Culture & Customs

Russians are wearing less and will have to do with fewer mushrooms this year. President Medvedev is Russia's Internet President (while PM Putin apparently does not even have a cellphone)...

How do you begin to get a handle on the world's largest country? This colorful, illustrated guide will get you started... 

Once the Romanovs’ summer home, Pushkin is a sleepy suburb of St. Petersburg with a storied history. And, thanks to the presence of royal palaces, it is also one of Russia’s most touristed towns.

Ok, I might be biased, given that at Russian Life we're focused 24/7 on things Russian. But lately it seems like Russians are popping up everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. 

A new movie opens July 30 starring Melanie Laurent and Alexei Guskov and it sounds like a fun summer diversion for Russophiles. We're waiting for our review copy to deliver a judgement, but here is a synopsis...

Arkady Plastov's painting "The Tractor Drivers' Supper" exemplifies the Socialist Realist style, and is full of important cultural references, which lead inevitably to this issue's recipe, for Cabbage with Noodles and Poppy Seeds.

A look back at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, marred by an international boycott and the sudden death of the bard Vladimir Vysotsky.

Life is always stranger than fiction, or, in this case, it may have been imitating [bad] fiction. Or at least so it seems from the transcripts of the case against Anna Chapman.

Where we consider the work of Alexei Venetsianov's "Girl with a Birch Bark Container" and how Russians used natural containers to preserve things like sour cream, which is this issue's recipe.

The fiercely independent Russian National Orchestra, the finest of Russian classical ensembles, turns 20 this year. We look at how they have flourished against the odds.

A consideration of the Russian notion of lunch, Zinaida Serebriakova's painting "At Lunch," and a recipe for Raisin Buns that will warm your winter day.