Category: Architecture

On this day in in 1918, the Soviet government marked May 1 as Day of International Solidarity with Workers. Its origins date back to Australia in 1856, when workers demonstrated for an 8-hour work day. This demand was picked up by anarchist organizations in the U.S. on May 1 in 1886. Demonstrations and marches in…

In May 2018, disaster struck in the Tretyakov Gallery. On a Friday evening just before closing time, a man ran into the almost empty hall of works by Ilya Repin, picked up a metal stanchion and bashed the glass-enclosed painting, “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan November 16, 1581.” The assailant broke through the…

On April 30, 1905, Emperor Nicholas II issued a decree on “Tolerance Development.” It would be the first in a series meant to reform relations between Russia’s church and state. This Edict of Toleration — a declaration made by a ruler or government that protects practitioners of a religion from persecution — gave the religions…

When Stefan Ingvarsson arrived in Moscow in 2015 as the new Cultural Counsellor the Embassy of Sweden, he already had spent a lot of time in the Soviet Union and Russia, starting with high school exchanges in the 1980s. He also had a great deal of experience organizing cultural events and festivals, coming to Russia…

On Saturday night Orthodox churches and cathedrals around the world ushered in Easter with solemn ceremonies. Easter celebrations culminated in a grand midnight procession with crosses and icons, and worshipers chanting “Christ is risen indeed!” Easter is Christianity’s most important holiday which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Orthodox world marks Easter this year a week later than the Catholic and…

Vladimir Kozlov was born in Mogilev, in what was once the Belorussian S.S.R. and is now Belarus. After his childhood and adolescence in industrial Mogilev experiencing all the chaos, upheaval, crime and freedom of the perestroika years, he moved to Minsk and then Moscow. He has written more than a dozen works of fiction, including…

Veteran columnist Michele Berdy kicked off The Moscow Times’ new monthly Theater series on Wednesday with a talk about her experiences of living in Russia since 1978. The lecture is part of a new series aimed at bringing the local expat community fun, fascinating and occasionally controversial talks and debates with Moscow’s most interesting people. Stay…

In Moscow on Thursday, the short list for the 2019 Pushkin House Book Prize was announced by Alexander Drozdov, executive director of the Yeltsin Presidential Center and a member of this year’s jury. The Prize has been awarded annually since 2013 to the best book of non-fiction about Russia or the Russian-speaking world written for…

On Sunday, April 21, a small memorial plaque was installed in Moscow on the wall of an apartment house on Ultisa Myasnitskaya, where in 1938 the artist Aleksander Drevin was arrested and taken away to be eventually shot by the N.K.V.D. – the Soviet secret police. Drevin was the most prominent artist killed in Stalin’s…

On this day in 1899, the writer Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg. His father was a liberal politician; his mother a well-educated and cultured member of a prominent business family. He was the oldest of five children. He received his early education at home with governesses and tutors and then at a liberal…

Vintage tram cars paraded down Moscow’s streets on Saturday to mark the 120-year anniversary of the tram service’s opening. The event, which takes place each spring, reached record attendance with more than 250,000 spectators, the local mos.ru news website reported. Here’s a look at the parade’s display of historic, Soviet-era models and the innovative trams…

Writing about cookbooks should not be a minefield, but in trying to nail down exactly what constitutes a “Russian” cookbook, I often feel the need of a sturdy flak jacket.  When you focus on a region whose physical and political borders have ebbed and flowed as often as Russia’s has, culinary history can well become controversial if not positively incendiary.…

In stuffy room with painted black walls, a group of students clap vigorously as if applauding a performance. Then they seem to be a shower, rubbing their faces and necks, before throwing their arms forward with loud shouts of “Ha!” From the front of the room, an older man observes them intently. For an outsider…

When you’re serious about your city’s statues, it isn’t just your home that needs spring cleaning. Muscovites headed outside to give the capital’s famous monuments a solid scrubbing and clean off the winter dirt. Here’s a look at Moscow’s statues getting spruced up for the new season:

With his work, Russian photographer Konstantin Vikhrov (@begushiy_po_ebenyam) attempts what he calls an “aesthetic-semantic” game, contrasting neon colors against dark shadows. The results are gloomy cyberpunk scenes reminiscent of film classic Blade Runner, capturing the bright but bleak sides of the capital. Here are a few of our favorites:

