Category: Moscow

Russia has put Vitaly Mansky, one of the country’s leading documentary filmmakers and a critic of the invasion of Ukraine, on a wanted list, Russian media reported Tuesday.  Mansky, 58, was recently implicated in a defamation case brought by prominent film director and Kremlin supporter Nikita Mikhalkov.  In a recent Youtube interview, Mansky said “at…

Douglas Smith is an historian and translator, author of seven books on Russia. In the 1980s, he was a Russian-speaking guide on the U.S. State Department’s exhibition “Information USA” that traveled around the Soviet Union and served as an interpreter for late President Reagan. In 2016 he found an extraordinary cache of color photographs and…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is often called “Putin’s war,” based on the assumption that Russia’s authoritarian leader has a firm grip on power and virtually single-handedly influences Russian politics. And as the only country to wage a war in Europe in the 21st century, Russia is viewed as an exceptional state that operates by its…

“What do you mean, jam from Kyiv? From where?” a patron of a Moscow restaurant shouted aggressively at the waiter. “Yes, it’s from the time of Catherine the Great,” the waiter said calmly. “Well, if that’s the case, all right then…” the diner muttered, mollified. That scene really happened about five years ago. Even then,…

Тузик: Ace (classic dog name) When I moved to Riga, the first morning I was woken up by the unmistakable pitter patter of little dog paws in the apartment above me. Later that day when I was walking my dog, we met the pitter-patterer: a very friendly, sweet-natured dog of mixed, rather confused origins –…

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at the age of 91, presided over period of artistic freedom in the U.S.S.R. that had not been seen since the post-Revolutionary era. Russian culture flourished under his leadership, particularly in the theater, in which he took an active interest. But unlike other Soviet leaders, Gorbachev did…

On Aug. 30, Manana Aslamazyan, the former head of the organization Internews in Russia and one of the key figures in the development of television news in Russia and the CIS, died after being struck by a car in Yerevan, Armenia. She was 70 years old. Aslamazyan came to Internews in 1991 after a career…

In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin famously labeled the collapse of the Soviet Union “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” Years later, analysts, pundits and casual observers have repeatedly returned to the phrase to find a possible explanation for the Kremlin’s geopolitical moves from the 2008 war in Georgia to the ongoing invasion of…

We tend to complain about Russian cuisine, insisting that it hasn’t changed since the first household manual, the “Domostroi,” was written centuries ago. It’s all cabbage soups, blinis, and little pastries. How can it catch up to modern times! No wonder people forget about Russian cuisine — it’s hopelessly behind the times. There is, of…

Купить билет: to buy a ticket It’s a hot Friday in August, which is the perfect time for a pop quiz. What’s a small Russian word that means on, in, for, take, at and with? A) да B) м–да C) не D) на E) и F) бля. If you chose (F) you’re a native Russian…

Six months into the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s political and economic life has changed significantly. New repressive laws forbid Russians from calling the war in Ukraine a “war,” the government blocks websites and social media and large companies have left the country. Protests are impossible. With little space to speak out freely, Russians have turned…

IMAX has banned Russian cinemas from screening Russian movies within Russia after leaving the country over its invasion of Ukraine, the head of a major cinema chain said Tuesday. IMAX Corporation, a Canadian company that provides proprietary high-resolution technology for a large-format movie experience, left Russia on June 1 after 19 years on the market,…

Anyone who has strolled along the banks of the Moscow River in the center of Russia’s capital will likely be familiar with the stolid and rather intimidating Soviet edifice sitting on the western tip of Bolotny island across a stretch of river from the Kremlin. This is the House on the Embankment — Dom na Naberezhnoi…

Today in Russian restaurant menus you might come across “Leningrad style” preceding the word rassolnik. But this St. Petersburg soup is just the Soviet version of a Moscow dish. It was created after the 1917 Revolution and reflected food shortages. It was made with pickled cucumbers, potatoes and pearl barley. What’s to be proud of?…

Как дела?: How’s it going? Years ago whenever I would ask an acquaintance “Как дела?” (How are things?), he’d answer: “В Кремле дела, у нас делишки”. Since дела can mean matters, affairs, or work and делишки can mean minor tasks or errands, I understood it as a joke that meant something like “The Kremlin is…

