To the reader: These vignettes are a collection of personal essays of my childhood experiences growing up in the former Soviet Union and my later impressions based on travels to Ukraine and to Russia as a college student. Please be aware that since most of my childhood was spent in the Ukrainian SSR while it […]

SRAS: You are currently majoring in Russian Studies and Psychology at Stetson University – what got you interested in Russia? Mark Lowry: I served a two year mission for the LDS church in Russia helping out church members there. While there, I became proficient in Russian and when I returned in 2008 I decided to major in […]

This is Lesson 10, Part 1 of Olga’s Blog, a series of intermediate Russian lessons.Hover over the bold Russian to reveal its English translation (note that most of the highlighted words will have additional linguistic/cultural commentary below). Red words and phrases indicate the subject of this blog entry’s grammar lesson.  Привет всем! Наступили долгожданные каникулы. Чем […]

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. In the 20th century,   5 times, and each time the elections procedure was different. However,  of the 16th Patriarch, which are scheduled for the end of January, […]

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. This topic is doubly pertinent this month, as has just passed, but also because many  are likely to be affected by the new law on NGOs. The […]

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. Russian has two distinct words for truth, although both can be translated to English as simply “truth.” “Правда” is generally thought of in the same context as […]

Ghosts of Holidays Past: Interview with Kim Balaschak by Josh Wilson The expat community in Moscow functions much like a smaller town in the US, where the degrees of separation between individuals rarely total more than two. So it was that my email address had crossed Kim Balaschak’s computer (through a mutual Russian acquaintance) and […]

While stories about Dobrynya Nikitich, Ilya Muromets, and Sadko were being sung in Kievan Rus’ – the Slavic state dominated by the city of Kiev from the ninth until the twelfth centuries – Anglo-Saxon, or Old English poetry had already extended from oral to written production in the form of Beowulf.[1] Beowulf is a Christian reworking of oral […]

The Tran-Siberian Railway is the ultimate rail journey: the longest in the world – possibly the coldest if you go at the wrong time of year. A journey of almost mythical proportions that spans two continents while staying in a single country; without leaving your seat you clatter your way along almost a third of […]