Slavic

Yandex (Russian: Яндекс) is often known as “Russia’s Google.” However, while it started as a mere search engine, it has expanded into much more than that. Arkadiy Volozh founded the company in 1999. At the time, he paid thousands of dollars for a four gigabyte (4 GB) hard drive to start the company’s public operations. […]

Nargiz Zakirova (Наргиз Закирова; or Nargiz Zokirova in Uzbek) is an Uzbek-American singer who sings mostly in Russian. Better known by her stage name, Nargiz, Zakirova made her big break after winning the Russian music contest Voice (Голос). She is known for her strong voice, striking appearance (with a shaved head and powerful body covered […]

SRAS bought us concert tickets as part of our cultural program. It was an exciting opportunity to see modern Russian popular culture. I had never been to a rock concert before, and I especially had no idea what to expect of one in Russia. Our eager guide, Alina, told us that we’d be going to […]

Салют-7, or Salyut-7, was released in Russia on October 12, 2017. It became one of Russia’s highest grossing films of that year, eventually bringing in $13.4 million USD. Salyut-7 is based on true events that happened in 1985 when the Salyut-7 unmanned Soviet space station, in orbit close to Earth, abruptly stopped responding to commands from […]

Последний богатырь, or The Last Bogatyr, was released in Russia on October 16, 2017. Co-produced by Disney and a Russian studio called “Yellow, Black, and White,” The Last Bogatyr quickly became a box office success. Just one month after its release, the film had already made $28.8 million USD, replacing Stalingrad (2013) as the highest-grossing domestic […]

Nikolai Baskov is a prominent Russian tenor known for his opera and pop music stylings. According to his website, Baskov is also the only cross-over artist in Russia, shifting from opera music to pop. He first gained renown in the late 1990s through singing competitions in Russia and abroad. He joined the Bolshoi Theater musical […]

Here is a list of modern, romantic movies that you can watch for free with the help of Kinopoisk (КиноПоиск), who originally compiled this list. Translation has been provided by PopKult.org.   Неадекватные люди – Inadequate People – 2010 This amusing rom-com directed by Roman Karimov is the film debut for the actress Ingrid Olerinskaya, […]

Nikita Khrushchev, during his whirlwind tour to America in 1959, fell in love with many things. These included, more famously, corn and Richard Nixon’s car. However, when Khrushchev returned to the USSR, he brought with him a renewed conviction not just to grow corn, but to provide the Soviet people with more consumer goods­ – […]