September 24, 2020 Cave Bears, Corruption, and Life on Venus This week, education is worth fighting for; corrupt officials go for all-or-nothing; and Lenin's mausoleum makeover is cancelled. Animals Cities & Towns Economy Education Government History Law Moscow Regions Science Social Issues Urban Life Odder News
September 16, 2020 McDonald's, Mayor Measures, Pets on Planes "McDonald's is expanding its geographic presence and plans to open the first factories in the Far Eastern Federal District in December 2020." – Press announcement by McDonald’s, which plans to open its first restaurants in Russia’s Far East Animals Geography Moscow Quote
September 10, 2020 Meet the New Minister, Meat in a Sausage, Mete Out a Fine This week: education! Tests for hopeful investors, savings for college, and learning what exactly is in sausage. Cities & Towns Culture Economy Education Food & Drink Moscow Social Issues Odder News
September 08, 2020 Pay with Your Face A new video surveillance system in Moscow’s metro will enable passengers to pay with a scan of their face. Moscow News Russia File
September 01, 2020 Moscow's Last Trolleybus Line Public transportation in Moscow is getting an electric facelift, but one trolleybus line will remain, in homage to this mode of transportation. Moscow Pop Culture Transportation Urban Life Russia File
August 13, 2020 Strange Celebrations, Cereal, and Wildlife Sneakiness This week: cereal jingles go viral, animal crossings save critters, and paratroopers take a swim in a fountain in celebration. Sounds pretty run-of-the-mill. Animals Culture Health Internet Media Moscow Music Social Issues Transportation Odder News
July 28, 2020 Attack of the Radioactive Berries A batch of cherniki was found to contain high levels of dangerous radiation. Food & Drink Health Moscow Science Russia File
July 23, 2020 Corruption, Crimea, and Coronavirus This week, Spotify comes to Russia, Crimea is a hot tourist destination (like always), and three cases of corruption: one big, one small, and one straight out of a spy movie. Cities & Towns Government Health Internet Moscow Music Politics Social Issues Travel Odder News
June 25, 2020 Odd Places, Odd Things This week's we feature a smattering of things that are somewhere they shouldn't be, including drugs, tanks, mammoths, kids, and (of course) Lenin. Children Environment Government Health History Holidays Law Military Moscow Science War Odder News
June 18, 2020 Help for Grooms, Swimmers are Doomed, and a Prisoner's Rooms This week we have grants for bride-stealing, anthropomorphic cakes, prisoners (and guards) walking on glass, and important advice for your next trip to Chelyabinsk. Customs Environment Food & Drink Health Law Moscow Music Transportation Odder News
June 04, 2020 Lost Tombstones, Shootouts, and Social Support for Reindeer Herders This week's Odder News reads like a bad movie, full of forgotten headstones, zombies, and a disagreement settled with firearms. Environment History Moscow Science Social Issues Space Transportation Urban Life Odder News
May 28, 2020 Car Crashes, Art, and Bikinis This week arts and crafts flourish under quarantine; a heatwave hits an unlikely place, and coronavirus fashion hits a new high (or low?). Animals Art Health Moscow Science Women Odder News
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 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
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
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
Marooned in Moscow This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
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.
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...
Chekhov Bilingual Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout.
Red Star Tales: A Century of Russian and Soviet Science Fiction For over 100 years, most of the science fiction produced by the world’s largest country has been beyond the reach of Western readers. This new collection changes that, bringing a large body of influential works into the English orbit.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
The Moscow Eccentric Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
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.
Fearful Majesty This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
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.
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.
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.
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 09, 2020 Russian/Soviet War Movies You Can Stream Some of the best Russian and Soviet films about World War II that you can stream online. Film & TV Reference War Culture Through Film CVSG 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
June 22, 2020 Why Invading Russia was Hitler's Downfall June 22, 2020, marks the 79th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Russia that changed the course of WWII and, perhaps, history itself. History Social Issues 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
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