Roaming Russia

All of the feature stories in this issue in some way or another focus on travel: Russians traveling to India (page 34), Chinese traveling to Russia, traveling in search of Gulags, in search of bus stops, and traveling back in time to experience the Caucasus in the nineteenth century.

I may only have noticed this travel-heavy connection because it coincides with our epic trip across Russia, from its northernmost coast near Norway, to the southern shores of the Black Sea. In fact, soon after you receive this issue, I will be catching a flight to Oslo and Kirkenes, where Mikhail Mordasov and I will begin our adventure on the frosty edge of the Barents Sea.

Russian Life magazine has always been about armchair travel: telling stories from the past and present that help readers travel to Russia in their minds. But we also hope that our stories occasionally urge readers up out of their armchairs – to travel in Russia (or even India or China!).