Category: Moscow

More than 200 runners and their four-legged friends put their best feet — and paws — forward this weekend for the Fast Dog Cross Country charity run in Moscow’s Bitsevsky Forest Park. The annual race raises money to help support animal shelter and rescue efforts. Take a look at the fast-paced race in action:

Dima, Yekaterinburg I grew up in Yekaterinburg, I’m transgender. It all started because I thought I liked to dress like a boy. Then I started thinking about it more, and at first I decided that I was agender, something in the middle of both sexes. Then, about a year ago, I realized that I wasn’t…

The time has come to speak about Russia’s true national sport. Forget football, disregard hockey, and abandon judo; the season of “tikhaya okhota” or silent hunt is upon us, when stalkers armed with long sticks and bark and twig “lukoshki” baskets set out through misty mornings to run their quarry to ground in the damp…

Staggered seating, social distancing, masks and gloves – so begins the 42nd Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF). The organizers couldn’t invite Hollywood and international celebrities to the opening ceremony, but this didn’t stop MIFF from coming up with a new and extremely rich movie program. Many of the films presented at the festival, unfortunately, will…

The Moscow International Film Festival will not screen an Armenian drama set in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in order to avoid provoking violence between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the Russian capital, Interfax reported Wednesday. Organizers made the decision as clashes between arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh entered their fourth day and the number…

The Second Triennial of Contemporary Russian Art at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art that opened this month is a very unusual exhibition. Called “A Beautiful Night For All the People,” the show consists of works chosen not by curators — professional art experts — but by the participants in the last Triennial.   To…

Over the weekend, bikers from across the country gathered in Moscow to mark the end of the 2020 motorcycling season and enjoy the last moments of the Indian summer before cold temperatures take over the capital. The MosMotoFest participants rode along Sakharov Avenue and made their way along the Garden Ring before arriving at Gorky…

From childhood on it’s just been me and my mom: my dad died in a motorcycle crash before I was even born. When I was in school, my mother was getting her education, and from the fifth grade on I was already completely independent. In my upbringing my grandpa played the biggest role. From the…

This summer the 13-year-old Elisabeth Anisimow spent her summer vacation at the dacha — painting an image of the Transfiguration of Christ on a village chapel. Born to Russian parents in Los Angeles, Elisabeth (Lisa) Anisimow showed an interest in art at an early age. When she was still a toddler, her mother would take…

A new American film that turns the executions of Russia’s last tsar and his family into a fantasy-tinged teen comedy has caused an uproar among Russians, who say the film mocks their history. At first, the plot of “Anastasia: Once Upon a Time” sounds outrageous enough to rank among other so-bad-they’re-good classics: As Vladimir Lenin…

The best of both worlds: Lady Gaga released the music video for her new single “911” — and it’s filled with references to the classic Soviet Armenian film “The Color of Pomegranates.” The 1969 film by acclaimed director Sergei Parajanov depicts the life of an 18th-century Armenian poet, focusing on visually intricate and symbolic scenes rather…

All throughout the quarantine period, our friends and neighbors at the Hyatt Regency Petrovsky Park kept us well-fed with weekend deliveries of delicious foreign cuisine. They are continuing the tradition of enticing international food and drink. Only now, we can get out of the house and go to them. Singaporean Cuisine Festival The first special…

Whether you prefer running the trails or surfing the waves, this past weekend had plenty of outdoor activities for Muscovites looking to enjoy the last of the late summer weather. Around 25,000 runners participated in the eighth annual Moscow Marathon on Sunday. The 2014 Toulouse Marathon winner Sardana Trofimova beat her own previous Moscow marathon…

The first thing we see is a portrait of Stalin, a huge stack of freshly printed newspapers and a bunch of flags, rolled up and put in the corner. The man at the reception desk asks us what we want. We ask for a brochure, but he instead he suggests to talk to Ivan, who…

Trucks piled high with cabbages backing up to supermarkets and markets and the gaping holes on the salt shelves announce autumn in Russia as much as do the muted yellow beauty of the damp leaves and the wispy fog on the river before the morning sun burns it off.  Russians roll up their sleeves and…

