At first there doesn’t seem to be anything special about a children’s playground in the town of Gryazi, Lipetsk region. The only difference is that it is more colorful and inventive than most, with miniature buildings, swings, a truck, ship, and what seems to be a working fireplace. But it is unique: it was built…
As a brown woman who has lived in Moscow for over three years now, I must admit that I approached “A Brown Man in Russia: Lessons Learned on the Trans-Siberian,” a book about a young American’s journey through Russia to Mongolia in the depths of winter, with some skepticism. And indeed, encounters were familiar and…
A part of history just went on sale for less than $1 million in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-biggest city and former capital. Two beautiful apartments rented by Russian literary classic Alexander Pushkin in the 19th century will only set you back 55 million rubles, or around $858,500. The celebrated poet moved there in 1834 to…
More than 1,000 people flocked to the Yandex tech company’s flagship store in Moscow on Wednesday with hopes of becoming one of the first to get their hands on the new mini version of its “smart” speaker. The Russian tech company had announced that anyone could exchange their old audio equipment for the new Yandex.Station…
Designed by Lev Kravetsky, the building was constructed in 1909. It has everything: griffins, dragons, firebirds, crowned swans, fire-breathing dogs, two-head birds, and a lion in its splendid solitude, with a human face and a luxurious mustache. mos.ru
The Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art is less than a decade old, but today it’s considered one of the largest international exhibition projects in Russian contemporary art. Every two years it transforms factories and non-typical cultural spaces of Yekaterinburg and the cities of the Sverdlovsk region into vibrant museums of cutting-edge art. For the…
On Oct. 30, 1974 a group of dissidents imprisoned in Soviet labor camps in Mordovia and Perm declared the date the Day of the Political Prisoners in the U.S.S.R. Led by Kronid Lyubarsky, the prisoners put forward a list of demands, which included recognition of political prisoner status; separation of political prisoners from criminal convicts…
Ivanovo, like many cities in Central Russia, is finding it hard to redefine itself to attract tourists. It used to be “the capital of textiles” and then “the city of brides,” — who worked in the textile factories — but today it’s just a stopover on the popular Golden Ring route. Some guidebooks on Russia…
On an early Sunday evening in central Moscow, journalists and members of the public gathered for a specially curated exhibition called “Polly’s Cracker” — a reference to a song by the group Nirvana “Polly” about a young girl who escapes her kidnapper and sexual abuser. “I’d like to stress how a loving relationship can turn…
The town of Vyborg in northwestern Russia boasts a historic heritage unlike any other in the country. Lying just 40 kilometers south of Russia’s border with Finland, it is full of medieval, Art Nouveau and constructivist architecture that reflects the towns’ many owners—the Swedes, Russians, Finns and Soviets. In recent years however, the town was…
Before Maxim Shrayer became a professor of literature and Jewish Studies at Boston College, he spent over eight years as a refusenik in the Soviet Union. The son of Jewish-Russian intellectuals, Shrayer was born in 1967 and grew up in Moscow until he and his family emigrated in 1987. He arrived in the U.S. at…
Can Russia’s meat-loving population embrace Meatless Mondays? The country’s biggest restaurant group is counting on it. In mid-October, Rosinter restaurants in six major cities launched their Meatless Mondays initiative, which encourages diners to opt for a meatless meal by taking 20-25 % off the price of any non-meat home delivery order from their most popular…
What if I were to tell you that the most exciting contemporary art in Moscow today lies an hour-and-a-half drive through the traffic-choked motorways towards Domodedevo airport? It gets worse. Those who brave the tailbacks and hold-ups will find themselves arriving not at a gallery, museum or even studio complex, but rather at a real-estate…
Venedikt Yerofeyev was born near Murmansk on Oct. 24, 1938, the son of a former political prisoner. After graduating from grade school in Murmansk, he began language and literature studies at Moscow State University, but was soon expelled for failure to fulfill his military service requirements. For much of the rest of his life, Yerofeyev…
This month the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Awards, a joint project of the Tolstoy Estate Museum and Samsung Electronics, announced the 2019 winners. Sergei Samsonov won the main award in Contemporary Russian Prose for his novel “Hold On To This Land” (“Держаться за землю”). The Foreign Literature Prize went to Hernán Rivera Letelier for his novel…
Lev Yashin was born in Moscow exactly 90 years ago. He would go on to become the most recognized goalkeeper in history and the most famous Russian athlete of the 20th century. Yashin started off from humble beginnings. Both of his parents worked in factories in Moscow when he was growing up. The family was evacuated…
