Zakhar Prilepin: His Literature and Nationalism

Zakhar Prilepin (Захар Прилепин), born Evgeny Nikolaevich Prilepin in 1975, is an award-winning Russian author, journalist, politician, and activist from the Ryazan Oblast, which borders the Moscow Region in Russia. He is known for both his strikingly realistic writing as well as for his political activity as a nationalist politician and organizer. Zakhar Prilepin’s Early […]

Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow

The Central Armed Forces Museum (formerly known as the Museum of the Soviet Army) is an extensive collection of artifacts and exhibits narrating Russia’s military history, from tsarist times, though the Soviet Union, to the present day. Displays cover everything from the 1905 war with Japan to the revolution and the formation of the Red […]

Eugene Vodolazkin: Blending Old and New in Modern Russian Literature

Eugene Germanovich Vodolazkin (Евгений Германович Водолазкин) is a globally celebrated author known for blending past and present with a unique writing style that pulls from Russian cultural history and spirituality. Early Life and Education of Eugene Vodolazkin  Vodolazkin was born in Kiev in 1964. Though very private about most of his childhood, it is known […]

What Was Constructivism? Building the Future through Art

Constructivism was equally an artistic movement and a social movement. Beginning in Russia in 1915 and ending in the late-1930s, Constructivism stepped away from normal artistic conventions and focused instead on the construction of art with raw industrial materials. Inspired by the Cubist and Russian Futurist movements, it also served as a platform to express […]

Seven Critically Acclaimed Modern Russian Artists

The following are six modern Russian artists who have left their mark on not only modern Russian art, but who are also known beyond Russia’s borders as well. Each has gathered critical acclaim and, as is always the case in the art world, at least some critical derision. Not all are ethnic Russians – but […]

The Moscow Metro: From Public Transport to Social Icon

Even if you’ve seen pictures, you’re not prepared for the Moscow Metro System. For visitors, one of the great surprises of this historical city is discovering the beauty and cleanliness of its underground palaces. It’s worth a few hours in the afternoon or late evening (avoid rush hour 4-7) to ride around and see the […]

What was Russian Futurism? Seeking Societal Rebirth

Futurism, an artistic movement started in Italy, quickly found fertile ground in Russia starting in 1909. Futurism thus emerged in Russia in the period between the 1905 and 1917 revolutions when artistic, social, and political thought were in foment. Russia’s unique brand of Futurism helped form the basis of the Russian avant-garde, conveying its social […]

Dziga Vertov: The Revolutionary Eye of the Camera

Like many other great Soviet filmmakers of the Russian avant-garde, David Abelevich Kaufman – better known by his revolutionary pseudonym Dziga Vertov – came from a largely scientific background, having likely been first introduced to film as a tool in one of his science classes at university. Given this fact, it is perhaps understandable that […]

What was Suprematism? Seeking Transcendent Simplicity

Suprematism was an artistic and philosophical movement that drew inspiration from the philosophically non-objective, geometric, and technology-focused Futurism as well as the geometric, depth-focused Cubism. Most strikingly Suprematism opposed art for political or religious utility, and even art as a depiction of the objective world. For the Suprematists, art was produced for its own sake […]

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