Competition is always good for the consumer. Thanks to healthy competition, almost 200 years ago Muscovites got clean and tidy bakeries with bread that was always fresh. From the end of the 1700s to the 1820s, the bakery trade in Moscow was entirely in the hands of Russian bakers. They were mainly peasants from Moscow…
This year Western sanctions and political tensions have kept most Russian directors and actors focused on projects at home. But there is an exception — the film “Anora,” which was directed by American Sean Baker and features a predominantly Russian cast. The film emerged as the surprise hit of the year, winning the prestigious Palme…
Soon Russia will be marking a rather curious holiday, the “Day of National Unity” on November 4 when a peasant and a prince — Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky — supposedly led a volunteer army to liberate Moscow from Polish invaders a half-millennium ago. It would seem to be a very patriotic and important holiday,…
BERLIN – “Alexander*a” is a multimedia performance that immerses audiences in the world of pioneering revolutionary and politician Alexandra Kollontai. As one of the first female diplomats in history, Kollontai also became a powerful advocate for women’s liberation within the early Soviet government. Directed by Vika Privalova — a multidisciplinary artist born in Russia who…
“Vladimir” is already the second play this year in New York that focuses on Putin and his era. Earlier in 2024, Broadway featured “Patriots,” written by Peter Morgan, the creator of the award-winning Netflix series “The Crown,” and directed by Rupert Goold. That play ran for several weeks, centering on Boris Berezovsky’s rise and fall…
In Russia most people think there are three feast days of Christ the Savior in the late summer and early autumn. Each holiday has a religious name, but they are long — for example, “The Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord.” So people gave them names associated with what…
Postwoman Tatyana Voronkova delivers mail, periodicals and groceries to residents of Kemtsy, a small village in the Tver region between Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Kemtsy, which lacks a train station and is an hour-and-a-half drive from the nearest large town, her work is a lifeline for many. The starting salary for a postal worker…
A Moscow court sentenced Oscar-nominated film producer Alexander Rodnyansky to eight-and-a-half years jail in absentia on Monday for spreading “fake” information about the Russian army. Rodnyansky, 63, was born in Kyiv but spent most of his career in Russia, producing dozens of TV series and movies there including Oscar-nominated crime drama “Leviathan.” He left the…
Censorship of literature is not new in Russia. In 2010 the Russian parliament passed a law requiring age-appropriate labels on books, esssentially requiring authors to avoid controversial themes such as drugs, sex, and profanity to retain a broader readership. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in March 2022 the government published amendments to the Criminal Code,…
What condiment can you put on sausages, jellied meat, pelmeni and even add to summer soup? Horseradish, of course. It is one of the main seasonings used in Russian cuisine. We don’t know when it first appeared in everyday life since it was already mentioned in our most ancient books about cooking and horticulture. It’s…
Today if you ask kids in Russia if they want a chocolate bar, they will immediately think you mean a Mars bar or Snickers or another kind of foreign candy bar. Many of these candies have been produced since the 1930s and are famous all over the world. While that’s true, before the 1917 Revolution…
Riga was the first stop on a tour of a new play written and directed by Dmitry Krymov starring just two actors: Maxim Sukhanov and Chulpan Khamatova. It is called “Notes of the Mad,” invoking the tradition of literary works about mad Russians that began two centuries ago with Nikolai Gogol. The premiere began with…
Sofia Kapkova, the founder and former director of DFC (Documentary Film Center) in Moscow and the CEO of the MART Foundation which organizes tours of Russian theatre and music abroad, left Russia for the U.S. three days after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, she has produced “Our Class,” a critically…
For most readers the region of Russia called Sakha — officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) — in the far north conjures up images of snow, reindeer, permafrost and polar night. But even though this region borders on the Arctic Ocean, these images are just stereotypes. Sakha is a country of honey and berries, strawberries…
President Volodymyr Zelensky once had an optimistic vision for the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Weeks after his 2019 election, he signed a decree to turn Ukraine’s portion of the 2,600-square-kilometer region along the border with Belarus into an engine of economic growth, welcoming a soaring stream of tourists inspired by HBO’s dramatization of the 1986 disaster.…
