May 22, 2020 To the Moon! Russia's space agency says it's ready to partner with NASA to go to the moon. Int'l Relations Science Space Russia File
April 30, 2020 TBT: A Terrible Defection On this day in 1564, one of Terrible's most trusted confidantes defected. But they kept in touch. History Int'l Relations Military TBT
April 16, 2020 TBT: The Treaty of Rapallo This little-known treaty actually set the stage for the devastation of Europe that was to come. History Int'l Relations Military War TBT
April 15, 2020 Why So Mean? “You know, it got to the point that they give such nasty information on [channel] Rossiya 1. Ah, the old man treats his people there with a tractor, vodka, a bath... But why are you making fools of us in Russia? Why should a Russian person get it into their head that there, in the West, our Belarusans, they’re some kind of crazy?" - President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on bias in Russian media against Belarusans Int'l Relations News Quote
April 11, 2020 Ready the Space Force! The US President's decree on lunar resource extraction has the Russian space community crying foul. Government Int'l Relations Science Space Russia File
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
March 23, 2020 A Modest Proposal If Russia has its way, NATO training would be postponed. Not because of coronavirus, but to preserve the memory of the dead of World War II. History Int'l Relations Military War Russia File
March 16, 2020 Generation "Y (Just) Russia, Y (Just) Politics?" Millennials studying Russian will determine the future of U.S.-Russia relations. How they differ from their Sovietologist predecessors. Int'l Relations Interview Politics Russia File
February 19, 2020 Sleeping Naked, Oh, and Tanks This week's Odder News: Belarus, the "Switzerland of the East," quiet hours, and tank-fueled wedding proposals. Government Health Int'l Relations Military Odder News
February 06, 2020 #TBT Yalta Conference Tuesday was 75th anniversary of the start of the Yalta Conference, the first step in rebuilding the post-War world. History Int'l Relations Military War TBT
January 01, 2020 The Sixth Minister From the diaries of the US Minister to Russia, George Washington Campbell, 200 years ago. History Int'l Relations Memoir
December 26, 2019 Best of The Russia File 2019 We re-share some of our favorite stories from 2019. They may not be the most noteworthy or newsworthy stories, but we felt they were the most fun. Humor Int'l Relations Music The Weekly Russia File Russia File
February 28, 2022 to December 31, 2024 Free Russian Language Guided Tours Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY Russian-speaking guides conduct tours of the museum's highlights every Monday at 11 am. Art Exhibit
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
Survival Russian Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Driving Down Russia's Spine The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia.
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.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar 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. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Resilience: Life Stories of Centenarians Born in the Year of Revolution Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia The very word Siberia evokes a history and reputation as awesome as it is enthralling. In this acclaimed book on Russia’s conquest of its eastern realms, Benson Bobrick offers a story that is both rich and subtle, broad and deep.
The Samovar Murders The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
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...
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.
A Taste of Russia The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
301 Things Everyone Should Know About Russia How do you begin to get a handle on the world's largest country? This colorful, illustrated guide will get you started...
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.
February 20, 2014 Russian Genealogy A comprehensive listing of resources, online and off, for researching your Russian roots, courtesy of Ginny Audet. History Reference Russia File
September 07, 2021 Using Laughter to Cope These eight outstanding Soviet comedies show some of what has made Russians laugh over the past century. Most are still watched today. (First in our new series on learning about Russia through its films.) Culture Through Film 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
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
August 22, 2016 Magical Kefir Kefir is the most popular fermented milk in Russia. But it did not get there overnight. Kefir and Russia have a long history... Food & Drink History Russia File
March 20, 2020 Vodka vs. Coronavirus Russia’s Ministry of Health discussed ways vodka can affect the coronavirus (spoiler alert: not much). Food & Drink Health CVSG Russia File