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Arts & Life

Alexei Navalny’s Posthumous Memoir ‘Patriot’ Shortlisted for Pushkin House Book Prize 2025

Part-memoir, part-prison diary, and part political manifesto, Alexei Navalny's last word is a captivating read.

When Kitchens Became Factories in the Soviet Union

Soviet authorities had the idea of building enormous factory kitchens that would provide hot mid-day meals to the masses. How did it go? Not very well...
7 Min read

Remembering the War: Grigory Baklanov and a 'Life, Twice Given'

A story of the war that ended 80 years ago by someone who fought and by a miracle came home.
10 Min read

Bondianna: Anna Chapman’s Spy Memoir, Real and Imagined

This "tell-all" spy memoir tells a lot without getting to spying.
3 Min read

‘The Baton and the Cross’ by Lucy Ash Shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2025

Long-time correspondent and Russia watcher Lucy Ash has written an engrossing and revelatory tale of Russian Orthodoxy, past and present.
9 Min read

Wrap Anything in Dough and Call it a Pie

In Russia you can make a pie with just about anything. But "fishniki" (fish pies) are especially delicious.
7 Min read

Howard Amos' 'Russia Starts Here' Shortlisted for Pushkin House Book Prize 2025

Journalist Howard Amos spent years in the Pskov region, the most western tip of Russia, capturing the stories and images of beauty and darkness.
8 Min read

What's in a Name? Everything if Your Blinis are Called 'Benderiki'

Are they named after a Ukrainian hero, an imaginary Turkish conman, or a Moldovan ethnic group? Who cares? These these blinis are delicious.
5 Min read
Feature

Exiled Electronic Duo AIGEL Crashes the Dancefloor With ‘Killer Qız’

On their first album in five years, AIGEL channels exile, existential reckoning and rebirth into a club-ready soundscape.
6 Min read

In Photos: The Works of Sculptor Zurab Tsereteli

Tsereteli, the former chief artist of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, who died on Monday night, left an indelible impression on the landscape of Moscow.
1 Min read

Zurab Tsereteli, Sculptor of Grand Monuments and Putin Admirer, Dies at 91

Born and trained in Tbilisi, Tsereteli rose to prominence in the 1960s, designing resort complexes in Soviet Georgia.
2 Min read

New York’s Hottest Playwright? Anton Chekhov.

In a moment when Russian art is often viewed through the lens of geopolitics, it’s striking that New York theater has so fully embraced Chekhov.
4 Min read

Walk the 'Green Mountains' of the Caucasus with Author Caroline Eden

The third book of Caroline Eden's "Color Trilogy" takes us to Armenia and Georgia where the land is beautiful and everything is delicious.
10 Min read

Who Invented Gingerbread – Europe or Russia? Who Cares?!

There is still time this holiday weekend to whip up a batch of buttery, spicy, honey-infused gingerbread.
7 Min read

In 'The Illegals' Author Shaun Walker Unravels the Messy Lives of Spies

From the earliest days of the U.S.S.R. up until today, Moscow has sent abroad "illegals" posing as locals to advance their interests.
13 Min read

For the Love of Soups

In Russia and its close neighbors, there is a soup for every weather, every occasion and every taste.
6 Min read

Pushkin House Announces Short List for 2025 Book Prize

The short list for the annual award has become the collection of the season's must-read books.
2 Min read

Inside Russia’s ‘Micro-Politics’: Ethnographer Jeremy Morris on the Quiet Resilience of Daily Life

The Moscow Times speaks to the British ethnographer about his latest book. 
7 Min read

Justice Ministry Investigating TV Presenter Urgant Over Alleged Foreign Influence

State media reported last month that the presenter registered as an individual entrepreneur in France. Urgant denied the report.
2 Min read
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