Russian

In the past decade, no other musician has been able to so rapidly capture and hold the attention of Russian youths like Morgenshtern. Similar to controversial American rappers such as 6ix9ine, Lil Pump, and XXXtentacion, Morgenshtern got face tattoos early in his career and made his appearance outlandish, was overly hedonistic, and purposely sought out […]

The Hatters are a gypsy-folk rock band that was started in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2016. The five main members of the band include: Yuri Muzychenko, Pavel Lichadeev, Alexander “Kikir” Anisimov, Dmitry Vecherinin, and Anna Muzychenko. The group of musicians officially formed their band in 2016 when they released their first song, “Russian Style” online. […]

HammAli & Navai is a popular Russian rap group created by Alexander Aliev and Navai Bakirov. The two Moscow native, ethnically Azerbaijani musicians formed their rap duo in 2016, when they released their first song “День в календаре” (A Day in The Calendar). Both members studied music from their early years, which led to individual […]

Russian soccer caught the world’s attention in 2018, when Russia hosted a very successful FIFA World Cup. The game is Russia’s most popular national sport, ranking just above hockey, and Russia poured millions into new stadiums and renovations on older, Soviet-built stadiums. This construction was made as a point of pride for the Russian government, […]

Aleksei Balabanov is one of Russia’s best known directors of the 1990s and his movies are known for capturing the essence of those turbulent years. Balabanov’s Education and Early Work By Matthew Jensen Aleksei Oktyabrinovich Balabanov was born in the town of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) on 25 February 1959. He studied at the Gorky Pedagogical […]

Scriptonite’s vocal style is unusual. Sometimes he raps or sings, but other times he shouts or goes into a sort of bizarre whaling that sounds like he is crying. This may come across at times as comical to outsiders, but to a fan of the music, this gives it a sort of relatability marked by […]

Nu, Pogodi! (Ну, погоди!) is one of the most famous Soviet/Russian cartoons of all time. Its name translates roughly as “Just hold on! or “Just you wait!” Begun in 1969, it ran until 2006. Several generations of Russians were raised on the antics of its two main characters, which are often compared to Tom and […]

In his seminal work, Men Without Women: Masculinity and Revolution in Russian Fiction, 1917-1929, Eliot Borenstein characterized the period of Russian history immediately following the October Revolution as an era of immense sexual upheaval, arguing that the Soviet Union experienced not one, but two sexual revolutions occurring “at opposite ends of the sociopolitical spectrum … […]