“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…
Every year the Pushkin House in London awards a prize for the best non-fiction book about or from the Russian-speaking world published in English. In past years they have winnowed down the dozens if not hundreds of contenders to a short list of six books for their jury to read, discuss, and vote on. But…
While rising prices, a sweeping disappearance of foreign brands and entertainment, and a general clampdown on anti-war feeling have all impacted life for Russians since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine, life in the Russian capital Moscow largely continues on as normal. And as the war shows no signs of a resolution, popular summertime events…
Специальная военная операция: special military operation This should be a happy moment for me, The Moscow Times, and the Word’s Worth. May 2022 marks my 20th anniversary writing the column. If at any time in those past 20 years you told me that I’d meet this date in a rental apartment in a country I’d…
Of all the forms of art in Russia, documentary film is having the most difficult time. The trials of the profession were made very clear at the end of March when the 15th edition of Russia’s largest documentary festival Artdocfest was canceled after the organizer, filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, was splashed with red paint by protesters…
Red Nail Polish Every day I look at photographs of the war. I look and look. Destroyed cities, burned cars, dead people. Red nail polish on a dead hand. Every day, no matter where I am, I think that planes are flying over me, that I’m the one who has to run to the bomb…
At one of Moscow’s newest museum exhibitions, visitors are greeted with posters describing how “NATO is fraught with war” and images of people injured in U.S. bombings as the sound of approaching war planes wails from loudspeakers. “NATO: A chronicle of cruelty” opened its doors in Moscow’s Museum of Contemporary Russian History last month, a…
Thousands of schoolchildren gathered on Red Square wearing red hats and neckerchiefs Sunday as Russia’s Communist Party inducted new members of the Pioneers, the party’s youth organization during the U.S.S.R. During the event marking the youth organization’s 100th anniversary, roughly 5,000 children aged 9 to 14 were given the title “All-Russian Pioneers.” While the Young…
At this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov spoke out strongly — and obscenely — against the war Russia has launched in Ukraine but was criticized for wanting economic sanctions lifted from one of his backers, oligarch Roman Abramovich. Serebrennikov’s film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” was the only film from Russia presented at the…
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, on the surface, everyday life in Moscow has remained fairly unchanged. But amid the usual urban clamor, many have noticed the growing presence of Soviet-era symbols and icons throughout the city, often alongside motifs designed to drum up pro-war sentiment.
Russian superstar ballerina Olga Smirnova quit the Bolshoi Ballet over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine but says the famed dance company will outlive the vagaries of war. “History changes, but the Bolshoi stays,” Smirnova told AFP as she rehearsed in Amsterdam, where she joined the Dutch National Ballet in March. Smirnova, who made headlines when she…
Ukrainian film director, producer, and media mogul Alexander Rodnyansky is developing a TV series based on the book “All the Kremlin’s Men” by acclaimed Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, Rodnyansky told Variety magazine. The series, Rodnyansky said, charted the rise of Vladimir Putin from a minor KGB officer to president. Rodnyansky described the series as a…
Ukrainian film director, producer and media mogul Alexander Rodnyansky is developing a television series based on the book “All the Kremlin’s Men” by acclaimed Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, Rodnyansky told Variety magazine. The series, which Rodnyansky described as a Russian “House of Cards,” will chart the rise of Vladimir Putin from a minor KGB officer…
Australian Luminosity Entertainment will produce a new film that will shed light on the life and tragic death of acclaimed Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, according to information published by Deadline. The film titled “Mother Russia” will be directed by British director James Strong best known for his work on the crime…
At the beginning of 20th century, Ukraine’s cinema was world famous, largely thanks to its revered filmmaker Oleksandr Dovzhenko. Considered to be the father of Ukrainian cinema and one of the key figures of Soviet avant-garde, Dovzhenko made films that have inspired generations of Ukrainian filmmakers to create films of great poetic symbolism that were…
In Ivanovo oblast not far from Moscow, one in four villages has been abandoned in the last decade. An artist, Alexei Mednoy, grew up in a village but hadn’t been back for about 15 years after his father died. When he returned, he found silent and empty houses, slowly falling down amid overgrown fields. He…
Russian film and theater director Kirill Serebrennikov is working on an Eduard Limonov biopic with BAFTA winner Ben Whishaw starring as Limonov, Variety magazine reported. The film, titled “Limonov, The Ballad of Eddie” tells the story of the Russian writer and political activist over the decades. It is based on the best-selling novel “Limonov” by…
Harry Gray, a 26-year-old British cycling campaigner and clothing designer in Salford, Manchester didn’t anticipate that his poster would go viral. The poster has a simple message: Fight Putin / Ride a Bike. The war in Ukraine has shone a light on much of the world’s reliance on Russian gas, which accounts for some 40%…
Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has announced it is canceling the performances directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and Timofey Kulyabin who have spoken out against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. Late Sunday, Russia’s top theater announced that instead of the three performances of “Nureev,” a ballet directed by Serebrennikov, the audiences this week will see a production of…
“I can’t speak in Russian to my daughter in the street anymore,” an artist living in Rome told The Moscow Times. “And I have no hope that I will be invited to show my works anywhere.” Since the war began in Ukraine, Russian cultural figures have found themselves locked out of the international cultural scene.…
“I started drawing the victims on the second day of the war, one portrait a day, so that the process does not become mechanical. I search Facebook for the words ‘загинув’ and ‘загинула,’ ‘died’ in Ukrainian, and then I look for more information on the names. Most often there are two photos at best, and…
The CSKA (Central Army Sports Club) ice hockey arena is no longer up to international standards, so its main sponsor, Rosneft, has joined with the Defense Ministry to build a new sports complex. Since the new complex requires more space, a historic swimming pool that was a pale blue fixture for decades on Leningradsky Prospekt…
Russian artist Ksenia Sorokina, who won the prestigious theater award Zolotaya Maska (Golden Mask) for best costume design, donated her prize to Sasha Skochilenko. Skochilenko, an artist and a political activist, was jailed this month for an anti-war action. Sorokina’s friend and fellow Zolotaya Maska laureate, theater director Yevgeniya Berkovich, shared Ksenia’s words on Facebook.…
The artist Daria Apakhonchich, who was declared a “foreign agent” in 2020, sent a decidedly non-standard quarterly report to the Russian Justice Ministry. On her Facebook page she explained that every three months she is required by law to send a report on her activities, including details of her income, to the ministry. Since the…
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a “rehabilitation of nazism” case against a Kyiv-born Russian artist Oleg Kulik, art magazine Artgid reported today. Kulik’s 2018 installation titled “The Big Mother” was exhibited at an art fair in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor. The central piece of the installation was a statue of a woman holding a…