Today it’s all the rage to wax nostalgic for the late USSR. But history is flexible. Today it’s one thing; tomorrow it will be another — people will write whatever is needed. Perhaps only our personal memories will soon become the best and most objective source of information about the past. Soviet culinary habits are…
Russian screen and theater actor Roman Madyanov, known for his roles as a military officer in the TV show “Soldaty” and as a corrupt official in the critically acclaimed 2014 drama “Leviathan,” passed away at the age of 62, media reported Wednesday. “You’re loved by the entire nation,” Madyanov’s friend and state television host Yekaterina Strizhenova wrote on…
We were always suspicious of dieticians in the Soviet Union. We secretly thought that there could be no friendship between cooks and people who sought to limit the enjoyment of food. And as it turned out, this opinion was once shared by Comrade Stalin. Manuil Pevzner was one of the founders of the Soviet field…
Russian entertainment channel TNT will broadcast the final episode of its long-running show Comedy Club this Friday, ending a nearly 20-year run amid rumors of a major revamp. “Comedy Club is closing,” Gazprom Media Holding, TNT’s parent company, announced Thursday. “With 20 seasons on air, more than 800 original episodes, two TEFI awards, 1,500 stand-up performances,…
Veteran Soviet-Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner is set to return to state television more than two years after his long-running program was taken off the air following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian media reported Wednesday. Pozner, 90, had hosted his weekly interview show “Pozner” on Channel One since 2008, but it was canceled shortly after…
The controversial documentary “Russians at War” will be shown in Toronto on Tuesday, after the city’s film festival organizers initially decided to halt screenings due to “significant threats” over their decision to feature the film. “Russians at War,” directed by Anastasia Trofimova, was first presented at the 81st Venice Film Festival. Trofimova, who studied in…
During the reign of Catherine the Great, German immigrants came to Russia and settled in a place called Sarepta on the Volga River. Sarepta became the vibrant center of German life. Today even the local recipes have remained unchanged for 300 years. The locals still make strudel — but you wouldn’t recognize it. Volga Germans…
The Toronto International Film Festival said Thursday it was pausing all upcoming screenings of the controversial documentary film “Russians at War” after receiving “significant threats.” “We have been made aware of significant threats to festival operations and public safety,” festival organizers said in a statement, pointing to reports they received “indicating potential activity in the…
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has awarded an honorary title to pro-Kremlin filmmaker and TV host Nikita Mikhalkov. Kadyrov said he hosted Mikhalkov during his visit to the North Caucasus republic to attend a theater festival and premiere his play “12.” The play is a Chechnya-themed adaptation of his 2007 eponymous feature film, which was itself a remake…
On the final day of the Venice Film Festival, Armenian director Zara Jian screened her documentary “I Will Revenge This World With Love” in the Venice Classics section. The film, which pays homage to the Soviet filmmaker Sergei Parajanov, draws upon themes of freedom, resilience and art in the face of oppression. Jian’s work is…
“All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of an autocratic state. There is a bad man at the top. He controls the army and the police. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality.” These are the opening lines…
Alexander Maslyakov, one of the best-known and best-loved television personalities of the Soviet and modern Russian era, died at age 82 on Sunday. His death was reported by the game show KVN, which Maslyakov hosted from 1964 to 2022. Maslyakov had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. KVN, which stands for “Club of the…
Long ago, when foreign tourist companies would send travelers to the USSR, they’d include warnings in their pamphlets to cut into Chicken Kyiv with care! Meanwhile, Soviet citizens would usually pierce it with a fork right away to release an even flow of buttery juice. Chicken Kyiv is famous and popular all over the world.…
“All this must be filmed,” director Anastasia Trofimova said to explain why she began filming “Russians at War.” The documentary was presented in the category of “Out of Competition” at the 81st Venice Film Festival. Trofimova, who studied in Canada, had previously worked with RT (formerly Russia Today) and then with the French service of…
A logistics company from Uzbekistan helped ship $36.6 million worth of artwork from Europe to Russia, bypassing EU sanctions on luxury goods, according to a new report by the investigative outlet Systema. The company, Bek Broker, which mainly transported goods from Russia to Uzbekistan before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has reportedly moved $41.6 million in…