Andrei Kureichik, a celebrated Belarusian playwright and a member of the Coordination Council of Belarus, has written a play about the month of protests and events in Belarus since the contested presidential election on August 9. The play, “Insulted. Belarus,” was written during and right after the events and translated into English by prominent translator…

Can a prodigal son be trusted? What lies behind the remorse? And what really made this tormented soul return? These are the questions raised by a multimedia installation created by award-winning filmmaker Alexander Sokurov and inspired by Rembrandt’s painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” which is held in the collection of the Hermitage. The…

On Saturday the Russian motorcycle racer Danila Krasniuk entered motorsports history. He became the first ever Russian to compete in an Irish motorcycle race, the Cookstown 100. The Cookstown 100 has been held on public roads in Northern Ireland since 1922 and traditionally opens the Irish road racing season in late April. However, this year…

This weekend, Muscovites got the chance to witness the best of the Soviet Union’s automobile legacy as 100 Zhiguli sedans raced in the annual GUM AutoRally on Saturday. This year’s event marked 50 years since the release of Zhiguli’s first model, VAZ-2101, commonly known as ‘Kopeyka’ (named after the smallest ruble coin, the kopek). Here’s…

Vladivostok, Far East Sergei, 28 years old I was born on Sakhalin. I’m a drag racer. The culture of drag racing came to us from the USA. It’s simple: two cars line up, then race for a quarter mile (402 meters). The faster car wins. A time under 10 seconds is considered to be fast,…

Tens of thousands of nameless older women inhabit St. Petersburg, picking their way amongst the pockmarked sidewalks and treacherous cobblestones, dressed in clean but shabby clothes, their shoulders stooped with decades of carrying heavy burdens.  They are as integral to the city as the elaborate facades and the noonday gun from Peter and Paul Fortress,…

The North River Terminal in Moscow was begun in 1933 and opened in 1937. Designed by architects Alexei Rukhlyadev and Valdimr Krinsky, the terminal was on a waterway leading to the Moscow-Volga Canal. It was the 12th river terminal to appear in the city but by far the most impressive, with an enormous terminal building…

On Thursday Oct. 10 at 5 p.m. MSK (3 p.m. in London, 10 a.m. in New York) the Russian Jewish Congress together with the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Moscow and the British Holocaust Educational Trust are holding an online event dedicated to British citizens who have been given the title Righteous Among the…

In 1989 a group of artists led by Nikolai Polissky began to move to this beautiful land not far from Kaluga to the southeast of Moscow. The idea was to build an land art park: art objects made of various materials that would be set in the natural surroundings to show off art and nature…

It’s day 14 of our travel, and we leave Baikhal to Irkutsk after a-four-day stay on a beautiful island of Olkhon. As we get inside Bukhanka, a cramped old Soviet mini bus that takes us from the island back to Irkutsk, we start talking to a young couple. The oddity of this encounter is that…

Apple season is officially open! One of the more colorful hybrid holidays in Russia is Yablochny Spas, or “Apple Savior,” celebrated each year in late August, traditionally the moment when apples are ripe for picking.  In a delightful tradition reminiscent of Holy Thursday in early spring, Orthodox faithful bring baskets of apples and other early…

Vladislav Surkov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s longtime aide and Ukraine pointman, who was dismissed in February, has penned a poem on the virtues of freedom and loneliness. In his poem, Surkov, 55, a noted lyricist and rap aficionado, reflected on being ousted after seven years of deciding Russia’s Ukraine policy and cultivating the image of…

Women wearing floor-length dresses in muted colors, men in frock coats and tailcoats, the sounds of romantic melodies, tea aroma from a wood-burning samovar and tourists with cameras… This was the scene at the Tainy Usadby (Secrets of the Manor) immersive festival, organized by the Crystal Elephant Cultural Development Club. It has been held since…

Schools reopened across Russia on Tuesday as coronavirus cases in the county topped one million. A set of guidelines sent to Russia’s regions by the Education Ministry and consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor says nothing about requiring teachers or students to wear face masks, but orders schools to provide hand sanitizer and install air disinfecting machines.…

