On Valentine's Day 65 years ago, the USSR and China signed their Treaty of Friendship. But their budding romance was not to last: just six years later the relationship went south, and nothing has been as rosy since.

As oil prices drop, the Russian economy finds itself facing an ever bleaker future. Is someone targeting Russia? Russian bloggers weigh in.

We have just finished our 45-day Kickstarter project for the book Red Star Tales, and we are speechless. Almost.

How can you be accused of wanting to restore the bourgeoisie when all you've said is that the current policy isn't anti-bourgeoisie enough? Leon Trotsky responds to the nonsense dominating Soviet courtrooms in the 1930's.
 

Tsar Ivan IV had a bit of a temper. When you look at his record of dramatic self-exile, tyrannical persecution, domestic abuse, and abrupt changes of heart, you realize that the current meaning of "Terrible" fits him quite well.

When the Editors at Russian Life asked me to write about how my friends and I (“the younger generation”) view the current state of Russian-American relations, given the events of 2014, I honestly had to pause and think about it.

As a special gift, we share a somewhat untypical holiday story, reprinted from the pages of Chtenia, by the master humorist and short story writer Mikhail Zoshchenko. 

World oil prices are plummeting, the ruble is in free fall, the Russian economy is on the brink of a recession, inflation is climbing, and the Russian Central Bank’s benchmark interest rate has jumped to 17 percent. Meanwhile, President Putin still has popularity ratings in the 80 percent range and there is, seemingly, no panic in the streets of Moscow. What is going on? What is Putin’s game? 

The Soviet war with Finland in 1939-1940 tends to get overshadowed by its notable neighbor, World War II. But in fact, the Winter War was a disaster all its own.

The assassination of Sergei Kirov on December 1, 1934, set off one of the bloodiest periods in Russian history. Was it a conspiracy involving the highest ranks of leadership? Or was it all planned and carried out by one "lone gunman"? We may never know.

Don't be fooled: the old man with a white beard and red coat is not Santa Claus. It's Grandfather Frost! Learn how to tell the two apart with this handy list.

November 4 is now the Day of People's Unity in Russia. But what unity? What people? A look at the holiday's history brings up more questions and confusion than it does answers – but Russians don't let that spoil their long weekend.