December 01, 2021 Of the Old School "Let's revive the Soviet school of education. It was the best in the world, everyone has always recognized this, and this is what our legislative proposals should be aimed at. After all, the Unified State Exam is just some kind of torture for young people." – Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, reminiscing about how the Soviet system of education really made the grade. Education Politics Social Issues Quote
November 24, 2021 After the Lord Mayor's Show "They are waiting for conversations from us, but not concrete actions.” – Andrei Alekseenko, the new mayor of Krasnodar, seems to have confused the demands of his citizens. Cities & Towns Politics Social Issues Quote
November 17, 2021 Belarus, Bigwigs, and Boasting "I knew Hafez Assad, I knew Saddam Hussein, I knew Muammar Gaddafi. We had very good and close relationships with them. We met with them. I'll tell you, the greatest thinkers!” – President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko name drops on November 10. Int'l Relations News Social Issues Quote
November 10, 2021 Why Not International Relations? "Sometimes there is a desire to remain silent about something, to not have a falling out, but this is the wrong strategy. Conversations, conversations, and more conversations. Find out from the get-go who cannot put up with what, for whom some moments are unacceptable, what responsibilities and rights you will have, and so on.” – Russian Psychologist Kristina Yakubova, giving advice for couples in their first year of marriage that might do any (ahem) conflicted pair some good. Family Humor Int'l Relations Quote
November 03, 2021 Make Not War Art "In connection with the incident, the State Hermitage was forced to apply to the prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg with a statement to conduct a prosecutor's check and assess the actions of a citizen for possible violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation, including in terms of public insult to the memory of the Defenders of the Fatherland.” – Press Service of the St. Petersburg Hermitage, announcing it would be reviewing an artist’s behavior for potentially insulting the veterans of the Patriotic War of 1812. Art History Law St. Petersburg Quote
October 27, 2021 Don't Bungle Your Bowels, Eat Sauerkraut "Sauerkraut that can almost completely solve the problem with dysbiosis. This is because it contains a fairly large amount of dietary fiber, which is a good nourishment for your microflora, and immunity largely depends on the work of the intestines.” – Nutritionist Andrey Solotarev on what might be good for the gut. Food & Drink Health Quote
October 20, 2021 That's Not the Team Spirit "Because of e-sports, we are losing future great athletes who could become Olympic champions.” – Svetlana Zhurova, State Duma Deputy and Olympic Champion, commenting on the recent (sedentary) victory of the Russian cybersports group Team Spirit. Internet Sports Quote
October 13, 2021 Being the Face Sans Facebook "The president’s website is working. There are no problems.” – On October 4 Press Secretary for the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov reassured the public that not even Facebook can take down the President’s site. Government Internet Quote
October 06, 2021 Devil-May-Care or Crazy Like a Fox? "We did not have a fox in the monastery, definitely not ours, but it’s probably someone’s pet. They write that someone [at the monastery] was scared, but the fox was the most scared of all – a hundred people chased after her with their phones; she is the main victim.” – A resident of the Srtensky Monastery in Moscow denied that a young fox accused of terrorizing parishioners had come from the premises. Animals Humor Moscow Religion Quote
September 29, 2021 Wisdom Welcomes a Wine Glass "The world is absolutely clear to me :) CHEERS.” – Elena, wine-bearing marathon runner in September’s Galaxy Vladivostok Marathon. Food & Drink Humor Sports Quote
September 22, 2021 What's Worse: Unsympathetic Aliens or Interfering AI? "The App Store portal: who regulates it? Artificial intelligence, people from Mars?” – Andrei Klimov, seeking to understand what’s going on behind the scenes with Apple’s App Store on September 17. Government Humor Internet Law Politics Quote
September 15, 2021 What's Inside of Fox's Mouth? “Snrrf.” *crunching sound* *laughter* “Pant, pant…” – A fox as it thieves a camera from tourists in Kamchatka on September 8. Animals Humor Regions Quote
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
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.
Fish: A History of One Migration This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Russia Rules From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
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.
Jews in Service to the Tsar Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
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.
Moscow and Muscovites Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin.
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.
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.
Bears in the Caviar Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
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 Little Golden Calf Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
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
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
November 18, 2016 Famous Americans with Russian Roots America is a land built by immigrants. We researched famous Americans with Russian roots and offer this compilation. History Reference Russians Abroad Russia File
February 24, 2023 Russia's Year of Horror After a year of horrific war, why does a magazine like Russian Life continue? Why not simply wash our hands of it and walk away? Culture History Journalism War Russia File
March 07, 2022 Russian Life Takes a Pause As the world reels from the horrific, criminal events being perpetrated in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, the Russian state, and the Russian military, all of us who nurture a love for Russian people, their culture and history, have been heartbroken. It is not easy to remain a Russophile when suddenly, all across the globe, the adjective “Russian” has become toxic. News Russia File
December 19, 2016 10 Things (And 5 Jokes) You Didn't Know About Brezhnev Soviet leader Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev would have been 110 on December 19. There are plenty of fun facts and surprising jokes behind the eyebrows. History Humor Politics Russia File
