Моя Россия 5: Русские любят выходные 2 – Активный отдых

The following is lesson 5 of the Моя Россия advanced Russian lesson series. Note that all bold words and phrases have annotation below. Red words and phrases indicate the subject of this blog entry’s grammar lesson. Asterisks indicate slang. Россияне, как и все остальные люди на планете, любят расслабляться. Отдыхать любят по-разному: кому-то нравится лежать […]

Моя Россия 4: Бедность в России

The following is lesson 4 of the Моя Россия advanced Russian lesson series. Note that all bold words and phrases have annotation below. Red words and phrases indicate the subject of this blog entry’s grammar lesson. Asterisks indicate slang. Каким вы представляете себе лицо бедности? Лично для меня это плачущая у кассы старушка, отдавшая последние деньги за […]

Tiger Day in Vladivostok: Student Observations

The fourth Sunday of every September in Vladivostok is set aside for a local holiday called “День Тигра” (“Tiger Day”). The event celebrates the Amur (also called Siberian) Tigers, whose natural habitat is the Primorsky Krai Region of the Russian Far East. Vladivostok’s coat of arms prominently features the Amur Tiger, and there are quite […]

Моя Россия 3: Поехали в Санкт-Петербург, культурную столицу

The following is lesson 3 of the Моя Россия advanced Russian lesson series. Note that all bold words and phrases have annotation below. Red words and phrases indicate the subject of this blog entry’s grammar lesson. Asterisks indicate slang. Этим летом я ездила в Санкт-Петербург. Санкт-Петербург – это второй по численности населения и значению город […]

Моя Россия 2: Русские любят выходные

The following is lesson 2 of the Моя Россия advanced Russian lesson series. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal its English translation. Red words and phrases indicate the subject of this blog entry’s grammar lesson. Asterisks indicate words that have additional cultural/linguistic commentary below. Русские люди очень любят праздники. Наверное, они их любят даже больше, чем […]

Моя Россия 1: Гости и приезжающиe

The following is lesson 1 of the Моя Россия advanced Russian lesson series. Note that all bold words and phrases have annotation below. Red words and phrases indicate the subject of this blog entry’s grammar lesson. Asterisks indicate slang. Меня зовут Роксана. Мне 23 года, и уже много лет я живу в Москве. Большую часть […]

Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius in Sergiev Posad

On October 5, after visiting the Abramtsevo Artists’ Museum Reserve (музей-заповедник “Абрамцево”), as the second section of the day-long cultural excursion for its International School on Global Security for Young Specialists, PIR Center, where I intern as part of my program with SRAS, took school students and lecturers to the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius […]

The 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Leningrad

Jan 27, 2014 was the 70th anniversary of the end of the Siege of Leningrad. During the Great Patriotic War (WWII) German forces cut off the Soviet city of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) from the rest of the country with intense bombing raids and tank roadblocks. The siege lasted for 872 days: from September 8 […]

Dachas in Kyiv: Student Observations

During my Russian studies at Indiana University over the past two years, the concept of a “dacha” or Soviet-era summer home always intrigued me. While my family has taken multiple vacations during which we stayed in cabins in Indiana or the Great Smoky Mountains, we—like most Americans—were happy to return to our permanent home. Yet […]

Russian MiniLessons: Aging

The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal its English translation. Most Russians feel uneasy talking about aging. There are many Russians proverbs that express a negative attitude towards old age, such as , or , or . […]

Birthday Parties in Vladivostok

Besides the New Year, Victory Day and perhaps the 8th of March, the next biggest holidays on most Russians’ rosters are actually their birthdays! The sheer level of drama that they entail, and the full-scale productions that they become are most certainly worthy of them being labeled cultural events. While I have been a guest […]

Baikal Strings: Bayan Duet at the Irkutsk Philharmonic

The Irkutsk Philharmonic offers a wide range of events, including music, dance, and the occasional theatre performance. The best part of the philharmonic is the affordable prices offered for a number of their different performances. Some of their performances are of course more expensive, for big name concerts and the like, but a good number […]

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