Culture & Customs

Eight tips to make your travels throughout the former Soviet Union easy, fun, and low-budget!

Ded Moroz and kindergarten parents conceive of the Christmas spirit very differently. Also, Russians may have domesticated the first dog.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Yanka Dyagileva’s punk rock album Anhedonia, the greatest monument to perestroika that you’ve never heard of.

Pie not in the sky, vampires against anti-vaxxers, cooks for cats… not to mention self-improvement in advance of the New Year

Russians may not celebrate Thanksgiving, but we can still be thankful for Russia

A cold flag, a resolved cold case, and the not-cold-at-all hearts of Russian children

Urban legends and superstitions made some sculptures in Moscow and St. Petersburg too famous for their own good, and some culture officials have had enough.

Seven types of kasha to last you all winter – from farina to kutya, and everything worth eating in between...

Brezhnev’s traffic ticket goes on sale, Crimea shows up in Astrakhan, and a man gives an all for his cat.

Fish aren’t food, ice cream is medicine, ferns are pickles

Hearty Russian soups to warm up this autumn, all seven days a week. 

Since the return of cooler weather again permits the use of ovens, let’s talk about cakes.