Some thoughts on backwardness, falling behind, and the challenges of change.

To thank (blagodarit) is one of the Russian language's most beautiful words. We go in for a deep dive.

After declensions, cases, aspect, verbs of motion, pronunciation, and all the other trials of the Russian language, there is one more thing to learn: quotes, jokes and allusions. Let's do this.

These days, if you are reading Russian periodicals in order to improve your Russian language skills, you are getting lots of practice in ways to lie.

On how recent foreign borrowings is shaping the Russian language.

A rather adequate look at the rise of "adekvatny" and "neadekvatny" in colloquial speech.

Every year, a group of Russian word-lovers vote on the word – or rather words – of the year. Here are the results.

A look at the evolving language of real estate in Russia.

On how much more difficult it is becoming to have a civil conversation in Russia.

The many ways that spitting has worked its way into the language.

A look at the many ways of taking a break, linguistically speaking.

Donald Trump sounds very different in English and in Russian. We investigate the why, and it's huge!