History of Russia
The Runet Language from "preved" to "cringe"
An ordinary word doesn't have a birth date. No one can say in what year Russians started saying «bread» or «road»; linguists argue...
Ivan Kupala and the night that coincided with the solstice
The sunniest holiday on the Russian calendar is celebrated when the sun has already been waning for two weeks. The solstice in this century...
The Death of the Romanov Family and the Identification of the Remains Eighty Years Later
Talk about the Romanovs almost never starts with 1613. It starts with the 1997 animated film that children watch...
Chess in Russia, from Alekhine to Kasparov
An old wooden board used to be found in almost every home. It was brought out in the kitchen after dinner, laid out on a bench in the yard,...
Why does Ivan the Fool, as he's nicknamed, get lucky in Russian fairy tales?
The Russian fairy tale gives away its ending in the very first line. A father had three sons, two smart and the third a fool. The listener...
Food and groceries in Russian, from market to kitchen table
Russian food has words that trip up any phrasebook. Type "food in Russian" into a search engine, and you'll get a neat column:…
How many time zones are there in Russia and how not to get confused in them
On December thirty-first in Russia, the clock strikes midnight eleven times. Not consecutively, but an hour apart, and each time...
What is the weather like in Russia and how to talk about it in Russian
Tim is eleven, lives in Toronto, and talks to his grandmother from Petersburg every Saturday. One Saturday, his grandmother complained...
Russian phrases for traveling in Russia, from the airport to a cafe
The plane from Helsinki lands at Sheremetyevo after dark, and the first Russian word Dan hears spoken live, not from an app,...
The Siege of Leningrad, 872 days of heroism
During the most terrible months, voices were rarely heard on Leningrad radio. Instead, a metronome ticked in the speakers, steady and soft,...
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