the past century. Most are still watched today. (First in our new series on learning about Russia through its films.) Culture Through Film Russia File