This year is the Year of Theater in Russia, and to celebrate, the Theater Gallery on Malaya Ordynka is running an exhibition of works by the delightfully zany artist Vladimir Lyubarov entitled “The Year of Theater in the Village of Peremilovo.” In 1991, Lyubarov left his hometown of Moscow in favor of a simple life…

After 17 years of exile in Europe, Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin staged a triumphant return to his home country on April 16, 1917, with aims to seize power from the Russian government and install a “dictatorship of the proletariat.” His return journey would change the course of world history in ways that are still being…

On this day in 1949, Alla Borisovna Pugacheva was born and went on to become the Soviet Union’s and Russia’s most famous, celebrated, and prolific singer. Alla Borisovna — no surname required — started training her powerful voice at the age of five. By the time she was studying in a music institute, she was…

On this day, on April 13, 1943, the German army under Adolf Hitler announced the discovery of mass graves near the village of Katyn not far from Smolensk. The Nazis accused the Soviet Union of the mass murder of Polish officers. For almost five decades, the Soviet Union denied all responsibility, insisting that the murders…

In June a new translation of a new version of Vasily Grossman’s “Stalingrad” is being released. Edited by Robert Chandler and Yury Bit-Yunan and translated from the Russian by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, it promises to, if not revolutionize readers’ understanding of Vasily Grossman, then at least expand and augment it. We couldn’t wait to…

Melancholy, peace, nostalgia… these and other emotions are described by visitors as they make their way through darkened halls filled with art, accompanied by the lonely sound of a piano and the faint scent of sandalwood incense. “Life After Life,” the new exhibition at the Manege, explores death, one of the most universal themes in…

On this day in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yury Gagarin became the first human to travel into outer space. On board the “Vostok 1,” Gagarin successfully orbited earth in his space capsule. During the journey, which lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes, Gagarin said little. The only known statement recorded from him: “Flight is proceeding normally.…

Despite the decades-old Moscow-Beijing Friendship, authentic Chinese food has been really hard to find in the Russian capital. But as thousands of Chinese students and tourists flock to Moscow each year, they have been hankering for a taste of home — and now they found it. Assuming that your Mandarin isn’t up to reading the…

Premiering at the Bolshoi on April 9, 1968, “Spartacus” has gone on to become on of the theater’s most iconic productions. The ballet tells the story of Spartacus, leader of the slave uprising against the Romans, and was originally composed by Aram Khachaturian in 1954. Khachaturian was awarded a Lenin Prize for his composition in…

Humans are embodied like all other animals, but according to Plato we are distinguished from the beasts through our possession of a sacred attribute: reason. This attribute is manifest in our ability to contemplate the nature of reality and reflect on how we ought to act. Thinkers from Plato to Steven Pinker have placed great…

In March, “Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and the School of London” opened at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Organized in cooperation with the Tate (London), the exhibition includes 80 artworks. The Moscow Times talked to Marina Loshak, director of the Pushkin Museum, about the exhibition and cooperation with Tate. When did you start…

The passion to run has hit Russians hard. RunRepeat, a group that tracks marathon participation and times all around the world, reports that more Russians are running and more of them are running faster. In six years from 2009 to 2014, the number of Russian marathoners increased 300 percent. From 2008 to 2018, the average…

The film director Georgy Daneliya died in a Moscow hospital on Thursday. The cause of death was a heart attack, but he had been hospitalized since February with an acute respiratory ailment. He was 88 years old. Daneliya was one of the Soviet Union’s most popular screenwriters and directors, whose gently satirical films managed to…

Seriously, though, how do the Georgians do it?  The simplest dish on their stoves becomes a culinary tour de force.  Take, for example, chikhirtma, Georgia’s spicy, tangy, velvety version of Greek avgolemono or egg and lemon soup.    Like most Georgian recipes, the seemingly simple list of ingredients belies the complexity of the finished product.  The secret…

On this day in 1932, Andrei Tarkovsky was born in a village northeast of Moscow. His father was the poet and translator Arseny Tarkovsky, and his mother was a literary editor. He spent much of his childhood in the village before moving to Moscow after the war. At university Tarkovsky studied Arabic and then tried…

Nikolai Gogol was born in the Ukrainian town of Sorochintsy in 1809. His father, Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, was himself a poet and a playwright, writing in both Ukrainian and Russian. Both languages were spoken in their home, and this would go on to have a significant influence on Gogol’s writing. In 1828 Gogol moved to St.…

