Culture & Customs

The Australian edition of 60 Minutes traveled to Oymakon last winter and brought back this story. 

Most people will associate Russia and Russians with tea, yet coffee is not some sort of Ivan-Come-Lately to Mother Russia.

Krylov on democracy and how leaders are chosen: "However just the rules and laws, in unjust hands or beaks or paws they can be bent to serve the goal of leaders loath to lose control."

“Grandfather” Ivan Krylov was widely known for his gargantuan appetites and for the dinner parties regularly thrown in his honor. Our recipe for Ukha should satisfy.

Living on ice, the boorocracy, profiling perps, naming cities, and where smoking holds sway.

Krylov on how one negotiates with wolves. Hint: one doesn't. "Of wolves I’ve learned a thing or two. With them there’s only one sure truce."

Photos captured by an unknown Czech Legionnaire, during those troops’ long sojourn in Russia from 1916-1919.

Curling snow drifts along the Dnieper River remind of a Hokusai painting.

Russia has its own way of marking Twelfth Night (Ephiphany). But as a Christian holiday it misses the mark.

Stats on HIV, salaries, doing business, death from bad eating habits, and more.

In Russia, valenki are as near as you can get to the country's number-one footwear after regular leather boots.

We look back and some of our, and your, favorite stories from The Weekly Russia File during 2018.