A court in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan on Tuesday fined a veteran rock star over an anti-war speech he made onstage at a concert earlier this year. Yury Shevchuk, the legendary frontman of rock band DDT, spoke out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the band’s concert in his native city of Ufa in May. …

Dmitry Vrubel, the Russian painter who shot to fame with a work on the Berlin Wall depicting Soviet and East German communist leaders kissing, has died in the German capital at age 62. One of the best known Berlin Wall graffiti pieces, Vrubel’s 1990 work titled “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love”…

Forest fires so massive they dwarf European countries. Oil spills that turn Arctic rivers red. Snow that turns black from coal soot. Russia, the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and a country whose territory is warming 2.5 times faster than the planet as a whole, is already acutely feeling the impacts of climate change.…

Karl Nesselrode (1780-1862) was a staunch conservative and monarchist. In the mid-19th century, he had successfuly transformed Russia into what would later be called “the gendarme of Europe.” And thanks to popular support for the “Russian world” in the Balkans at the time, he achieved the predictable result of Russia’s complete diplomatic isolation on the…

Лихач: reckless person; skilled person Friday pop quiz: Name a Russian word that is a noun, an adverb and a short-form adjective all in one and means evil, clever, wicked, smart, rakish, daring, reckless, cool, or wild. I think it could even mean swashbuckling, if anyone is buckling their swashes these days. Any guesses? Лихо.…

What’s the difference between vareniki and pelmeni? Both are dumplings. Is it a question of who invented them? Even that is hard to decide. It’s amazing that passions are not raging over vareniki the way they are over borscht. Almost every nation has its own kind of dumplings: Italian ravioli, Japanese gyoza, Georgian khinkali, Asian…

Асап: (ASAP, aka as soon as possible) Languages change. We know this. Of course, we do. We are reminded of it every time we pick up a Jane Austen novel and marvel at the quaint phrases. And certainly when we see a Shakespeare play and chuckle over every “forsooth.” And definitely when we pick up…

Crimean Tatar art has a long and rich history dating back to ancient times, and it is a pride and glory of the indigenous people of the Crimean peninsula.  While much of Crimean Tatar art and culture was lost following the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars from their homeland, traditional art has entered a hopeful…

Moscow’s largest and most famous cathedral will bring guests back to the U.S.S.R. this fall when it plays host to a concert of popular Soviet songs. The “Hit Parade of the U.S.S.R.” concert at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral appeared on top ticketing services Afisha, Yandex.Afisha, Redkassa and Ticketland, the independent Meduza news website reported…

“One summer’s evening early in July 1768, a horseman rode up to the gates of Port Hill House, Thomas Dimsdale’s home a few miles from Hertford. Dismounting, the visitor announced himself to the physician with a flourish: he came from the Russian embassy in London, and brought a letter from the ambassador, Count Aleksei Semyonovich…

The word rasstegai sounds funny in Russian. It sounds like the imperative of the word “unbutton,” which is why people joke: Rasstegai is not a command, it’s a pastry. Actually, the name comes from a word for an old Russian garment. Rasstegai, the lexicographer Vladimir Dal writes, is an “open, unbuttoned, loose shift.” It’s also…

Хавать хочу: I wanna eat When you are on a diet — сидеть на диете — it’s best not to flip through cookbooks, click on Instagram recipes, or read anything that makes you salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs. You must not, for example, read about много пельмешек, маленьких, ладненьких, кругленьких (many little meat dumplings…

Britain said Monday it had reluctantly agreed to host next year’s Eurovision song contest, after organizers said there was no prospect of the event going ahead in war-torn Ukraine. The BBC will instead produce the world’s biggest live music event, taking in performers from across Europe and Central Asia as well as Israel and Australia,…

What is Russia’s most famous dessert? Most people would answer without a moment’s hesitation: medovik (honey cake). It brings us back to our childhood — it’s comforting and homey. Why do we love it so much? What is the secret to its appeal? Of course, it’s the main ingredient that gives it flavor and aroma…

Диета: diet If there is one word that is immediately understandable in Russian, it’s диета (diet). Right? Well, mostly right. In English, the most common meaning of the word today is “the restriction of food intake to lose weight,” but it can also mean the food usually consumed by a creature or food prescribed for…

