Slot (Слот) is a wildly popular Russian metal band. The band hails from Moscow, and was originally formed by male vocalist and main songwriter Igor Lobanov (Игорь Лобанов, nickname Cache) and Sergei Bogolyubskiy (Сергей Боголюбский, nickname ID) in 2002. Vocalist Teona Dolnikova (Теона Долникова) joined the band shortly thereafter, and she sang on the group’s […]
Pyotr Nalich (Пётр Андреевич Налич) is a Russian singer-songwriter who sings in Russian, English, Italian, French and Babury (Бабури), an invented language. Nalich’s songs are often funny, at times comparable to children’s songs. All of Nalitch’s songs are available for free or “pay what you want” download on his website and, as he declared in an […]
Pelageya (the stage name of Pelageya Khanova, Пелагея Сергеевна Ханова) is a Russian singer known for her versions of folk songs of various nations, romances, and other compositions performed in rock arrangement. Pelageya was born into a musical family and showed herself as a talented singer from a very young age. Her mother, Svetlana Khanova […]
Aleksandr Galich (Александр Галич; originally Ginzburg) was a Russian/Ukrainian singer-songwriter, bard, poet, and Soviet dissident who died in 1977. He is well-known enough, and beloved enough, to be mentioned in the same breath as Vysotsky. He was born in present-day Ukraine (Dnepropetrovsk) to a family who enjoyed, though did not create or participate in, music […]
The Master and Margarita (Мастер и Маргарита) is a 2005 TV miniseries based on the fantastical, bizarre, venerable book by Mikhail Bulgakov (Михаил Булгаков). Bulgakov, a Russian/Ukrainian/Soviet writer born in Kyiv, was one of the most esteemed writers of the Soviet period, though his works, of which The Master and Margarita is the most famous, […]
The Island (Остров) is a 2006 Russian drama directed by Pavel Lungin (Павел Лунгин). Lungin is one of Russia’s most well-established and well-respected contemporary filmmakers, and The Island is a valuable part of his directorial portfolio. The film takes place in a secluded monastery on the White Sea. Anatoly is a monk who lives in […]
Paperny T.A..M… (Паперный Т.А..М…) is a Russian music group that was founded in Moscow shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its leader is Aleksey Mikhailovich Paperniy (Алексей Михайлович Паперный; the T.A..M… stands for “fellowship of actors and musicians” (товарищество актёров и музыкантов), though information about the strange system of periods/ellipses is not forthcoming. […]
Vladimir Vysotsky (Владимир Высоцкий) was one of the most celebrated figures of the late Soviet underground cultural scene. He is best known as a Russian singer, performer, and poet and one of the founders of the Soviet bard tradition, but he was also an inspiration for many members of Soviet society who disagreed with the […]
Vysotsky, Thank You for Being Alive (Высоцкий. Спасибо, что живой!) is a 2011 biopic about legendary Russian bard and singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky (Владимир Высоцкий). Vysotsky, who died in 1980, is one of the best-loved cultural figures in Russian and Soviet history. There have been numerous books and movies made about him, in addition to his […]
The Mighty Angel (Pod mocnym aniołem; literally “under a strong angel”) is a 2014 Polish romance/drama film. It is a film version of the novel of the same name by Jerzy Pilch, which won the Nike, the preeminent Polish literary award, in 2001. An English-language translation was released in 2009. The film version was directed […]
Stones for the Rampart (Kamienie na szaniec) is a Polish film from 2014 loosely based on the 1943 historical novel of the same name by Aleksandr Kamiński. The book was extremely popular even when it was released, though it was only circulated by an underground press, and it is still widely read in Poland. An […]
Warsaw ’44 (Miasto 44; literally “city 44”) is a Polish drama from 2014 about the Warsaw Uprising during World War II. The Warsaw Uprising was an effort by the Polish resistance to take back the city from the Nazis. The leaders had hoped that the Soviets would arrive in the city during the uprising, but […]
