... Merry Christmas to all the people who are celebrating today! Here in Russia the Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas, of course, on December 25th, but (yes, there is a but, hence the title of the post!) December 25th on Julius Cesar's calendar, not this new (1582) Gregorian calendar... Between the two there is currently a... Continue Reading →
A well eradicated habit in Russian culture is that of rubbing bronze statues. Those, which are not meant to be rubbed are cordoned-off, but sometimes even that is not enough to deter people from rubbing with their hands the feet of religious statues in churches. Besides a general "good luck" a lot of statues apparently... Continue Reading →
Imagine you have a clothing store on a central street in a medium-sized Russian city, (about half a million people). Of course you want the maximum possible number of people to see the clothes you sell, in the hope they will like them and come to buy them from you. Your clothes range from business... Continue Reading →
In 1972 Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed college in Portland, Oregon, but hung around campus for more than a year afterward; during that time, he audited Father Palladino’s calligraphy class. After helping to found Apple in 1976, he often credited the company’s elegant onscreen fonts — and his larger interest in the design of computers as physical... Continue Reading →
Those who have never visited Russia might associate its architecture with the gray, drab building that characterized Soviet cities and were purposefully portrayed in many "western" movies and documentaries about the USSR. I am not trying to say that these were a "western propaganda" invention, because this would be a colossal lie, but I want... Continue Reading →
Zaryadye Park, inaugurated on 9 September 2017, near the Red Square in Moscow, on the former Rossiya Hotel site, is the first public park built in Moscow in exactly 70 years, the last being the Soviet Friendship Park, built for the 1957 Festival of Youth and Students. The area of the park is around 78 thousand square meters, of... Continue Reading →
Tea is the national beverage of Russia (ok, vodka, as well...) and tea is an important part of Russian culture, to the point that some Russian language expressions are closely tied to the hot drink. "Let's drink some tea", for instance, is a classic way of saying "we should talk..." or even, depending on the... Continue Reading →
Russia Through The Lens 