December 29, 2019

The Year's Most Popular on Russian Life


The Year's Most Popular on Russian Life
Looking back on the best of 2019 Elena Bobrova

This year, Russian Life expanded online to include the full archive of all 25 years of the magazine, all while continuing to add lots of new and fresh online-only content. A few days ago, we highlighted our favorite Weekly Russia File stories from this year. And here, in case you missed them, are the online articles we published in 2019 that readers liked best.

In 2019, readers salivated over articles about food. Life is short, eat dessert first: our third most popular article of the year was all about Russian sweets. (A couple of them you might literally eat first, for breakfast!) Getting back to the basics, also on our Top 10 list were articles about soup and porridge, with all the information you could ever need to understand your “first course” or learn about the illustrious history of kasha. Of course, all three articles are linked up to dozens of our recipes, so you can taste Russia at home. But wait, there’s more than Russia: ever wondered why Georgian food is nearly as common in Russia as Chipotle in America? We have answers to all your burning questions about foods that start with kh: khachapuri and khinkali

Readers also loved articles about history gone wrong – from someone’s perspective, at least. Invading Russia, it seems, was a bad idea for Hitler. A “docuseries” about the unfortunate last Czars (Plural? Did Netflix think there was more than one of them?) was history gone wrong on television. Chernobyl, on the other hand, was a historical incident that went very, very wrong – but at least they got it right this time on the silver screen. 

In articles about Russian historical memorials, we also learned where history had gone big and where it had gone... weird. We know at least our readers weren’t planning on going home: they were reading up on tips for travelling the Russian rails, and stories about what they might encounter on their journeys. (Those who did stay a little closer to home made the trip to New York City’s Russian enclave, Brighton Beach). 

We also highlighted some wonderful individuals. Our birthday message to Dostoyevsky was suitably dark, and we reported on a “с днëм рождения” to cosmonaut Alexei Leonov that was literally out of this world. For those who prefer their blog subjects to be modern and female, we also had some popular articles in the Piter’s People series: food journalist Natalia Kapiturova and artist Ekaterina Khozatskaya

We celebrated Maslenitsa with proverbs and wondered whether we should celebrate Russia’s birthday at all. We rocked out to Russian music, and learned what grammatical choices are music to a persnickety language teacher’s ears. 

And… we opened our digital archives to so, so much more life in Russia. This was the year our print magazine came online, and, if you have a subscription, you can read the articles that revealed the hidden lives of women at the top of the world and the hidden contents of women’s purses; that explored the holy labyrinths of Altai and the spread of distinctly not-holy hogweed; that turned Russia’s most well-known poet into a meme and a poet you didn’t know that you know into, well, a poet you now know. And that just scratches the surface.

Thank you, dear readers, for a fun, far-out, tasty, critical, celebratory 2019. We look forward to finding you in your inboxes, Facebook feeds, and phone screens in 2020. 

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Some of our Books

A Taste of Russia
November 01, 2012

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

Russian Rules
November 16, 2011

Russian 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.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

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.

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices
May 01, 2013

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

The Samovar Murders
November 01, 2019

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

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.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

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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.

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