Featured
Fictional Gays and Real Meteorites in Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk is about the last place in Russian you’d expect to find any kind of gay movement, and comedians have taken advantage of this.
Russian Riddles Unsolved by Americans
Russians don’t encounter many who speak Russian imperfectly, as a second language.
Open Letter on the Termination of Russian Studies Faculty at Ohio University
Like you, we are wholeheartedly invested in the survival and recovery of higher education in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That recovery depends on the will of universities...
Sith Lords of the World, Unite! (Russia's Alien Nations)
The very last people who can determine what is universal bout such stories is the Anglo-Saxon audience.
A Trial Against Racial Hatred: White Chauvinism and International Communism
On September 21st, Sean Guillory, host of the SRB Podcast and Digital Scholarship Curator in the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, joined...
The Simpsons go to 1990’s Russia
The writers of The Simpsons may have been showing their age by making two counterfeit jeans jokes about Russia in only one episode, but they aren’t completely unfamiliar with Russian...
Mikhail Lermontov Part I: The Original Hipster
If Russian literature is a history of Pushkin imitators, then Lermontov came first, and he’s still the best. Many have tried imitate Pushkin’s style, but few went as far to...
Mikhail Lermontov Part II: The Flesh Mop
Borrowed culture, without full cognizance of origin, is still pervasive in much of the hipster culture of Russia.
I’ve Got A Lucky Ticket
The phenomenon of the lucky ticket is one that every Russian knows from childhood if she is lucky enough to take the bus.
Second World Problems (and their solutions)
I wanted to write about the plane crash in Kazan but I keep sneezing because my apartment is dusty.
Elton John as Gay Propaganda in Russia
An Imam in Kazan had prayed to prevent Elton John from performing because of his homosexuality. This is about as peaceful and spiritual as protests get.
Told you so about Sochi (Part One)
I'm looking forward to saying I told you so. About Russia, about the Olympics.
Told you so about Sochi (Part II)
Strangely enough, fears of violence against gays can act as good PR for Russia by drawing attention away against a real threat: terrorism from the Caucasus.
Speak Loudly and Carry a Big Meat Stick: Crimean Tatars, the Media and the Crimea Crisis
This was the first week someone had asked me to edit their guerrilla warfare recruiting propaganda.
Liberty Island or Liberty Peninsula?
Crimea “has always really been part of Russia” only after it had already been annexed. That is, the sentiment that some parts of Ukraine are really Russia was not an...
The "Doctor Oz" of Russia
Have you ever wondered why Babushkas fear the draft more than any pathogen?
Smoked Out
Yes my friends, it's finally here, a federal law prohibiting smoking indoors
Victoria's Open Secret (or Russia Embraces Granny Panties)
If there is one topic that is all over the Russiasphere news right now, it is underpants. Ladies' underpants.
ZERO Die In Russian Gay Night Club Shooting. You'll Never Guess the Reason Why.
It is because of the guns they used.
Russians React (to Trump's election)
“Just looking at their outward appearances, both are extremely unattractive.”