ODESA, Ukraine — As well-dressed patrons gathered outside the Opera and Ballet Theater in this Black Sea port city for a recent afternoon performance, there were telltale signs of the ongoing war with Russia. The crowd, a mix of men and women wearing military uniforms as well as suits and dresses, was much smaller than…

A prominent opera singer from Russia’s North Caucasus has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for calling on his home city to protest coronavirus lockdown measures in the early weeks of the pandemic, the state-run TASS news agency reported. Vadim Cheldiyev in April 2020 posted a video calling on people to attend a planned…

Two “super powers”: One in economic decline and seeking to regain its imperial status by brutally attacking a democratic neighbor, the other in seemingly unstoppable economic ascendence, inexorably extending its “Belt and Road Initiative,” and, with it, its global influence. Author Franck Billé Courtesy of the author These are the Russia and China of international…

What’s the dominant taste of Russian cuisine? Surely it’s the sour taste of fermentation — sour cabbage (sauerkraut), sourdough rye bread, soused apples and, of course, sour (pickled) cucumbers. Real barrel-fermented pickles are delicious as appetizers and as ingredients for many dishes. Soups like rassolnik and solyanka and the classic salad “vinaigrette” wouldn’t be possible…

Под нос: under your breath Russian – I suppose like all languages — has a bit of fun with various words for speaking outside the normal range of шептать–говорить–орать (whisper-talk-shout). Here we get into onomatopoeia, which in Russian is the more immediately understandable звукоподражание (literally “sound imitation”). This kind of colorful speech might be divided…

Anyone who looked up at the sky on Wednesday night was greeted by a rare sight: a super moon. The phenomenon, which happens when a full moon coincides with the point in the moon’s orbit when it is closest to earth, could be seen around the world. Here’s a glimpse at how the super moon…

Carefully threading a path through state-enforced censorship, an art exhibition called (In a Whisper) in Ufa, the capital of Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan, presents an artistic exploration of life in the country following the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February.   “Speaking very carefully, this exhibition invites us to explore the situation that we…

Ukha is an enigma in Russian cuisine. It seems simple: fish, vegetables, and spices. But what about all the places where it’s not made with these ingredients? While some people argue about that, others get into  discussions — and sometimes heated arguments that turn into fights — about ukha not being fish soup at all.…

DDT – Little death The legendary rock band that was especially popular during the 80s and 90s and its frontman Yuri Shevchuk have repeatedly spoken out against the war in Ukraine.  On May 18, Shevchuk told an 8,000-strong crowd at DDT’s concert in Ufa that “the motherland, my friends, is not the president’s ass that has to…

Ум за разум заходит: I don’t know if I’m coming or going! I have been remiss. It has been months since I’ve tested everyone’s patience with verbs that have 12 meanings and prepositions that use different cases. To be honest, I actually love this part of Russian. I like to try to figure out conceptual…

A really hot art summer has come to Europe. Right after the 59th Art Biennale in Venice and the Documenta 15 exhibition of contemporary art in Kassel, the world’s biggest international art fair was held in late June: Art Basel. The fair showcased modern and contemporary works in 289 galleries and attracted famous collectors and…

At first, Natalia Kapustnikova refused to tell the group of men in black balaclavas and military uniforms where they could find the priceless 19th-century paintings owned by her museum in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.  As explosions sounded outside, the men said they were particularly interested in luminous landscapes by Arkhip Kuindzhi, a Mariupol-born…

Renowned Soviet and Russian animator Leonid Shvartsman has died at age 101. Shvartsman had worked on several iconic animated series, including “Cheburashka,” “The Scarlet Flower,” “The Snow Queen” and “38 Parrots and Kitten named Woof.”  Sergei Kapkov, the head of Russian and Soviet animation studio Soyuzmultfilm, announced his death to Russian media outlets on Saturday. …

Крепись: keep the faith The other day a friend and I were talking about keeping our spirits up in these dark times. She tried to console me with a well-known Russian phrase: “Нас бьют — мы крепчаем! (literally “they beat us, we get stronger!” — similar to “when the going gets tough, the tough get…

The UN’s cultural agency on Friday inscribed the culture surrounding beetroot soup known as borshch in Ukraine on its list of endangered cultural heritage, a recognition sought urgently by Kviv after its invasion by neighboring Russia. Ukraine prizes borshch, a nourishing soup with beetroot as its base, as a national dish even though it is…

