It’s been a custom to write a “sochelnik” (Christmas Eve) post here on January 6th. I don’t normally do it in December because I don’t celebrate Western Christmas as a religious festival. However, I d...
Since Tuesday it’s been abnormally cold in Moscow. Last time the temperature was so low in 2016 when it fell down to -33. This year it hasn’t gone below -30 at night, but -27 in the day isn’t somethin...
I wanted to have a lazy day this Saturday, so I didn’t set the clock. Indeed, this is my best way to relax and recharge: to have no alarm clock go off when I haven’t slept enough. Then I went to do so...
November 7th used to be widely celebrated as the birth of the Soviet State. It was considered a benign democratic antidote to the tzarist system. If we take seriously the fact that the three-coloured ...
On the Day of National Unity our gratitude goes to the patriotic spirit of the 17th century Russian citizens. A chain of ill-thought events following the death of Boris Godunov led to the Moscow thron...
If Marylin Monroe had been alive, she would definitely visit Mr President, if in disguise. I recently saw the play The Insignificance at the Oleg Tabakov Theatre, and if Marylin were able to see Alber...
I shall especially remember this year’s Teacher’s Day. You see, despite the fact that I’d been teaching foreign languages for several years, my students weren’t particularly quick to send me greetings...
Labour Day (its history) is not celebrated in all countries. Back in 2007, when I worked at my first Advertising agency, I had to research into national holidays in different countries. For example, t...
On March 22nd, 2023, Belarus marks the 80th anniversary of annihilation of Khatyn village - one of nearly 5,000 villages that suffered the same fate during the Russian phase of the Second World War. ...
Vladimir Putin acts as Alexander Nevsky, making a choice between the antagonistic West and the more traditional China, now epitomised by Xi Jinping....