Russian

Masha and the Bear (Маша и Медведь) is a highly popular Russian cartoon series that originated in 2009. Now in its eighth year and its third season, it consists so far of 60 seven-minute episodes, featuring cute animation and few words. It’s already a classic—among not only Russian children but also students of the Russian language. The […]

OrAngeLove (Оранжлав; the stylized capitalization is a feature of the English-language title) is a Ukrainian 2009 drama about love, AIDS, and the 2005 Orange Revolution. The film takes place vaguely against the background of the Orange Revolution, but worlds apart from it. Two people, Katya and Roman, after falling in love on a trolleybus, have locked […]

Orange Sky (Помаранчеве небо) is a 2006 Ukrainian film that turns the 2005 Orange Revolution into a love story. The film’s tag line, “Revolution is love” (“Революція—це кохання”), is a pretty neat expression of the film’s content. The film tells the story of Mark Zaduhka (Марк Задуха), one of Ukraine’s so-called “golden youth.” He’s from […]

Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (Зима у вогні: Боротьба України за свободу) is a 2015 documentary film about Ukraine’s Euromaidan protests. Told in English, Ukrainian, and Russian and composed of real footage from the protests, it is an on-the-ground, heartrending, and occasionally graphic look at Ukraine’s recent history. The film travels through the […]

Dzhango (Джанго) is the stage name of Aleksey Viktorovich Poddubniy (Алексей Викторович Поддубный), a Ukrainian and Russian pop, rock, and folk composer, vocalist, and leader of a band of the same name. The band Dzhango became especially well-known in Russian and Ukraine after their track “Cold Spring” (“Холодная весна”) was featured on the soundtrack of […]

And My Friend the Truck… (И Друг мой Грузовик…)is a Ukrainian indie rock band who sing almost exclusively in Russian. They are noted for their minimalist instrumentation, consisting of only drums, bass, and vocals.  The band was formed initially in 1997 as Me and My Friend the Truck (Я и Друг Мой Грузовик) for a […]

Garik Sukachov (Гарик Сукачёв) is Russian musician, singer-songwriter, poet, actor, film director, and television presenter. He is famous as a member of the seminal Russian rock band Brigada S (Бригада С) and more recently as the host of Channel One’s television series Conversation (Беседка). Sukachov was born in the Moscow suburbs in 1959 to a […]

Maksim Fadeev (Максим Александрович Фадеев) is Russian singer-songwriter, composer, and music producer. Fadeev is probably best-known as the manager of the highly successful pop singer Linda (Линда) and as the founder of the major record label Monolit Records (Монолит Рекордс). Fadeev was born in 1968 in the city of Kurgan, USSR. As a child he […]