Culture & Customs

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...

Russians practice their rights: heated debate, voting in North Korea, and not getting any more survey calls. 

There's a new Russian-language detective show on Netflix. It's a bit like Gogol meets House meets Sherlock. 

Let's go to Nizhny Novgorod to hear a Russian rendition of the song of the year. And then, lets meet some puppies and a vodka thief.

The new Luzhniki, the stadium in Moscow where the opening and final matches of this summer’s World Cup football (soccer) championships will be held, hosted its first match: a friendly game between Russia and Argentina.

A Russian entrepreneur and family save a village, start an agro business, and share a recipe for Tatar pies.

In which we tour four museums in four cities and towns in Russia and Ukraine, to see what they tell us about soceity more broadly.

We travel to a distant, Siberian lake, Russia’s second deepest, in search of the remains of ancient Evenk culture. The reindeer may be largely gone, but fishing is still an important, and powerful, shared tradition.

Things worth knowing on the travel front.

For our final TWERF of 2017, we look back and re-share some of our favorite stories from 2017. They may not be the most note-worthy or news-worthy stories, but we felt they were the most fun.

Why are Russians are such enduring villains, and what was the real intent of the election meddling campaign?

Photography, food and spies comprise this week's Three Best Reads. We travel to Vilnius, Brooklyn, and Washington, DC, to consider wagging tongues, boiled tongues, and an overlooked photographer.