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Culture
Books, music, art, food, cinema and traditions.
Today’s culture stories
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All stories
All culture stories
6 min read
Bring Even Flowers and You’ve Come to a Funeral
In Russia the bouquet is arithmetic: odd numbers for the living, even for the grave.
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6 min read
Don’t Smile at Strangers. It Looks Like You Want Something.
In Russia a smile is personal, not a polite default. The Metro is not being rude. It is refusing to fake a mood.
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18 min read
Looking Opposite Ways
Westernizers and Slavophiles, from Chaadaev’s shot in the night to the eve of the First World War.
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5 min read
Never Shake Hands Across a Threshold
The doorway is not empty air. In Russian houses it is a border — and the greeting waits until someone has crossed it.
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6 min read
Santa Doesn’t Come Here. New Year Does.
Ded Moroz, a fir tree, and midnight on 31 December — Christmas, in Russia, is a different date and a quieter night.
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5 min read
Sit Down Before You Leave, or the Road Will Go Wrong
A few seconds on a chair in the hall: the Russian pause that treats departure as something the house has to agree to.
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5 min read
Take Your Shoes Off or You Are Not a Guest
The Russian hall is a border: street on one side, slippers and a table that will not stop on the other.
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5 min read
The Empty Bottle Must Leave the Table
Toasts need a glass with something in it. The finished bottle goes on the floor — luck, legend, and a cleaner table.
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7 min read
They Will Beat You With Birch Until You Feel Clean
The Russian banya is not a spa. It is heat, a wet bundle of leaves, and a run into the snow.
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7 min read
What Is a Dacha?
More than a country house: a second geography that still feeds the table.
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11 min read
What Is Maslenitsa?
Butter, sledges, and a straw woman on fire: the last loud week before Orthodox Lent.
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6 min read
Why Russian Tea Is Different
Not a ceremony copied from elsewhere — a table built around a hissing urn.
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