On June 29, the Moscow Department of Culture announced that the contracts with the current artistic director and director of Gogol Center would not be extended. The announcement stated that the theater, which “has been working under the pseudonym Gogol Center,” would revert to its original name: Gogol Theater. And so ends a theatrical era.…

This article was first published in The New Times. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum, joined Vladimir Putin, Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, Patriarch Kirill and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky in the role of heavy artillery to justify ideologically Russia’s choice of civilization: self-isolation and an archaic militarized state. Mikhail Piotrovsky…

As students around the world celebrate their graduation from high school, this year’s graduation season looks markedly different in Russia than it does in neighboring Ukraine. While graduates in Russia’s two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, enjoyed lavish celebrations, many graduates in Ukraine have seen their schools destroyed in Russia’s four-month invasion of their…

Смекалка: smarts, ingenuity, resourcefulness About a thousand years ago in Moscow, way back when the man in charge was a General Secretary, I bought a kilo of unshelled walnuts (грецкие орехи) at the market. But when I got home, I realized that I didn’t have a nutcracker (щелкунчик). Nor did I have a hammer (молоток).…

In Vladimir Putin’s 2021 essay about Ukraine, he wrote that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians are all descendants of Ancient Rus and shared “the same historical and spiritual space.” Kyiv was “the mother of all Russian cities,” he quoted, and stated that “both the nobility and the common people perceived Rus as a common territory.” He…

The Russian capital played host to over 100 fashion shows this week as part of Moscow Fashion Week. While Moscow Fashion Week was always meant to showcase Russian fashion house’s designs, this year’s event placed a particular emphasis on domestic brands after virtually every Western brand exited the Russian market over the invasion of Ukraine.…

Pop singer Yuri Shatunov, who was wildly popular in the 1980s and 1990s, died Thursday at the age of 48. “Last night Yuri’s heart stopped in an ambulance,” said Shatunov’s manager, Arkady Kudryashov, the state-run news agency TASS reported.  Shatunov was perhaps best known as the frontman of band Laskovy Mai (‘Gentle May’), which filled…

Renowned Russian film director Alexander Sokurov was prevented from leaving Russia due to “an order of the prime minister,” the director told Russian independent news outlet The Insider. Sokurov, known for his films “Russian Ark” and “Faust,” planned to cross the Russian-Finnish border by car and then fly to a conference on arts education in Milan,…

Оплошность: misstep, misdeed, goof, gaffe Last week after taking a look at my column on various ways to fail in Russian, a reader suggested another word and form of failure: the noun оплошность and verb pair плошать/оплошать. These aren’t the words you’d use to describe a complete flop or disaster. Оплошность is a mistake, an…

June 12 marks Russia Day: a national holiday that sees Muscovites flock to festivities and firework shows across the city. First celebrated in 1992, the date commemorates when the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic first declared state sovereignty in 1990. But 30 years on, the holiday is not only being celebrated in Russia itself —…

In ancient Russia, embroidery was more than a form of art: It was a language unto its own. Cloth and thread took the place of paper and ink, while symbols and motifs made up their own alphabet — all woven together according to the grammar of deep-seated folk traditions. In a celebration of these traditions,…

Накрыться медным тазом: to fail, flop, end, close The other day a friend was talking about a project that had gone belly up. But in Russian, belly up is — pardon the bad joke — another kettle of fish. Instead of the image of a dead fish in the water, it’s the image of something…

Russia celebrated the 350th birthday of Peter the Great, one of its most famous tsars, on Thursday. Celebrations were held in Peter’s namesake city St. Petersburg and Moscow to mark the anniversary of his birth on June 9, 1672. A pivotal figure in the country’s history, Peter led efforts to modernize Russia, expand its territory…

More than three centuries after he sought to bring Russia closer to Europe, Russians on Thursday marked the 350th birthday of tsar Peter the Great with the country deeply isolated over the Ukraine conflict. Inspired by time spent abroad, Peter made huge efforts to modernize his vast and under-developed nation during his rule from 1682…

Every year the Cannes Film Festival is dominated by certain topics with a particular political focus. This year’s theme was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Discussions and disputes began when the film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov was entered into the main competition. The president of the European Film Academy Agnieszka Holland criticized…