On August 29, the Venice Film Festival screened Greek filmmaker Alexandros Avranas’ “Quiet Life,” the story of a Russian immigrant family. The film instantly became one of the most talked-about screenings of the festival to date. The film follows a Russian couple, Natalia (Chulpan Khamatova) and Sergei (Grigory Dobrygin), who flee their homeland after Sergei’s…
Apples are not at all as simple as they seem. Although they seem ordinary, no other fruit has left such a large trace in world history. In Russia, cultivated varieties of apples appeared in the 11th century during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. It is believed that the first apple orchard was planted on…
Pro-war singers Shaman and Grigory Leps visited southwestern Russia’s Kursk region on Thursday to entertain wounded soldiers and send off children who were being evacuated from their homes as Ukraine’s incursion in the area continued into its fourth week. Between air raid alerts, acting Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov shared videos on Telegram of Shaman and…
Mira also grapples with his relationship with Islam. Volga Bulgaria, the historical Bulgar state that many consider to be the direct predecessor of modern Tatarstan, adopted Islam as the state religion in 922. In the centuries since, Islamic traditions became firmly woven into the fabric of Tatar cultural identity. And while most Tatars who practice…
Читайте русскую версию здесь. Artists Against the Kremlin is an exhibition of Russian-speaking artists organized by All Rights Reversed gallery with the support of The Moscow Times at De Balie arts center in Amsterdam.The more than 100 paintings, installations, photographs and sculptures — most of them new — on display were created by artists who,…
The Russian television channel TNT has begun production on a comedy series about U.S. President Joe Biden that is set to premiere next year, the network announced Tuesday. The show, called “Goodbye,” revolves around the American leader traveling to Russia “incognito” to find out “why his sanctions aren’t working against Russians,” TNT said in a press release.…
For someone who lived in the Soviet period, a dacha is not just six hundred square meters that they’d travel to by train and bus from their Moscow apartment. It was sweet aches and pains that had to be complained about — and also bragged about. As a gardener would bend over the beds she’d…
Why are we so drawn to the countryside? A break from the hustle and bustle of the city? Fresh air? Yes, that’s all true, but we are also drawn to the dacha lifestyle, which is closely connected with food. Many of our compatriots love those long dacha lunches and dinners. In Russia people’s obsession with…
Sarah Rainsford first arrived in Russia weeks after the dissolution of the Soviet Union armed with a guidebook to a country that no longer existed and a suitcase full of dehydrated meals. Today, the Moscow she touched down in as an 18-year-old no longer exists, either — its potential snuffed out through fear and control.…
Here’s a strange bit of trivia: mushrooms are almost never mentioned in Old Russian chronicles and sources. Does that mean no one ate them? No, on the contrary, it was so common to gather, dry and cook mushrooms that no one thought of writing about it. But mushrooms highlight the differences in the diet of…
Russian concert pianist and anti-war activist Pavel Kushnir died in police custody after going on hunger strike, his mother confirmed Monday. Friends and activists said last week that Kushnir died at age 39 in a pre-trial detention center in the Jewish autonomous district, a remote region of Russia’s Far East. Federal Security Service (FSB) agents arrested Kushnir…
However strange it seems today, our ancestors described ancient kissel (also spelled kisel in English) as being very different from today’s kissel. First of all, they didn’t drink it—they ate it. It was cooked down to a dense consistency. Hence the “kissel shores” celebrated in Russian fairy tales. Second, kissel was not sweet. Its name…
“An infected mouse escapes from the Institute of Functional Immortality, where the development of a means to prolong Putin’s life is underway. An apocalypse occurs in Moscow: most of the city’s inhabitants die, some survive, and the rest turn into zombies.” …
The opening of the Olympic Games not only makes us cheer for the athletes, it also makes us reminisce a bit. Looking back on the few weeks in July-August 1980 when the Soviet Union hosted the Olympics, we can see that Moscow finally had the ideal public catering that “the Bolsheviks had been talking about…
Russian politicians fighting to defend so-called “traditional” values are turning their attention to the country’s vibrant music scene, lambasting pop stars for performances and outfits deemed to be too revealing or sexual. Pop singer Natalya Chistyakova-Ionova, who is best known by her stage name Glukoza, became embroiled in scandal after pro-Kremlin censorship activist Yekaterina Mizulina…