Russian children go back to school on Sept. 1 — known as Day of Knowledge — despite coronavirus infections in the country rising by about 5,000 cases a day. The Education Ministry and consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor have issued a set of guidelines aimed at minimising the spread the virus. The new rules include regular…

Galina, 25 Blagoveshchensk My mom had me when she was very young, just 18. She did not need kids, she loved going out and having fun. She would often abandon me to go to some party in some shady place. I still have a deep fear of drunk men. I just hate them. My father…

As an advocate for the working class, the world’s first female cabinet minister and an unapologetic feminist in revolutionary Russia, Countess Sofia Panina was a trailblazing figure in a time of dramatic social upheaval. Now, 100 years after her adopted home of the United States gave women the right to vote, the fascinating life story…

Misha (Blago), 43 years old I grew up in Blagoveshensk. I work as a shoemaker and sew mukluks: a type of traditional Buryat boots. I didn’t have a mother: when I was two years old, they took away her parental rights. I don’t remember her, I don’t even have photos. She drank all the time…

Victoria Lomasko is an artist, journalist and writer who has combined her talents to create a new medium. Last year in an interview with The Moscow Times, she explained that she doesn’t work in the genre of “documentary comics or graphic novellas, but in the genre of graphic reporting. It is a matter of principle…

“Once again, nothing is happening.” This merciless slogan greets visitors from puffy white clouds as they enter the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg. The installation by Mayana Nasybullova is just the first provocation from the curators of the exhibition called “Nemoskva [Not Moscow] Is Just Around the Corner.”  An imaginary elevator that never…

In a large park about two hours outside Moscow, hundreds of wild animals and birds live, rest and play — but this is no zoo. Covering four hectares of land, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center rehabilitates rescued animals in a calm, quiet environment with the goal of releasing them back into the wild or bringing them…

Vitaly, 42 years old I was born and live in Reutov, Moscow region. I collect coins. At five I found my first coin while playing in a sandbox in kindergarten. I remember seeing it for the first time: five zlotis with a hole inside, in a doughnut shape. Somebody must have worn it on a…

Belarus is almost never in the news, let alone above the fold, but this week, Russia’s near neighbor gave the coronavirus a run for its money in front-page column inches as frustrated voters took to the streets to protest fraudulent election results.  With the country’s internet blocked and very few foreign correspondents accredited, grainy footage…

Rufina Bazlova is a Belarusian artist who has lived in the Czech Republic for 12 years. She is an illustrator and theater scenographer who has responded to events in her homeland through the medium of embroidery. She said that the embroidery is a kind of “code” for the country’s history, with red as the symbol…

Belarusian Nobel Prize-winning writer Svetlana Alexievich condemned police violence against protesters in her country and urged strongman Alexander Lukashenko to go peacefully in an interview published Wednesday. The 72-year-old author won the 2015 Nobel Literature Prize for her work chronicling the horrors of war and life under the repressive Soviet regime including the 1986 Chernobyl…

Renowned Russian conductor and violinist Vladimir Spivakov will return an award from Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko due to police violence against protesters in the days since Belarus’ presidential election. Spivakov, 75, condemned the police crackdown in neighboring Belarus in an open letter published by the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. More than 6,000 demonstrators have been…

The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography and the Still Art Foundation have announced a new exhibition of works by Naum Granovsky, the Russian capital’s chief architectural photographer during the Soviet era, to mark the 110th anniversary of his birth. The retrospective exhibition combines Granovsky’s famous photographs of old Moscow in the 1920s and the Stalinist…

We are hitchhikers. In winter, spring and fall we have regular jobs in sales. We sell building materials and wood to save up for the upcoming travel and equipment. Then in summer we always quit our jobs and hit the road. Our employers hate this, as it is the biggest selling season. But in life…

Moscow’s cinemas, theaters and concert halls re-opened to the public on Aug. 1 after being closed for more than four months due to the coronavirus. These cultural institutions have introduced a number of safety measures to help prevent the spread of the virus among their audiences. The Russian capital’s movie theaters in particular bear little…

Many believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is firmly in the rearview mirror, but this is clearly madness.  I’m still in full lockdown and in deep danger of becoming something I never imagined: a homesteader. I spent much of the spring baking bread and early summer brewing kvas, and now in high summer it’s time to take…

