May 01, 2021 What Lies Beneath On the architectural heritage of Moscow that is being lost, bit by bit, though not without some resistance by dedicated scientists and activists.
November 01, 2016 Moscow in the Middle Despite the current economic downturn, the capital continues to buzz with construction and renovation. We look at what drives current changes and where things are headed.
December 07, 2020 Soviet Disneyland: Exploring VDNKh One of our favorite spots in Moscow is a surreal blend of theme park, museum, and Stalinist kitsch.
January 30, 2021 Moskvarium: Making a Splash at VDNKh One of the newest VDNKh pavilions is Russia's most dramatic oceanarium, embracing captive orcas even as other countries begin to abandon the practice.
August 19, 2021 Seal Friends, Soviet Sunbathing, and Secrets of Moscow In this week's Odder News, a horse dung walking trail, a seal with a very proper name, and Mrs. Russia takes the stage.
July 08, 2020 Boars and Bad Weather “If you meet a boar, don’t approach it and don’t look it in the eye … if you meet a whole herd, stay away from the piglets.” - Advice in a note from the Moscow mayor's official website on the appearance of wild boars in some Moscow parks
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.
Woe From Wit (bilingual) One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Jews in Service to the Tsar Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Tolstoy Bilingual This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious.
Chekhov Bilingual Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout.
Far & Away ~ Tales from Rural Russia 33 original stories about modern (and not so modern) life in rural Russia.
Kashtanka – A Bilingual Reader A bilingual presentation of one of the great classics of Russian literature.
Resilience: Life Stories of Centenarians Born in the Year of Revolution Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
How Russia Got That Way A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
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.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual) A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia The very word Siberia evokes a history and reputation as awesome as it is enthralling. In this acclaimed book on Russia’s conquest of its eastern realms, Benson Bobrick offers a story that is both rich and subtle, broad and deep.
