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Archive for 'History'

Stars of the stage: Russian opera through several interpretations Posted by on May 11, 2022

Russian opera is and has been legendary for well over a century. In invite you to get acquainted with some legendary известные ру́сские о́перные исполни́тели through some of the roles they are most known for: А́нна Нетре́бко – «Русла́н и Людми́ла» Михаи́ла Гли́нки Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) was the first Russian composer to gain notoriety at…

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A bridge between cultures in a time of war? Posted by on Mar 25, 2022

The life of Серге́й Параджа́нов Sergei Parajanov, an infamous director who lived and worked in the Soviet Union, would have made a plot worthy of a movie in itself: ethnically Armenian, he was born in Tbilisi, now Georgia, in 1924, quit engineering school to study voice in the conservatory, then later, enchanted by the world…

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Go East, Young Man: the Virgin Lands Campaign Posted by on Oct 29, 2021

From this side of the Iron Curtain, we remember Ники́та Серге́евич Хрущёв Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, as the man who promised the West that мы вас похоро́ним! We will bury you (which is somewhat a mistranslation and a good subject for a future blog), for his 1959 Ку́хонные деба́ты Kitchen Debate in Moscow with then-vice president Richard…

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He Said “Poyekhali!” Posted by on Apr 12, 2021

Astronaut

Today, Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day (День Космона́втики), also known as The International Day of Human Space Flight. On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut (Do you want to know why Russians call their astronauts cosmonauts? Read THIS BLOG) Yuri Gagarin made the world’s first orbital flyby of the Earth (Земля́). Exactly twenty years later, the first…

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The Magic Russian White Desert – Chukotka Posted by on Jul 20, 2020

Eskimos

Chukotka is one of the places on our planet where permafrost and the majestic nature are merged. It looks like an endless white desert. Its landscape has not changed for several thousand years. It is here that you can meet a bear on the street. Chukotka (Чуко́тка) or, as it is formally known, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Чуко́тский автоно́мный…

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Твёрдый знак (hard sign): a case study in Russian language reforms Posted by on Jul 2, 2020

hard_sign

Last month we looked at мягкий знак (soft sign) and the rules that govern its proper use. In this blog, let’s explore the other unusual letter of the Russian alphabet: твёрдый знак (hard sign). Твёрдый знак “ъ” is the 28th letter of the Russian alphabet and similar to the soft sign, it doesn’t carry its…

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20 Years of Attempting to Diversify the Russian Economy – Part III Posted by on Jun 18, 2020

Putin Oil

“It is clear that in the long run, oil will reach prices that balance demand and consumption, and demand will increase after quarantines are canceled due to coronavirus.”                                                       …

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