The terminal stands dusted in snow in this photo from 1959. Because ships could depart for the White, Baltic, Black and Caspian seas, and the Sea of Azov, from here, the terminal is sometimes referred to as the Five Seas’ port. S.Preobrazhensky / mos.ru

How do you save a church? Call in a heavenly choir. That’s what St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Moscow decided to do. To raise funds for desperately needed repairs to their historic 135-year-old church, the church invited the Stas Namin Theater to perform their production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” on April 2.  And Stas Namin…

On March 28 in 1868, the writer Maxim Gorky was born as Alexei Peshkov in Nizhny Novgorod. Later he took the penname of “Gorky” as he told the “bitter truth” of life in Russia. During the Soviet period he was celebrated as an anti-tsarist, working-class supporter of the Soviet regime, and his books, short stories…

A ballet set to music by The Rolling Stones and choreographed by Mick Jagger’s ballerina girlfriend has premiered in Russia. The eight-minute “Porte Rouge” (Red Door) show, inspired by the veteran British singer’s zany dance style, delighted a packed crowd at St. Petersburg’s famous Mariinsky Theatre on Tuesday night. Jagger’s partner Melanie Hamrick, a U.S.…

Using images from U.S.S.R.-era books, postcards and newspapers, Dutch artist Tamara Stoffers delves into the Soviet past to create surreal collages, playing with the old and ordinary to make it experimental and new. Her distinctive style inspires nostalgia for a time and place to which not all have been — including the young artist herself.…

The Tretyakov Gallery continues its series of retrospectives of prominent turn-of-the-century painters with an enormous exhibition of works by Ilya Repin. Devoted to the 175th anniversary of the artist’s birth, the retrospective at the Tretyakov Gallery is only the first of three shows. After Moscow it will travel to the State Russian Museum in St.…

March is not a good month in Moscow. The skiing and skating seasons are over, but the running and biking seasons are but a dream of the distant future. You’ve explored every mall and binge-watched every television series produced within the last decade. You’ve mastered several complex, day-long French recipes and gotten loopy trying to…

As nature says goodbye to winter and marks the start of spring, many in Russia welcome the change in seasons by wearing their finest traditional clothes and cooking their best food. Nowruz, an ancient Persian new year festival, sometimes spelled Navruz or Navroz, is widely celebrated across Central Asia and Russia’s Muslim-majority republics of Tatarstan,…

Last year, the 100th anniversary of the execution of the last members of the Romanov dynasty passed in Russia without much official attention. The exception was in Yekaterinburg, where the family was killed and where thousands of pilgrims gathered to mark the day of their murder. But in Moscow the State Historical Museum has been…

Marlen Khutsiev, one of the Soviet Union and Russia’s most innovative and beloved film directors, died on Tuesday morning at the age of 93. Khutsiev was born in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia) in 1925. His father (ne Khutishvili) was a communist with a pre-Revolutionary socialist pedigree, who, after serving in high positions within the Soviet…

An old tram depot in the center of Moscow has become the city’s latest foodie haven. Depo Food Mall, which opened last month near Belorussky Station, houses more than 200 stalls, shops and restaurants serving food from all over the world. It continues Moscow’s food revolution that started when the Soviet-era Daniilovsky Market got a…

Each year, Moscow plays host to numerous film festivals showcasing some of the best cinema from around the world. And with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner (March 17), there’s no better way to celebrate Irish culture than by checking out Moscow’s own Irish Film Festival. The festival will showcase a selection of the…

Over the past week, Russia celebrated the pre-Lent festival known as Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week. Besides an abundance of blini (pancakes) served, it all came to an end with traditional bonfires across the country. Here’s a look at the fun and fire that took place over the weekend.

