Category: Architecture
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Russia Submits ‘Dylda’ For Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award
Russia has submitted “Dylda” (“Beanpole”), a film directed by 27-year-old Kantemir Balagov, for consideration in this year’s Best Foreign Language Film category at the Academy Awards. The film, Balagov’s second, is based on an interview from Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s book “The Unwomanly Face of War.” The book was one of the first to expose…
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On This Day in 1906 Dmitry Shostakovich Was Born
Russian composer and pianist Dmitry Shostakovich was born on Sept. 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg as the second of three children from a Polish Roman Catholic family with roots in Siberia. He would become known as one of Russia’s greatest 20th-century composers and a tenaciously resilient figure amid the Soviet Union’s crackdown on artists. Shostakovich’s…
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Russians Relive WWII Experience in Life-Size Exhibition in St. Petersburg
Hundreds of people queued in St. Petersburg over the weekend to visit the newly opened “Memory Speaks” panorama exhibition at Sevcabel Port. The immersive exhibition recreates the path of an unnamed schoolteacher who goes to the front, taking visitors through a dozen scenes — from his wooden cabin in Belarus to trenches outside Leningrad, street…
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Moscow’s Changing Street Names Reflect Its History
It often happens that when giving directions or setting up a meeting point in Moscow, I seem to stumble. Then I pause for a second before remembering the correct name of the street so that my interlocutor understands which venue I have in mind. There are several streets that trigger this confusion, but the main…
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Challenging Dated Stereotypes of Russian Cuisine With Smoked Salmon
Many people believe that Russian cuisine is very heavy and calorific. Chef Alexander Volkov-Medvedev likes to challenge this stereotype and showcase the diversity of Russian dishes. This salmon is his favorite dish because it goes through so many stages of preparation. A typical Russian dish can be light on the stomach, but it still takes a…
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Traditional Recipes Recreated With Flair
At Ruski, the chef likes to mix things up a bit, sometimes preparing traditional recipes authentically, sometimes recreating them with modern flair. Sugudai is a traditional northern dish made of fresh, uncooked fish such as salmon, dressed with oil, vinegar or other acidic ingredient, green onions, fresh herbs and salt and pepper. Here it is…
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Europe’s Tallest Buddha Statue Unveiled in Russia
Russia is now home to the tallest Buddha statue in Europe. The 30-ton golden monument to the Maitreya — a bodhisattva who will appear in the future — was unveiled in Russia’s Buddhist stronghold of Kalmykia on Sunday. Sitting at 12.5 meters tall, the Russian Buddha in the Kalmyk city of Lagan overtakes the 10-meter…
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‘Circle of Light’ Shines Bright in Moscow
From Sept. 20 – 24, Moscow’s annual “Circle of Light” festival lights up the capital with dazzling displays of art, history, playful projections and more. Light designers and multimedia artists from around the world had the chance to reimagine the Russian capital’s iconic architecture for the festival, incorporating not just light, but also flame, lasers…
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Hit Drama ‘Chernobyl’ Wins Best Limited Series Emmy
HOLLYWOOD — Writer, creator and producer Craig Mazin’s HBO hit “Chernobyl” won the American television academy’s Emmy award for best limited series on Sunday. Mazin was also awarded the best writing Emmy for his script. In a short acceptance speech, Mazin thanked the “hundreds of people around the area dedicating themselves to telling this story.”…
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On This Day Sergei Ozhegov Was Born
On this day in 1900 Sergei Ozhegov, the writer of one of the first Russian dictionaries, was born. Born in Kamennoe village in the Tver region, Ozhegov is celebrated for his “Dictionary of the Russian Language,” which remains the most widely used reference for the Russian language today, especially for writers, journalists and interpreters. The…
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Where Indians Eat Indian Food in Moscow
An estimated 14,000 Indians currently live in Russia — most in Moscow — and an ever-increasing number of Indian tourists visit the capital every year. Consequently, while perhaps not a staple of the native Russian diet just yet, Muscovites are familiar with Indian cooking, and there is an array of restaurants available to satisfy a…
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Russia’s Love Affair With India
