Inside Brighton Beach's Babushka Beauty Pageant A lovely short film on Brighton Beach's Your Highness Babushka Beauty Contest.
Short Film: Anya A touching, short, CGI animated film looks at 20 years in the life of a Russian orphan.
Saving Steelhead in Kamchatka This beautiful film from YETI on an enviro-tourism effort to save Steelhead in Kamchatka is our video of the week.
A Soviet Bake-Off and Blini Julia Frey's parents, Victor and Victoria, created beautiful feasts in the Soviet times. For Victor, it meant getting cake equipment tailor-made and becoming the best baker in town. For Victoria, it was cooking a Russian and Ukranian storm. Julia cooks, bakes and reminisces about her "great childhood" in London.
Siberia: Land of Pines, Exile, Cold... and Bird Cherry Cake. Siberia is surrounded by stereotypes, but there's more to it than exile and cold. It has amazing forests, pine nuts and delicious bird cherry cake.
Milk Foam Pancakes is Only the Beginning Traditional Yakut meals get a second chance thanks to local museum. Tuyara, museum employee and part of the program to bring back these recipes, shares her story.
Eggplant Caviar, on the Shelf and at the Dacha Brought to Russia in the seventeenth century, eggplant caviar became wildly popular after a Soviet comedy movie. A Russian blogger shares her story.
Piter's People – Natalia Kapiturova We begin a new project, in which readers meet regular St. Petersburgers, to learn about their lives and their favorite places in the Northern Palmyra. First up: coffee!
Piter's People – Nikolay Predtechensky St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 as a port on the Baltic Sea, and about 10% of its surface area is water. So we meet a boat rental company owner and find out the best place for pizza in the city.
Piter's People - Katya Kotlyar Graphic designer, traveler, instagram explorer, Katya Kotlyar knows her home city inside out, and sees it as an artist would, as a beautiful backdrop for living.
Chelyabinsk Artist Anastasia Bogomolova takes us on a tour of Chelyabinsk, famous for its meteorite, tanks, and a very special forest.
Smolensk Irina Novikova explains the resilience of Smolensk, its legends, ghosts, churches and fortress. Oh, and why people stop by a city park to stroke the genitals of a bronze deer.
Astrakhan Let's go south with Liailia Gimadeeva, who acquaints us with the beauty and wonders of Astrakhan!
Two Samara Stories In which we move east to Samara, on the Volga River, and meet two centenarians living alone in very different ways.
Meet Four Russian Centenarians One hundred years ago, in 1917, Russia was wracked by revolution, famine, foreign war, and domestic unrest. And yet, throughout 1917, babies were born, lives were started.
Of Rivers, Mines, and a Lake Two days in Irkutsk and one on Baikal, where we meet a soft-spoken mechanic and visit two very different tourist destinations.
Valeria Miloslavskaya Tea Sommelier, St. Petersburg I am a patriot of my country. Really, this is a very strange question. Can I have a moment? Because I truly love my country, my relatives, and they live here. And therefore I adore my country. I cannot tear myself away from my relatives, my work, my friends.
Alexandra Turchenkova Vocal student at the Gnesin Academy of Music, Moscow I am now am studying in the Gnesin Academy, an academy which has a really huge musical tradition. And for a musician, there should be no limits, a musician should create and be capable of expressing herself. And I, of course, am lucky to have been born in Russia, and to know Russian, to be able to interpret Russian music, because I can feel it. I feel that the main patriotism of a musician is to be able to perform Russian music. But, of course, to always seek to widen her horizons and be engaged in music more generally, that is in its broadest sense.
Ksenia Tsukareva Deputy Director for Marketing and PR, Sochi Hockey Club I can call myself a patriot, because I am committed to my family, my business. I give my full 100 percent not because that is what is needed, but because that is what I want. Because I truly believe that if it comes from within, then it is much stronger than any affixed stamp of citizenship or responsibility. Patriotism is that which comes from within.
