Life and folklore in the remote Russian Far North

We interview a winemaker and philanthropist related to Rachmaninov, and explore her Tolstoyan connection to Californian soil.

Renowned conductor Semyon Bychkov has initiated a new project in appreciation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. We tracked him down in Paris to find out more.

2016 is the fortieth anniversary of the release of Hedrick Smith’s pathbreaking book, The Russians, the first book to truly take readers behind the Iron Curtain and into the everyday lives of Russians.

We catch up with a Russian émigré who has turned his love of photography and his hankering for business into one of the most successful online photo marketplaces.

Where we interview Nina Shevchuk-Murray, translator of this new book by Oksana Zabuzhko, which is an expansive piece of historical fiction that encompasses much of Ukrainian history, particularly during WWII.

Roofing and spelunking underground passages are so 2011. So says 22-year-old Vadim Makhorov, whose photos from atop vertiginous towers, about crumbling Soviet-era factories, and inside tunnels of working metro systems have wowed internet users and made his blog one of the most popular in Siberia.

In which we explode yet another myth. The Washington-Moscow Hotline does not employ glowing red telephones and is actually very rarely used. Yet it is still a fascinating institution, one apparently designed to sidestep common human shortcomings.

Vladimir Mukusev, once a media star, has been persona non grata on Russian television for a decade. We hand him a mike.

Reclusive, frank, astoundingly industrious and uncompromising, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was the most influential writer of his age, and he did more to topple the Soviet Union than any other individual in the 20th century. We spoke with his wife just a few months before his death.

Many consider Vladislav Tretyak to be the best hockey player of the 20th century. We chat with Tretyak about his second act – in an arena where things can get tougher than on the ice: politics.

In an interview with the son of Anastas Mikoyan, one of the key players in the 20th Party Congress, we take a trip behind the curtain of Soviet Oz.