Museums

The Tbilisi History Museum

The Tbilisi History Museum is a quick peak into the city’s 19th century past that helps solidify its importance as a commercial hub at the cultural crossroads of the Persian, Ottoman, and Russian empires. Housed in a historic building with other worthwhile museums and telling its story through models, life-size dioramas, historic photographs, and other […]

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Guide to Bishkek’s Top Museums for Students

Museum of Georgian Medicine: Two Stories Told

Art

How Art Nouveau Became an Expression of Latvian Identity

Latvia’s rich Art Nouveau heritage was shaped by European trends, influenced by local folk aesthetics, and popularized under Latvia’s National Awakening, a movement that first sought to define what it meant to be proudly Latvian. Art Nouveau flourished in Latvia for less than two decades. It rose with the economic prosperity and social mobility at […]

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Russian Icons in Detail from The Icon Museum

Ilya Repin’s Life, Works, Legacy and House Museum

Literature

Bookstores in Tbilisi, Georgia

As an avid reader and introvert, who often prefers a cozy bookstore to bars, I set out to explore three recommended ex-pat bookstores in Tbilisi. Places like Prospero’s, Auditoria, and On the Same Page all cater to Anglophone and/or Russophone readers. I found that these three stores varied widely in terms of ambience and selections, […]

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Immorality and “General Hypnotism” in Chekhov’s “Gooseberries” 

Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya – A Forgotten Great of Russian Literature

Theater

The Armenian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet

In the heart of Armenia’s capital city Yerevan, stands the Armenian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet and the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall, simply known as “The Opera” by locals. Built in the early twentieth century, this cultural hub showcases a blend of traditional Armenian architecture and contemporary design representative of its diverse repertoire. […]

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The Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi

Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theater