Culture & Customs

One of the most vivid images in Russian fairytales is that of the skatert-samobranka, a self-spreading (and self-cleaning) tablecloth. We consider this magical mystery and offer a recipe for delightful pirozhki.

There is not a single Russian-born player in the American Baseball Hall of Fame. Yet if the tide of history had flowed just a bit differently, Victor Starffin might well have ended up in Cooperstown alongside Ruth, Gehrig, Killebrew and Mays.

No rock musician has had such a profound, lasting effect on Russian culture as Victor Tsoy.

There is not a single other figure in Russian rock – living or dead – who has attained the same sort of cult status as Victor Tsoy, who would have been 50 on June 21. And while Tsoy’s biography is well-known, it hardly explains how it is that the person and legacy of Victor Tsoy continues to this day to play such an important role in Russian culture - even in Russian mass culture.

Biscotti have nothing on Russian rusks. We offer a simple recipe, plus a rumination on a famous photo from the 1920s.

In honor of Maslenitsa, we offer this great story/essay by Chekhov on bliny: "Did you know that bliny have been around for over a thousand years, since what is known as the old Slavonic ab ovo...? They appeared on earth before Russian history began and have lived through it all from the beginning to the last page, without any doubt, invented, like the samovar, by Russian minds...."

Lyubov Petrova Orlova was born January 29, 1902 and became the first Soviet movie star and sex symbol. She was also Stalin’s favorite film actress and a highly gifted singer. This is an extended biography of the artist (an abridged version ran in the JanFeb 2012 issue of Russian Life).

Turning Sochi into an Olympic city is a Herculean task. Environmentalists, local residents and bookkeepers are all wary. And then there is Georgia, just a few kilometers away.

A history of Leon Theremin, inventor of electronic music and the instrument which bears his name.

A short consideration of the life and work of Alexander Scriabin, born on Jan. 6, 1872, a composer whose life was cut tragically short, but who nonetheless set the stage for much that was to come.

A consideration of the hearty Russian mushroom soup, Pokhlyobka, and Vasily Perov's evocative painting, "Receiving the Wanderer."

What comes to mind when you think of a Russian national icon? Vodka, matryoshkas, bears? Fyodor Dostoyevsky? Alla Pugacheva? Cheburashka? Surprisingly few people, including Russians themselves, mention babushkas, the omnipresent grandmothers in head scarves.  Yet their influence is huge. Red Square huge. Katyusha rocket huge. So it pays to know how to please them...