On a brisk, sunny Saturday in early March, a group of women dressed in full hockey gear and carrying industrial size brooms descend upon the frozen tennis courts of the German embassy. The tennis courts—which have been flooded to make a thick layer of ice—have become dusted overnight with a light layer of snow, which…

Russia’s believers reflect while its vegetarians rejoice as we get ready for special Lenten menus in meat-loving Moscow in the six weeks of Lent that precede Orthodox Easter. The week that announces the transition to Lent is Maslenitsa — seven days full of pancake (or in Russian, blini) eating and merriment. Running from March 4…

There is no need for an excuse to listen to chamber music, but with spring still around the corner, March can call for a cozy indoor evening to lift your mood. And by now you might be ready for a change from the mulled wine and electric radiator that kept you going for the past…

Moscow is gearing up to celebrate Maslenitsa — the week before Lent begins  — in grand style with food, concerts and burning effigies. In recent years, Russia’s Mardi Gras or “pancake week” has seen a glamorous and all-frills revival in the large cities as municipal and regional administrations organize a week of public celebration. From…

On a cold but sunny afternoon rare for Moscow in mid-winter, a dozen activists stand shivering but resolute on Ulitsa Bolshaya Nikitskaya. They hold up large banners: “Stop tearing down our city!” and “Vandals are at work here!” prepared by the volunteer architecture preservation group Arkhnadzor. Passersby continually stop to read the banners and ask…

When you step into a courtyard just off Tverskaya Ulitsa, you will probably look puzzledly at your phone, thinking that Google Maps has led you astray.  But despite its unassuming character, this quiet residential enclave is home to the Apartment-Museum of the Soviet era’s most iconic dissident writer: Alexander Solzhenitsyn. At the very end of…

There wasn’t a Russian film up for the Oscar this year, but a newly restored 1969 Oscar winner is an apt reminder of Soviet cinema’s impact on the sweeping Hollywood epic.  “War and Peace,” director Sergei Bondarchuk’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic, expanded the scope, scale and aesthetic ambition of what could play on the…

The myth still remains that during World War II Jews were more likely to bemoan their fate than to actively resist the Nazis. This is easily disproved by the 300,000-500,000 Jews that are estimated to have fought in the Red Army. But due to anti-Semitic policies in the Soviet Union, many of these stories were…

One thing I never worry about is how to entertain out of town guests in Moscow.  After twenty-some years, the template has been honed and refined into a delicate balance of classic rubbernecking (the Kremlin, Red Square, the Tretyakov Gallery, Novodeyvichy Convent and Cemetery) and just enough off-the-beaten-track experiences (Danilovsky Market, Garage, Izmailovo) to make…

One thing I never worry about is how to entertain out of town guests in Moscow.  After twenty-some years, the template has been honed and refined into a delicate balance of classic rubbernecking (the Kremlin, Red Square, the Tretyakov Gallery, Novodeyvichy Convent and Cemetery) and just enough off-the-beaten-track experiences (Danilovsky Market, Garage, Izmailovo) to make…

In a famous essay written shortly after the Second World War, Martin Heidegger draws a distinction between ancient and modern technology. Ancient technology is “gentle” insofar as it exemplifies a certain harmony with the environment. Modern technology is “violent” to the extent that it exhibits little regard for life-sustaining ecosystems. And in his “Industrial Zone”…

The biggest change in Russia these days? Cool provincial cities. Wikicommons If you need a break from Moscow, hop on a high-speed train and find yourself in the newly cool-ified provincial city of Tula in just two hours.  Founded in late 14th century, Tula first belonged to the principality of Ryazan. But Tula’s famous kremlin…

Every spring Russia celebrates the best of theater with a three-month festival called the Golden Mask. This year theater-lovers are looking forward to a particularly vibrant festival, since it is celebrating its 25th year while the country celebrates its Year of Theater. The best productions of drama and comedy, opera, ballet, contemporary dance, operetta and…

From baby chimps and hippos to anti-aircraft guns during World War II, the Moscow zoo has had a rich history since it was founded on Feb. 13, 1864. Celebrating its birthday on Wednesday, we look back at archival photographs of how the grounds and residents of the zoo have changed throughout the years. Having started off…

Come and be dazzled “Birch Grove” 1879 Arkhip Kuindzhi Courtesy of Tretyakov Gallery On January 27, Arkhip Kuindzhi’s exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery—a retrospective in honor of the artist’s 175th birthday—became a news sensation after a 31-year-old man stole the painting “Ai-Petri. Crimea” during the museum’s working hours. The heist, which made worldwide headlines, also…

Ten places to immerse yourself in Chinese culture The Perlov Tea House / Moskva News Agency February 5 marks the beginning of the Year of the Pig – the last Zodiac sign in the Chinese lunar calendar’s twelve-year cycle. China may be more than five thousand kilometers away from Russia’s capital, but you can still…