When Ponnuchamy Jeevanantham first came to Moscow from Tamil Nadu in southern India in 1987 to study agriculture at the Peoples’ Friendship University he was dismayed by how mild Russian food was compared to Indian cuisine. “You couldn’t find any spices,” he said. “There were bay leaves, black pepper and maybe some chilli powder —…
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Behind Moscow’s Facades, Legacies of Soviet Atheism
Moscow is full of Soviet-era institutions built on once-sacred ground. While passers-by might have little reason to notice these buildings, the Russian Orthodox Church is, in many cases, fighting legal battles to evict long-time tenants and claim valuable, centrally located real estate that was once appropriated by Soviet authorities. Just this year, the Church has…
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Moscow’s Inspiring New Cultural Season Opens
The start of fall turning Moscow’s trees into colorful pieces of art also marks the start of the cultural season, with the city’s theaters, museums and conservatories inviting people to enjoy the artworks inside. This is Russia’s Year of Theater, and events will be held across the country, including a Theatrical Olympiad, an All-Russian Theater…
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Zaryadye Concert Hall Gets New Organ
Now that summer is over, Moscow’s concert halls are opening their doors to the new season. Zaryadye Concert Hall, Moscow’s shiny newcomer to a crowded field, opened its doors last year to much fanfare, with performers gushing over its state-of-the-art acoustics and edgy design. To keep up the momentum, this year the Zaryadye directors said…
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Take Me Out to the Ball Game … in Moscow
It’s a warm Moscow evening under the floodlights of a baseball stadium. The hitter sends the ball flying off the bat into a cloudless sky. A fielder 80 yards downfield sprints to get under it, glove raised. He’s made it in time, but can he take the catch? No! He fumbled. The hitter makes second…
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Russian Priests Hit the Streets in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg’s main thoroughfares were shut down Thursday for a grand Russian Orthodox procession. The occasion: celebrating the day in 1724 when Peter the Great transferred St. Alexander Nevsky’s saintly relics to St. Petersburg. Priests donned their finest golden robes for their walk down Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s main boulevard, and were reportedly joined by…
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On This Day Alexander Rosenbaum Was Born
Alexander Rosenbaum was born into a medical family in Leningrad on Sept. 13, 1951. He qualified as a doctor, but became one of Russia’s most famous bards, or singing poets, best known for his so-called blatnaya pesnya songs about criminal subculture. His most popular songs are “Gop-Stop,” about two gangsters executing an unfaithful lover, and…
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Pelevin’s New Novel Plays With U.S.-Russian Culture Wars
Every fall, Russia’s reading public is offered a new dose of esoteric musings and funny word play from the novelist Viktor Pelevin. While it may be a nuisance for those who have never been hooked on his work, it is now a notable annual literary event for those expecting his latest release. This year’s work…
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Dziga Vertov’s ‘Anniversary of a Revolution’ Has its Second Moscow Premiere
On Sept. 6, 100 years after its first premiere, Dziga Vertov’s first film, “Anniversary of the Revolution,” had its second Moscow premiere at the Oktyabr Theater. The film had been thought to be lost, but film historian Nikolai Izvolov found it in pieces in the state film archives and painstakingly restored it and put it…
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On This Day Lev Tolstoy Was Born
Lev Tolstoy was born into a family of Russian nobility in Tula in 1828. The fourth of five children, Tolstoy’s mother died when he was two and his father when he was nine. He and his siblings were then raised by relatives. At 16, he enrolled in Kazan University and began studying law and languages.…
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Moscow Celebrates Its 872nd Birthday, in Photos
Each year, Muscovites celebrate the founding of Moscow in 1147 with a huge citywide bash during the first weekend of September. From free entry to museums to special performances and parades through the city center, there was no shortage of ways to wish the Russian capital a happy birthday. Here are a few of our…
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‘Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews’
Award-winning journalist Sam Sokol is the author of “Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews,” a book covering the tragic fate of the Jewish communities in Ukraine since the 2013 Euromaidan revolution, the annexation of Crimea and war in the Donbass. As a reporter for the Jerusalem Post covering European diasporas, Sokol was ideally placed to…
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Opening Eyes to Sightless Life in Moscow