As the only remaining independent, English-language news source reporting from Russia, The Moscow Times plays a critical role in connecting Russia to the world. Editorial decisions are made entirely by journalists in our newsroom, who adhere to the highest ethical standards. We fearlessly cover issues that are often considered off-limits or taboo in Russia, from…
On Saturday evening the Zaryadye Concert Hall was filled with blue and red hair: on stage, one singer was blue and another was red; in the audience, blue rinses and bifocals mingled with hipster multi-colored streaks. The occasion for all this color was “The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” — not the monumental sculpture created by…
For the first time in history, the original manuscript of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” has left Russia and the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow for a stay at the Martin Bodmer Foundation museum in Geneva. Three pages of one of the most famous Russian novels, written between 1864 and 1869, became part of an exposition devoted…
Lesser-known than the Kremlin and the Hermitage, the vast Kolomenskoye estate in southern Moscow is still a true gem well worth a visit. The estate, which was a favorite country estate for Russia’s grand princes and tsars, is full of historic constructions and natural beauty. Here’s a bit more about what it has in store:
The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography is presenting an exhibition of the work of Gennady Bodrov as part of its research project “Anthology of Russian Photography of the XXth Century. Photos 80-90.” 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of Kursk-born Bodrov’s tragic death at 41 in a botched robbery. Considering himself to be first and foremost…
On this day in 1990, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Mikhail Gorbachev, then president of the U.S.S.R., “for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community.” By that time, Gorbachev had withdrawn Soviet troops from Afghanistan, had not interfered in the fall…
Moscow has jazz clubs, concert halls, circuses, puppet theaters, drama theaters, music halls, and another hundred or so venues that hold concerts and other events every evening. Here are a few of our picks for fall. Zaryadye Concert Hall Moscow’s first concert hall in more than 20 years is a beautifully designed and acoustically perfect…
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In October 1917, Lenin’s Bolshevik Party seized power and inaugurated the first communist workers’ state, founded on the principles of Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.” Almost immediately, the race was on to turn antiquated, almost feudal imperial Russia into a communist utopia. It was a tall order in Russia: the vast majority of the population of…
Autumn is one of the best times to visit Russia’s majestic and enchanting manors and palaces. The Kuskovo Estate in eastern Moscow is one of these places. Built in the mid-18th century by the wealthy Sheremetyev family, it is one of the oldest estates of its kind still standing in Russia’s capital. The family used…
Старый пердун: old fart We’re all adults here. We understand that we all, from time to time, produce a variety of noises and smells. There’s nothing to ashamed of. We might eat too much of certain kinds of food and then you know what happens: Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart, the more you…
For over two hundred years, the epicenter of Imperial Russian power was more often found on the outskirts of St. Petersburg than in its heart. The Romanovs had many residences, but none symbolized the dynasty’s autocratic power more than the opulent Catherine Palace, the jewel in the crown of Tsarskoye Selo, “the Tsar’s village.” A…
Marina Tsvetayeva was born in Moscow in 1892 to a professor of art history – who founded what is today known as the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts – and a mother of German and Polish ancestry. Tsvetayeva’s family was one of wealth and influence, albeit not supportive of their daughter’s poetry. When Tsvetayeva was…
In 1881 the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov wrote a short story called “The Tale of Cross-Eyed Lefty and the Steel Flea” about a group of blacksmiths in Tula led by a left-handed master. In the story, Tsar Alexander I brought back a miniature mechanical flea made of steel from England. His son, Tsar Nicholas I,…
One of my superpowers is the ability to come up with names for dishes. I play with puns, literary allusions, alliteration, and assonance. But in the case of this particular eggplant recipe, I cannot, for the life of me, come up with anything better than the name by which it is known in my immediate…
After a long, warm summer of shashlik in the park and skateboards on the streets, Moscow is settling into colder nights and shorter days. But before winter gets here, we’re enjoying the colors and shades of autumn! Here’s a look at the capital this season.
