Culture

A Taste of Russia has been revised and updated with a new Preface that considers the changes in Russian culinary culture since the original edition came out in 1983. Also included are a dozen delectable new recipes, such as Onion Dumplings, Horseradish Vodka, and Whipped Raspberry Mousse. In addition, the entire book has been totally redesigned with a fresh, modern presentation.

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 and rich portrait.

“Stargorod is emphatically not big...”

So begins Peter Aleshkovsky’s profound, humorous, mystical and poetic novel in stories – a tribute to Russian provincial life that is a modern heir to Gogol’s Mirgorod tales. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod...

Buy both of Peter Aleshkovsky's novels published by Russian Life Books and save! Includes both the Booker-nominated Fish and Stargorod, the novel which first brought Aleshkovsky to national fame. 

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.

How do you begin to get a handle on the world's largest country? A font of world culture... Driver of world history... Home to Baba Yaga and Baikal... to the inventors of vodka, television and the theremin... This colorful, illustrated guide will get you started...

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This new 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.