Slavic

Yolka (Ёлка in Russian) is a Ukrainian pop star, actress, and television personality who sings in Russian. Born Yelizaveta Valdemarivna Ivantsiv (Єлизавета Вальдемарівна Іванців), she received the nickname Ёлка (“fir tree”) when a childhood friend mispronounced her name; it amused her, and the name stuck. She has gained wide popularity and critical acclaim for her […]

Gleb Samoyloff (Глеб Самойлоff, original name Gleb Samoylov, or Глеб Самойлов) and The MATRIXX—subsequently shortened to just The MATRIXX in 2013—is a Russian rock band with punk and goth influences. Rising from the ashes of Samoilov’s previous musical collaboration, Agata Kristi (Агата Кристи)—which he joined in 1987 but which fell apart in 2009—The MATRIXX has […]

7B (7Б) is a Russian rock band based in Moscow.  The name 7B comes from a medical code that stands for a subtype of schizophrenia. After being diagnosed with the condition, band founder Ivan Demyan (Иван Демьян) chose to use the name for the band. The current lineup of the band includes Demyan (vocals, acoustic guitar, lyrics), […]

Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 British–Italian romantic drama set in Russia in the years leading up to World War I and the time during World War I and the Russian Civil War. The movie was based on the novel by Boris Pasternak, which was banned in the Soviet Union due to its independent-minded stance on the October […]

Konets Filma (Конец фильма; “end of the film”) is a Russian rock band. Active since 1998, when it was founded by Russian natives of Estonia, it currently includes Evgeny Feklistov (Евгений Феклистов; vocals, acoustic guitar, songwriter), Pyotr Mikov (Пётр Миков; guitar), Aleksey Pleshchunov (Алексей Плещунов; bass guitar), Aleksey Denisov (Алексей Денисов; drums) and Stepan Tokaryan (Степан Токарьян; keyboards, backing […]

Dżem is a Polish band that plays at the border of rock and blues music. It’s considered one of the best-known and most important blues–rock bands, with a prolific history spanning more than thirty different albums. While the band currently has six members, only two of those members, brothers Adam (vocals and guitar) and Benedykt “Beno” (bass […]

Katyn (Katyń) is a Polish historical drama released on September 17, 2007, that depicts the Katyn Massacre of 1940. The story views the events of the massacre through the eyes of the mothers, wives, and daughters of those executed by the NKVD. At the time of the story, it was unclear to the general population of Poland […]

Geegun (Джиган) is the stage name for Ukrainian born hip-hop artist and DJ Denis Aleksandrovich Ustimenko-Weinstein (Денис Александрович Устименко-Вайнштейн). The artist has remarked upon his adopted name as a combination of the second half of the American hip-hop abbreviation for “original gangster”—O.G.—and a transliteration of the English “gun,” due to his fondness for firearms. Besides being […]