The lights go off, and a soft gasp washes over the crowd of about 250 people standing in a theater as we’re plunged into pitch-black darkness. A voice over the loudspeaker issues instructions, and so I put my left hand on the left shoulder of the girl in front of me, and she puts hers…
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Mongolia Welcomes Putin With Military Pomp, Vivid Performances
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday referred to relations between Russia and Mongolia as “brotherly” during his visit to Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. And just as brothers do, Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga welcomed his Russian counterpart with an elaborate ceremony before negotiations began. The country’s State Honor Guard and an orchestra lined up to welcome Putin at…
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Russia’s Young Innovators Build the Future at Rukami Festival
More than 300 young inventors and innovators from across Russia put their ideas on display at the Rukami (“By hands”) Festival in Moscow this weekend. From smart lighting and parks for future cities to automatic systems for municipal solid waste, this event, centered around the theme of digital evolution, was full of new ideas for…
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On This Day 15 Years Ago the Siege of Beslan Began
On Sept. 1 fifteen years ago, all across Russia families were beginning to celebrate the First Bell — the start of the new school year: children lined up in their school best, parents and grandparents beamed and took photographs, and school principals gave speeches to welcome the students. The scene was repeated in every city…
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On This Day in 1935 the ‘Stakhanovite’ Movement Was Born
The Soviet miner Alexei Stakhanov was born in the Oryol province on Jan. 3, 1906. After taking courses in mining and learning to operate a jackhammer, on Aug. 31, 1935, he reportedly mined a record 102 tons of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes, which was 14 times his required quota. The Soviet government…
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‘The Long Shadow of Chernobyl’
A little boy in a bright yellow jacket stares at a picture of an abandoned kindergarten in Pripyat, Ukraine, a series of rusted cribs covered by dust and chunks of plaster filling a room that has been left untouched since a few days after the nuclear plant explosion in 1986. “Why have they left all…
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On This Day Space Dogs Flew a Mission
On Aug. 27, 1958, the Soviet Union launched the dogs Pyostrya and Belyanka into space. The craft, a R-5A rocket, set a new record in terms of weight-to-height ratio, as it reached 453 kilometers above the earth’s surface at a weight of over 1,500 kilograms. The dogs safely returned to earth following the flight. Between…
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Russia’s Weird and Splendid Regional Flags and Сoats of Arms
Russia is the largest country on earth — and as a result, its regions and cities are incredibly diverse and unique. There’s no better place to see this diversity than on their flags. Many are beautiful, some are weird, and others just ridiculous. Over the weekend, Moscow marked its national Flag Day festivities by unfurling…
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Russia Hosts International Military Band March-Off
Every summer, Red Square plays host to the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival. The event features military orchestras and marching bands from across the world. This year, 30 orchestras from 12 countries will take part in the festival. The winner will be chosen not by a panel of judges, but by the audience’s vote.…
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On This Day Ivan the Terrible Was Born
Ivan Vasilevich, more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan IV, was born on Aug. 25, 1530 in Kolomenskoye, Moscow. The grandson of Ivan the Great, he acquired huge amounts of land during his reign, transforming a Grand Duchy into a Tsardom. Through this, however, he imposed a reign of terror and exhibited uncontrollable…
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Olga Zilberbourg’s “Like Water and Other Stories”
Born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. in 1979, Olga Zilberbourg moved to the United States when she was seventeen. Following three short story collections in Russian, her first English collection. “Like Water and Other Stories,” explores the lives of women who have different and often competing roles and cultures. She introduces the intriguing theory that “the past,…
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Art Patron Mikhail Abramov, Dead at 55
On Aug. 20 collector and art patron Mikhail Abramov was killed in an accident near Peloponnes, Greece on his way to the international airport and a flight to Moscow. The helicopter he was in crashed into the sea, killing Abramov, another passenger and the pilot. Abramov was a businessman and collector of ancient Christian art…
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Russia’s Street Art Festival Unveils Sky-High Spray-Painting
