March 11, 2022

Blue and Yellow Lights


Blue and Yellow Lights
The Empire State Building, customized.  Screenshot, Twitter @EmpireStateBldg

A nation's flag is arguably the most symbolic and meaningful figure representing one's patriotism. Shortly following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, multiple cities and nations have shown their solidarity with Ukraine by raising the country's flag in their own way.

Landmarks across the globe are being lit with bright blue and yellow lights. While some may think it a small gesture that has no true effect, for many it symbolizes Ukrainian independence and patriotism in these unpredictable times

New York City, which holds the US' largest population of Ukrainians, has thus lit up the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, the Mid-Hudson Bridge, and the Kosciuszko Bridge with shining blue and yellow lights.

The national flag of Ukraine is a simple yet meaningful design. The flag is a bicolor with blue on top and yellow on bottom, symbolizing blue skies over golden fields of grain. The design was adopted on January 28, 1992, shortly following Ukraine's independence.

Other examples of national and international landmarks that have shined blue and yellow: 

- The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

- The London Eye in Lambeth, London.

- The Colosseum in Rome, Italy.

- The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany.

- Sundial Bridge in Redding, California.

- Dublin's Pedestrian Bridge, Veteran's Glass City Skyway Bridge, Cleveland Skyline, Licking County Courthouse, and the George V. Voinovich Bridge, all in Ohio.

- John Ringling Causeway in Sarasota, Florida.

You Might Also Like

The Toughest Sanction
  • March 07, 2022

The Toughest Sanction

Putin has been stripped of two martial arts honors in response to his invasion of Ukraine.
No War Please
  • March 04, 2022

No War Please

Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev writes a "no war please" message on a camera after a match. 
Reaffirming Ukrainian Sovereignty
  • February 28, 2022

Reaffirming Ukrainian Sovereignty

Zelensky's response to Putin recognizing the "independence" of the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics crystallizes the ongoing conflict.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
22 Russian Crosswords

22 Russian Crosswords

Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Russia Rules

Russia Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955