January 29, 2020 The Motherland Calls... Reenactors By Griffin Edwards Military reenactors mark the 76th anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad with plenty of pyrotechnics. History Military St. Petersburg War The Weekly Russia File Russia File
September 10, 2019 Cover Story By Asya Lisina Asya Lisina created a beautiful and somewhat surprising cover for the current issue of Russian Life. We asked her to explain herself... Art Military Politics
May 10, 2019 A Dangerous Film about Dangerous Wars By Tiffany Zhu Pavel Lungin’s controversial film Братство is nothing new, but its political context is — and that’s what makes it so dangerous. Film & TV Military Politics War
January 15, 2019 A Tale of Two Movies By Maria Antonova Winter break is known to be a difficult time for Russia: to cope with all that time off, many flock to the cinema. This holiday season's most popular movie? It's about tanks. Film & TV Military War
January 13, 2019 A Great Overlooked Victory By Divya Ryan The Battle of Molodi, while not a well-remembered battle, was a rather important one in Russia’s history. Yet for some reason it is little-known. History Military War
November 16, 2018 Aleksashka in the Halls of Power By Tamara Eidelman On this day 345 years ago, Alexander Menshikov was born into a poor peasant family. No one could have predicted to what heights he would rise. History Military
September 01, 2018 Hired Guns By The Editors The deaths in July under mysterious circumstances of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic (CAR) has refocused attention on Russian mercenaries in foreign lands. Journalism Military News
May 01, 2018 Resurrection By The Editors This May some very special tanks will be featured in Russian memorial parades: Lend-Lease tanks sent to the USSR by the US and only recently pulled up from the bottom of the sea. History Military
November 01, 2017 1917 Diary By Tamara Eidelman All this year, in connection with the centennial of the 1917 revolutions, Calendar has offered readers a view of that year through the eyes of contemporaries. This issue we conclude the series with a look at what was going on in the pivotal months of November and December 1917. History Military Politics
May 01, 2017 Aurora's Sunset By Natalya Beskhlebnaya Soviet revolutionary mythology had it that the Aurora’s shot, signaling the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution, was heard round the world. We check in to find out the latest on the cruiser, and to examine some of its own myths. History Military
May 01, 2017 The Spring Dinosaur By The Editors Russia's annual spring draft began April 1. This dinosaur gets harder to kill with each passing year. Military Social Issues
November 01, 2013 In the Army Now By James Brown James Brown decided to test himself at the elite Russian paratroopers’ boot camp. This is his story. Military
May 01, 2021 to May 31, 2021 20th Annual Russian Arts and Culture Festival Virtual | N/A, N/A The City of West Hollywood administration invites everyone to join a virtual celebration of Russian Arts and Culture this May. An array of musical events, activities for kids, workshops, virtual tours, concerts, contests, interviews with interesting people, and much more will comprise a month-long celebration. The program of our events will be published on the website of the festival and in the Facebook group. Festival
Murder at the Dacha Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.
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.
The Moscow Eccentric Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka 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, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
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.
Fearful Majesty This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
The Spine of Russia This coffee table book is the photographic journal of an epic 6000-kilometer road trip. The book includes over 200 compelling images of Russians and Russian places met along the way, plus a dozen texts (in both English and Russian) on everything from business to education, from roads to fools.
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.
Woe From Wit (bilingual) One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
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 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.
April 23, 2014 Peace, Land, Bread By Eugenia Sokolskaya Peace! Land! Bread! This was the battle cry of the 1917 October Revolution (old calendar) that changed the history of Russia and indeed the entire world. Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, the tsars concentrated on centralization of their power and control. The most common way of doing this was to take power away from the nobility, appeasing them by giving them dominion over their land and workers. This soon developed into the oppressive, slave-style condition known as serfdom. History
January 28, 2020 Meet Russia's favorite sable By Maria Antonova Siberian sable fur was once Russia's biggest luxury export, but now we can't get enough of Instagram star Umora, the sable inspiring Russians to never look at fur coats again. Animals Internet Interview
May 09, 2020 Russian/Soviet War Movies You Can Stream By Yuliya Ballou Some of the best Russian and Soviet films about World War II that you can stream online. Film & TV Reference War CVSG
November 01, 2020 Tsarina: In the Winter Palace By Ellen Alpsten Catherine I finds herself at a turning point upon the death of her husband, Peter the Great. History Literature
March 17, 2019 When Russian Cuisine Turns Georgian By Tiffany Zhu Why is Georgian food so popular in Russia? Turns out there's more to it than deliciousness. Culture Food & Drink History
July 01, 2013 The Russian Bees Will Save Us By Paul E. Richardson American bees are dying from mysterious causes, putting our agriculture at risk for lack of pollinators. Russian bees might be part of a solution. Agriculture Environment Science