Writer Ivan Filippov’s novel “Mouse” (“Miysh’”), about a zombie apocalypse in Moscow, was pulled from Russian bookstore shelves this month on the Prosecutor General’s Office’s orders. The news came from Georgy Urushadze, founder of the book’s publisher Freedom Letters. Luckily for the publisher, sales of the book only increased after the announcement. Freedom Letters is one of…
American composer Philip Glass has accused a theatre in Russian-annexed Crimea of planning to stage a ballet premiere that uses his music without permission. Glass, an 87-year-old composer famed for his minimalist works, took to X (formerly Twitter) to complain about what he said was an act of “piracy” by a theatre in the Black…
“Stop sinking and think of your income, my star. Overseas you’re going to rot in a stinking backyard. No one needs your English single in the Anglophone world.” These are the lyrics of “Kalinka,” the first English-language track by popular rapper-in-exile Noize MC. The song captures the struggles of the many Russian artists, musicians and…
As soon as our compatriots hear the word “baranka” — a hard round bread roll — they immediately begin to hum the famous song “Golden Domed Moscow” where “candy and baranki are like swan sleighs…” It’s good that Putin’s patriots don’t know the awful truth: this anthem of the old Russia we lost is set…
Russian pop star Shaman announced that he plans to stage a concert outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Friday evening in response to major Western streaming platforms removing his songs. “As you know, America blocked my YouTube channel simply because I’m Russian and I’m ready to answer back,” Shaman, whose real name is Yaroslav Dronov,…
A Moscow court has ordered the “liquidation” of Russia’s popular Grushinsky music festival, an event that has been held annually in the southern Samara region since 1968. The court’s decision follows an earlier announcement by the festival’s organizers, who said they would be forced to cancel this year’s event due to “possible risks… in the…
Читаете русскую версию здесь. Artist Philippenzo wants you to refer to him as such — as a pseudonym. “I don’t like it when the media are like policemen and use passport data that has nothing to do with my art,” he says. In his home country, Philippenzo is being prosecuted under Article 214.2 of the…
The Erarta contemporary art museum in St. Petersburg is facing administrative charges for displaying a painting that the authorities claim contains “Nazi symbols,” a spokesperson for the city’s court system said Thursday. An administrative case against the museum was brought before the Vasilevsky District Court, which is in the same neighborhood where Erarta is located,…
This year’s Pitrau festival came and went in the republic of Tatarstan. Celebrated by the Kryashens, an Orthodox Christian ethnic sub-group of the Volga Tatars, the holiday has a deep folk and religious meaning. While Pitrau is largely to observe the Day of Saints Peter and Paul, the festival also has pre-Christian roots. The day…
“Limonov: The Ballad,” directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and will be released in the US in September. The screenplay, written by Serebrennikov with Ben Hopkins and Paweł Pawlikowski in an adaptation of Emmanuel Carrère’s 2015 fictionalized biography, tells the story of the poet, writer and Soviet dissident who became…
The fig might seem to be an exotic fruit, but it has been a culinary treat in Russia for ages. Hundreds of years ago it was brought by Asian merchants to Muscovy. Most commonly called a wine berry, this fruit was written about in many ancient books. Figs are an amazing fruit. They are harvested…
Artist Artiom Loskutov, like many Russians, had to leave the country after the invasion of Ukraine. Born in 1986 in Novosibirsk, Loskutov is one of the creators of the annual “Monstration” parade, known for its absurdist slogans like “Enough tolerating this, let’s tolerate something else!” and “Our hearts demand dumplings!”, as well as dubinopisy —…
Over the weekend, people across Russia and Belarus gathered to celebrate Ivan Kupala Night – an ancient Slavic festival to mark midsummer. This folk holiday has both pagan and Christian roots, coinciding with the birth of John the Baptist. As such, water is a key motif during the festivities. Revelers often douse each other, and…
A Russian military court on Monday sentenced theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to six years each on charges of “justifying terrorism” in a high-profile case that has drawn criticism from rights advocates. Prosecutors had asked for Berkovich, 39, and Petriychuk, 44, to each be sentenced to six years in a penal colony…
For Russians, kolbasa — the word for any kind of ground meat product, from cold cuts to breakfast sausage to the kind of sausage you throw on the grill — is an iconic and even sacred dish. It’s no longer a secret that a half-century ago it defined everything for Russians: social status, leisure activities…