As part of Russia’s Urban Morphogenesis Street Art Festival, spectacular displays of graffiti will be put on display in the Moscow region district of Odintsovo. The murals will be painted over 35,000 square meters in 30 days. Here are some of our favorites:
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On This Day: Leon Trotsky Was Assassinated With an Ice Pick
Born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein in 1879, Leon Trotsky was the fifth child in a Ukrainian-Jewish family. His family had a successful farm in what is now Bereslavka, Ukraine, which was home to a large Jewish community. At home, Trotsky spoke a mix of Russian and Ukrainian, though he was also fluent in French, English and…
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Sailing Into the Past in Lipetsk
Flags flutter above linen tents, musicians play ancient melodies on old musical instruments, craftsmen peddle their wares… This might look like the film set for the latest television series, but it’s actually a historical reenactment festival called Ladeinoye Pole that has been held every year since 2007 in the Lipetsk region, about 500 kilometers to…
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Sergey Diaghilev, Remembered 90 Years After His Death
The need for honest and objective information on Russia is more relevant now than ever before! To keep our newsroom in Moscow running, we need your support. With your help, we can continue with our mission to keep you informed with breaking news, business analysis, thought-provoking opinions, the best of culture and insights into everyday…
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On This Day in 1991 a Coup Was Attempted in Moscow
On Aug. 19, 1991 the Soviet Union woke up to “Swan Lake” being broadcast on television interspersed with newscasters reading an announcement. The “State Emergency Committee” (Russian acronym GKChP) had taken control in the country from a supposedly ailing Mikhail Gorbachev, who was at a state residence in Crimea. The country would be headed by…
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Dmitri Shostakovich, Football Fanatic
Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated and prolific composers, whose symphonies, concerti, string quartets and dozens of other works became the musical backdrop for several generations of Soviet citizens. A slim man in thick glasses, Shostakovich was fastidious, diffident, and orderly, the very image of an intellectual composer. But Dmitri Shostakovich…
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Russia’s Good Year at the Awards
Despite concerns over censorship, the film and performing arts in Russia remain largely free of government interference. While the government can certainly impact the film industry and theater through funding and sometimes, with film, by withholding screening permits, there are many independent companies that can produce whatever they want. Now that the awards season for…
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On This Day Rock Legend Viktor Tsoi Died
Viktor Robertovich Tsoi was born and raised in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. The Russian rock legend and frontman of the group Kino was the only child of Valentina Tsoi, a Russian school teacher, and Robert Tsoi, a Soviet-Korean engineer. Tsoi’s roots go back to Songjin, or what today is known as Kimchaek, North Korea, where…
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On This Day Writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky Was Born
Dmitry Merezhkovsky was born in St. Petersburg in 1866 in a family of a government official. In his teen years, and with his mother’s support, he was already writing poetry and contemplating the religious questions that would come to occupy him throughout his life. From 1884 to 1889, he studied philology and history at the…
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Moscow Art Group Takes St. Petersburg By Storm
In late July, the internationally acclaimed art group AES + F launched a new exhibition, “Predictions and Revelations,” featuring eight of their biggest projects from the last two decades. The eye needs time to adjust before it can take in the enormous digital collage installation that greets the visitor to the exhibition “Predictions and Revelations”…
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On This Day: The Kursk Submarine Disaster
On Aug. 12, 2000, the nuclear submarine Kursk sank, killing all on board: 118 crew members. President Vladimir Putin, then in his first term as president, was faced with intense criticism over his handling of his first national disaster. The catastrophe took place in the Barents Sea on the first Russian naval annual exercise that…
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Russia’s Muslims Celebrate Kurban Bairam
Muslims in Russia celebrated the religious holiday of Kurban Bairam, or Eid al-Adha, on Sunday. The holiday, whose name means “Festival of the Sacrifice,” commemorates the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. During the festival of Kurban Bairam, considered one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar, large groups…
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Downshifting in Russia: Who’s Fed Up With the Big City?
