Russian

Quest Pistols Show (simply Quest Pistols until 2014) is a unique and unusual Russian/Ukrainian … band, for lack of a better word. They often refer to themselves as a “show” (шоу) instead, and in their own words have, over the course of their existence, transformed from an “amateur ballet and freak boy band to a […]

Sogdiana (real name Oksana Nechitaylo, Оксана Нечитайло) is a Russian-Uzbek pop singer. She sings in Uzbek, Russian, and Chechen, though most often in Uzbek. Sogdiana’s family is Chechen, but she grew up in Uzbekistan—she was born in 1984 in Tashkent. She studied the piano in school and studied at a conservatory at the same time, […]

25/17 is a Russian alternative rock and hip-hop group that was formed in 2002 in Omsk, a Siberian city. The group initially went by the name Ezekiel 25:17 (Иезекииль 25:17)—the quotation reads “I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath,” otherwise known as Samuel L. Jackson’s most famous line from […]

Veronika Dolina (Вероника Долина) is a Russian singer, poet, and bard—one of the few women in that male-dominated genre. She was born and raised in Moscow, in a family of an aircraft-designer father and a doctor mother. She studied at music school when she was young and then entered the French department at university, training […]

City 312 (Город 312) is a Kyrgyz Russian-speaking (and -singing) alternative rock band founded in Bishkek in 2001. They’re currently celebrating their 15th anniversary with a concert tour through various countries in the former Soviet Union. The group, founded by Leonid and Dmitry Pritula (Леонид, Дмитрий Притула), chose 312 for its name because it’s the telephone […]

Brest Fortress (Брестская крепость) is a 2010 Russian and Belorussian historical/war drama film. It is about the defense of the fortress against the Nazis, which was one of the first World War II battles that the Soviet Union took part in. The film is highly accurate to the real-life event, presenting a documentary-like look at […]

Ninth Company (9 Рота) is a 2005 Russian war film about the Soviet Union’s war with Afghanistan. The war, between the Soviets—supported by Afghan allies—and Afghan guerrilla-type soldiers, lasted from 1979 to 1989. The film takes place toward the end of this period and is based on a true story, that of the “battle at […]

Bi-2 (Би-2) is a Belorussian/Russian alternative rock band that has been in existence on and off since the late 1980s. Its two founders, Lyova Bi-2 (Лёва Би-2; Yegor Bortnik, Егор Бортник) and Shura Bi-2 (Шура Би-2; Aleksandr Uman, Александр Уман), met as teenagers in Bobruisk, Belarus, where they were both involved in the theater of […]