How to read Russian abbreviations and what to do with them
In the 1920s, the Russian language abbreviated everything in sight and at some point got around to people. Boys were named Vladlen, from Vladimir...
September 3, 2026
Kvass, the history of the Russian drink and how to make it at home
A beverage shelf in a supermarket somewhere near Boston. Kombucha in glass. Ginger ale. Between them a dark plastic bottle, on the label...
September 2, 2026
Outline maps, what are they and why does a child abroad need them
On the kitchen table lie two maps of Africa, and both are white. One is from the school atlas that mother brought with her to...
August 27, 2026
Stalin, his era, and debates over his legacy
A teenager brings home a video found through a search for Joseph Stalin. A cheerful voiceover announces that the leader inherited a country with a wooden plow,…
August 25, 2026
Free online Russian language, the best 2026 resources besides apps
A familiar sight. A parent installs the app with the green owl, subscribes to a podcast, bookmarks a couple of channels. The first week is energetic. After a…
August 22, 2026
Particles in the Russian language from «zhe» and «li» to «by» and «nu»
In the play, next to the line, there are parentheses. «I won't go» (defiantly). And right after: «I won't go» (confused). The words…
August 21, 2026
How Russian surnames are structured and where they came from
At an American school roll call, the teacher reaches a Russian family and stumbles. The list features Ivanov and Ivanova, brother and...
August 20, 2026
Where the Russian language came from, its history and origin
The words «mother,» «brother,» and «home» sound suspiciously similar from Iceland to India. German Mutter, English mother, Latin mater, Sanskrit matar,…
August 20, 2026
Mikhail Lomonosov, the Russian Leonardo da Vinci
Open the seventh-grade physics textbook and read any paragraph aloud. Pendulum, pump, refraction, atmosphere, drawing, diameter, square, minus, horizon,...
August 19, 2026
Anna Akhmatova, poet of an era and keeper of memory
In the winter of the late thirties, outside the Leningrad Kresty prison, there stood a line of women with care packages, and they stood there for months, sometimes with...
August 19, 2026
