Outside Moscow’s city center, visitors are greeted to the curious site of the Soviet-era All Russian Exhibition Center. The site itself is vast, sporting multiple pavilions touting supposed ethnic harmony in the Soviet Union. Other oddities at the Exhibition Center include old Soviet facades touting the authorities’ prowess in animal […]
In Moscow, patrons may visit the original art nouveau house of writer Maxim Gorky which has been refashioned into a museum. As Russia marks the 100th commemoration of the revolution, Gorky is worth reconsidering. A keen social observer, Gorky himself worked at many menial and proletarian jobs during his youth. […]
Judging from appearances, Russian hipsters don’t differ substantially from their U.S. counterparts in terms of underlying tastes. In St. Petersburg, youth congregate at Etaji, a series of shops with trendy foods such as “black ice cream.” Etaji started as a squatted building. Today, shops are located in improvised compartments. At […]
At Moscow’s All Russian Exhibition Center, the visitor is taken back to a time when many ethnic minorities formed part of a heavily idealized Soviet vision. Take, for example, a fountain with highly stylized statues. It’s doubtful that ethnic minorities living in Russia today share such a blissful vision, though […]
Though the Soviet Union no longer exists, various ethnic cuisines are still quite popular. Take, for example, Armenian food. Food from the Caucasus region is also popular, even an Ossetian restaurant. In St. Petersburg, Tatar-style “Chebureki” are ubiquitous. Throughout St. Petersburg and Moscow, Georgian food is also hugely popular. One […]
In Russia, religion has rushed in to the fill the gap in people’s lives after the fall of Communism. Meanwhile, Moscow’s Museum of Religious Icons has a well-funded exhibit space.