The need for honest and objective information on Russia is more relevant now than ever before! To keep our newsroom in Moscow running, we need your support. With your help, we can continue with our mission to keep you informed with breaking news, business analysis, thought-provoking opinions, the best of culture and insights into everyday…
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No Sex and Drugs: Moscow Regulates Graffiti, but Who Owns the Streets?
Moscow has banned depictions of sex and drugs from its walls under new restrictions aimed at drawing a line between art and blight, but is drawing a mixed response from artists and stirring the debate on cities’ role in regulating street art. Perceived by some as an act of vandalism, graffiti painting has grown in…
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Last Gasp Moscow Music Festivals
By the calendar it’s still summer, but the weather is decidedly autumnal. All that means is that you have all the more reason to party! The second half of August is simply packed with small (and not so small) festivals and concerts that you should definitely see if you happen to be in the Russian…
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Tarantino ‘Shocked By Moscow’ in First Visit to Russia Since 2004
Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino was “shocked” by the positive changes Moscow has undergone during his first visit to Russia’s capital in 15 years this week, the country’s culture minister said, while Tarantino himself said that he visited Russia “to see the people,” not its government. Tarantino was in Moscow for the Wednesday evening premiere of…
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On This Day in 1945 the Soviet Union Declared War on Japan
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan, flooding 1.6 million troops into Manchuria, an area of 600,000 square miles in the North-East of China. Despite a strong Japanese army comprised of a million men awaiting them, the Soviet force, under command of Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, swept into China, Korea and…
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Tourism + Technology = New Moscow Attraction
Moscow has a new tourist attraction. Called In.Visible Moscow, it is described on the company’s website as “an authentic cinema-walk through the streets of Moscow.” As it turns out, In.Visible Moscow is a walking tour reimagined. The technology is like any guided walking tour: a pair of headphones and a guide. The difference is that…
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Russia’s Transgender Community Struggles for Acceptance
Harry, a slight 20-year-old man dressed in a classic white shirt, black trousers and a baseball cap that hides his hair, passes through the turnstiles in the reception area of the high-rise housing The Moscow Times office with a deadpan expression. Harry is not his given name and he is using someone else’s documents to…
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Fabergé and the Link of Times
No object is as synonymous with Romanov Russia as a Fabergé imperial Easter egg. Each of the fifty eggs commissioned by the last Russian tsars is intricate, flawless, and unique. Gleaming and glittering behind bullet-proof glass in well-fortified museums, they are vibrant talismans of the lost sepia-colored world of the Romanovs. Of the fifty imperial…
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On This Day Ilya Repin Was Born
The most well-known and renowned Russian artist of the 19th century, Ilya Repin’s influence and significance in art has been likened to Leo Tolstoy in literature – a writer who was one of his best and most famous subjects. Repin was born in Kharkhov – now Ukraine – where his father traded horses and…
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On This Day Architect Konstantin Melnikov Was Born
An icon of Soviet avant-garde, Konstantin Melnikov was born on August 3, 1890. He was the fourth child of a poor family who occupied a room in a state-owned working-class barrack in Moscow. Eventually his family managed to make a living in farming, after which they were able to own a small house. Still, Melnikov…
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‘It’s Only a Joke, Comrade!’
Saturation There is no doubt that many Soviet citizens venerated Stalin, but in political humour we can hear many others sharing critical opinions about him and his Cult on a day-to-day basis that rapidly presents us with a very different, more complex image. Let’s consider two anekdoty which turned up numerous times in the archival…
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Andrey Ivchenko’s Truly ‘Stranger Things’
After two seasons, fans of the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things” were used to things being pretty strange — whether it’s the threat of creatures from an alternate dimension or a young girl with psychokinetic powers. But few expected that in the third season, released on July 4, a vast Russian conspiracy would descend upon…
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On This Day in 1930 Oleg Popov Was Born
On July 31, 1930, Oleg Popov was born in Moscow, where he would start work early as an apprentice typographer for Pravda newspaper at age 12. This led him to join Pravda’s athletics club, a move that would provide a useful foundation for his later career. When Popov was 15, he applied to Moscow’s State…