Slavic

Mela Koteluk (real name Malwina) is an up-and-coming Polish indie pop singer. Originally from Sulechów, in far western Poland, she has been performing since 2002, though only released her first album in 2012. Before Koteluk started her solo career, she collaborated with some impressive Polish artists—Gaba Kulka, most notably, and also the band Scorpions, for […]

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 […]

Pilot (Пилот; sometimes also written PilOt or PILOT) is a Russian grunge/punk/metal/rock/folk band from St. Petersburg, Russia. It was founded in 1997 by Ilya “Devil” (Илья “Чёрт”; real name Ilya Knabengof, Илья Кнабенгоф), the band’s singer. The other members were Roman Chuikov (Роман Чуйков; guitar), Stas Markov (Стас Марков; bass), and Vitya Kuzmichev (Витя Кузмичев; […]

AnimatsiYa (АнимациЯ; translates to “animation,” with an emphasis on “I” in the Russian) is a Russian rock group that was formed in 2000 in Chistopol, Tatarstan. They’re considered to be a heavy metal/hard rock band. According to their own definition in their record-label biography, they play something called “clean rock … uniting all the traditions […]

Splean (Сплин; the misspelling of “spleen” in English is intentional) is a well-established post-Soviet Russian rock band. The name was inspired by a poem by Sasha Chyorniy (Саша Чёрный), a Silver Age poet, which referenced the depression-like ailment of spleen. The band was founded in 1994 by Aleksandr Vasilyev (Александр Васильев). Before this, Vasilyev had […]

Silent Souls (Овсянки; the actual translation is “Buntings,” referring to a type of bird) is a 2010 Russian drama, one of the recent crop of artistic, internationally recognized independent Russian cinema. It is based on the short story of the same name by Denis Osokin (Денис Осокин). Osokin has published quite a lot of poetry […]

Urmat Usenov (Урмат Усенов) is a Kyrgyz pop singer. These days he sings mainly in Kyrgyz, though he has recorded several songs in Russian and even occasionally sings in Turkish. Usenov grew up in Talas, a Kyrgyz village, but his parents sent him to Bishkek when he was 11 because they believed he had a […]

The Turkish Gambit (Турецкий гамбит) is a 2005 Russian historical spy film directed by Dzhanik Fayziev (Джаник Файзиев). The film is based loosely on Boris Akunin’s (Борис Акунин) novel of the same name. The film is set in Bulgaria in 1876, during the Russo-Turkish war. The story begins when titular councilor Fandorin’s (Yegor Beroev/Егор Бероев) […]