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Janis; Riga’s Orthodox Saint.

25 Jan 2025

A few weeks ago I invited you to witness the Christmas Liturgy in the Orthodox Cathedral here in Riga. Today, I would like to introduce you to Janis Pommers (1876-1934), ...
22 Jan 2025

In a recent post we looked at the beautiful and beautifully honest personal diary of Leo Tolstoy. Today, we are looking at the diary of another giant of Russian literature; ...
03 Jul 2024

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Among other Russian historical figures, Tsar Peter I might be at the top of the list. Commonly referred to as Peter the Great, his memory has long survived through history. ...
17 Sep 2023

To speak like a native, it is important to keep some idioms up your sleeve to bring out during conversation. However, some of these idioms have literal translations which are ...
22 Aug 2023

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Despite Russia now using the Gregorian Calendar like the rest of the world, the Julian Calendar played a significant role in the history of Russia. It was only in 1918 that ...
17 Aug 2023

The Russian language has been influenced by a variety of other languages over its history, reflecting its interactions with neighbouring and distant cultures. Whilst some ...
10 Jul 2023

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Russian spelling hasn't always looked the way it does now. Even a brief look at old documents reveal variations in spelling and unfamiliar letters. So where did this change ...
22 Sep 2021

The whole world is divided into 24 time zones, and Russia alone covers eleven of them, making it the country with the most consecutive time zones in the world. The time in ...
04 Aug 2021

Потемкинские деревни, which can be translated as Potemkin villages, is a curious idiom found in Russian, which is also sometimes used in English. It is used to describe a ...
02 Aug 2021

I study at Durham University, which is twinned with the Russian city of Kostroma, located North-East of Moscow. This connection between the cities has led to me learning a ...
24 Feb 2021

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If you have walked around in Saint Petersburg, you might have noticed the sculptures of two cats: Elisey, who is a male cat, and Vasilia, who is a female cat.  They can be ...
20 Nov 2020

On 19th November 1711 Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov was born in a small village in the far north of Russia. His life was relatively short, but his love for learning took him ...