If you’ve read the book “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, you remember how Tom Sawyer’s aunt made him paint the fence as punishment. But Tom made it seem like so much fun that his friends wanted to paint it for him while he went off and played. Inspired by this episode, the…

Last summer journalist Marina Dmukhovskaya and photographer Georg Wallner took a trip on the Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Vladivostok. For 28 days and almost 10,000 kilometers, they talked to dozens of people in “Seat 47” (Mesto 47) riding next to them. When they returned, they turned 38 conversations into first-person stories. Here is one of…

An economist by education, Ksenia Buksha has worked in finance, marketing, and advertising. She is a mother of three, plays the guitar, draws, and paints. She is also, writer Dmitry Bykov asserts, one of the best poets of her generation, although she is better known for her prose. The 37-year-old St. Petersburg native has published…

This weekend Stage Russia has joined up with Russian Life magazine, Russian and Georgian filmmakers, plus libararies and universities around the world to offer three films for free livestreaming this weekend. One is available to everyone; two are available free to people with library cards or student/teacher IDs at participating institutions.  “Resilience” In 1917, Russia…

At the end of March Moscow’s movie theaters were all closed due to the coronavirus and everyone switched to watching films online. But finally, earlier this month Mayor Sergei Sobyanin signed a decree allowing cinemas to open on Aug. 1. The number of visitors in the hall, however, must be 50% of the number of seats. Although…

“The Master and Margarita,” Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic Soviet tale of when the Devil went down to Moscow, has been ranked the most popular book among Russian prisoners, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” ranked second, followed by “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas in third, TASS cited…

Russian lawmakers recently introduced legislation that will have major implications for the country’s transgender population. If passed, the draft law — which also seeks to ban LGBT marriage and adoption — will make it impossible for transgender people to change their gender on official documents after they have transitioned. Activists and rights groups say the…

This summer, when international travel is difficult or impossible, tourists are flocking south to the resort towns on the Black Sea or Sea of Azov. But after a few days of lying on the beach, you and your family might want to see what else the Krasnodrar region has to offer. You’re in luck! If…

Beat Film Festival, founded in 2010, is likely to become the headliner of this summer’s cultural events in Moscow. It launches on Aug. 1, when the city’s movie theaters are allowed to open after their long downtime during the coronavirus quarantine.  This year the films will be shown online and offline, sometimes with discussions including…

Rimma, age 85  I have always been interested in the unknown. I was born on the 25th lunar day, that means I am prone to insight and intuitions. My destiny is to interact with people, my karmic task is to serve them. I have been learning and practicing numerology and esotericism for 40 years already.…

Behind many a successful food writer stands an inspirational grandparent. This is certainly true of Anna Kharzeeva, author of “The Soviet Diet Cookbook: Exploring Life, Culture and History — One Recipe at a Time.”  With the help of her grandmother, Yelena Moiseyevna, Kharzeeva, a thirty-something Muscovite, set out to explore the world of Soviet-era cuisine by…

After four months of coronavirus lockdown and counting, we all could use an escape from Moscow’s urban expanse. Nikola-Lenivets, a sprawling open-air art park filled with wonders both natural and manmade, is a great option for getting away from the noise without breaking social distancing. Covering 650 hectares of Ugra National Park in the Kaluga…

Russian cinemas will delay premiering heavy dramas after reopening because viewers “aren’t ready” for heavy dramas amid the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Wednesday. Russia closed down movie theaters, museums and other cultural establishments after the outbreak first hit the country in late March. Russia’s Culture Ministry lifted the nationwide ban last week, leaving it up…

The AZ Museum of non-conformist art is celebrating its fifth anniversary with an exhibition dedicated to George Costakis, who was, without exaggeration, the savior of the early Russian avant-garde and post-war non-conformist art and artists. Called “Costakis’ Choice,” the show leads visitors through the life of this great collector, which is to say through the…

As Moscow’s museums have slowly begun to reopen in the past month, the Russian capital’s cultural life has also reawakened with a series of new exhibitions. In addition to requiring masks, most museums require visitors to reserve tickets online for a specific time slot in an effort to keep crowding down and curb the potential…