From yoga to pho to escape rooms, Moscow has gone through more than its fair share of fads in the past couple of decades. While predicting what the next wave will be is like trying to guess which of your aunt’s cat videos is going to go viral on YouTube, one sleeper contender for Moscow’s…
The year was 1909. Mahatma Gandhi was 40 years old and just starting out; Leo Tolstoy was 81 and one of the most famous men in the world. In a letter written on Dec. 14, 1908 by Tolstoy in response to an Indian revolutionary, the Russian writer argued that only through the principle of love could…
Legendary game designer Hideo Kojima has arrived in Russia to promote his latest game, “Death Stranding,” at the IgroMir computer and video game expo. “Death Stranding” is a post-apocalyptic action thriller created exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and set to be released on Nov. 8. The game’s main characters were designed to resemble stars like…
As comic culture continues to catch on in Russia, Moscow’s annual Comic-Con has delighted, enthralled and captivated fans of comics and superheroes alike. This year’s event alone is expected to draw more than 160,000 people. Similar to Comic-Cons in other countries, the event is a pop culture smorgasbord, showcasing the latest in movies, television and…
Nicknamed the “Venice of the North” for its canals, rivers and bridges, St. Petersburg has had a close bond with Italy since it was first built on the Neva River. Peter the Great, envisioning a capital for his empire that could compare to the great capitals of Europe, invited the Swiss-Italian architect Domenico Trezzini to…
Born in Konstantinovo, Ryazan, to a peasant family, Sergei Yesenin was at an early age sent to live with his grandparents, who were better off and played a major role in raising him. With his three grown-up uncles, a young Yesenin was taught how to swim, hunt and ride horses. His grandmother, a religious woman,…
Georgian composer Giya Kancheli died Wednesday at age 85. He had been gravely ill and was being treated abroad prior to his death. Kancheli is best known for composing the soundtrack for the 1977 comedy “Mimino” and the 1986 science fiction film “Kin-dza-dza!.” He also had a distinguished career writing music for theater, opera and…
Russia has placed 19th-century gates in St. Petersburg, a house from a Turgenev novel and other significant historical buildings on the market to save them from destruction. The cost to rent them? One ruble. Several “house for a ruble” programs have popped up across the country in an effort to save historic buildings that have…
Nothing says “Russia” quite like a festival dedicated to Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace.” Held at the Ostafyevo Estate south of Moscow — where Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol and Vasily Zhukovsky have all visited — the festival paid tribute to Russian literature and history over the weekend. Costumes not required, but encouraged. Here’s…
Tigers and tigers and tigers, oh my! The streets of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East roared to life as residents young and old dressed up to celebrate their very own Tiger Day, an annual parade to raise awareness of the plight of the Amur tiger. The Amur tiger is one of the world’s most endangered…
Every year thousands of performers and visitors descend upon Scotland in late summer to attend the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s biggest festival of performance arts, from stand-up comedy to opera. This year among the nearly 4,000 shows were several from Russia including “Forest,” a work of physical theater directed by Dmitry Melkin and performed…
On Saturday morning film and theater director, screenwriter and writer Mark Zakharov died of complications from pneumonia. He was 85 years old. Mark Zakharov was the artistic director of the Lenkom Theater in Moscow since 1973 and defined not only the theater’s repertory but the style and spirit of the late-Soviet era. He gathered a…
Soaring high above Moscow on the top of Europe’s tallest skyscraper OKO but grounded by its most ancient culinary roots is Ruski, the very successful joint venture of two Moscow restaurant giants, Chaikhonka and GINZA. On the tower’s 85th floor, Chef Alexander Volkov-Medvedev is reinventing Russia’s oldest methods and recipes with the help of the…
The Mother and Child (Mat i Ditya) group was founded in 2006 as one of the first private medical practices in Russia to provide exemplary, state-of-the-art services in gynecology, childbirth, neo-natal care and pediatrics. It was the “love child” of Dr. Mark Kurtser, a medical doctor and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and…
Former French President Jacques Chirac, who led France from 1995 to 2007, died Thursday at age 86. Chirac’s political career spanned decades and he had dealings with every Russian and Soviet leader since Brezhnev. In a message of condolence Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said that he admired Chirac’s “intellect and deep knowledge as well as…
Lee Jinju: Tilted Tilted is a rare exhibition of a South Korean artist in Moscow, all the more special because she made this series of works especially for the exhibition at the Triumph Gallery. Her works can be defined as subjective realism or psycholandscapes, they are like painted streams of consciousness. In her works Jinju employs…
St. Petersburg is kicking off the fall art and culture season with something for everyone, from Chinese lanterns to a retrospective of one of Russia’s greatest artists. Art Weekend: Oct. 5 and 6 Explore the best of St. Petersburg’s galleries and exhibitions in a weekend entirely devoted to contemporary art. Art Weekend will involve more…
This week in 1968, “Those Were the Days” by folk singer Mary Hopkin started its six-week run at the top of the British charts. The song was originally a Russian song called “Dorogoi Dlinnoyu,” meaning “By the Long Road,” written in 1925 by Konstantin Podrevsky and Boris Fomin. Western pop songs influenced the musical tastes…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.”…
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…