Today is a rather quirky holiday in Russia, called Tatiana's Day. Though it does fall on the name day of Saint Tatiana, an early Christian martyr, it is not in the traditional sense a name or a saint's day holiday, which I've written about before. And it's not in honor of the in-country rep who helped me with my first adoption in Vladivostok, in 1999--though some sort of lasting recognition for that would certainly be in order.

A clue to the day's reason for being is pretty plain when you... more

It's December, which means, in the world of Russian art, dance and music in America, that it's time for The Nutcracker.

There are performances of the ballet set to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's music all over the United States. I turned up 10 performances in Florida alone, at the Palladium Theater at St. Petersburg College, the Emma Parish Theater in Titusville, the Van... more

Today, according to my trusty Google Calendar alert, is Unity Day in Russia. Hmmm. I'm reasonably conversant in Russian holidays by this point, but Unity Day had me stumped. And so I invite you to follow me into a bit of research into Russia's newest holiday. Well, sort of.

Unity Day was only celebrated for the first time two years ago, but it is ostensibly based on something that happened nearly 400 years ago. Two Moscovites, Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, led an uprising that chased out Polish and Lithuanian troops who had invaded the city. Russians call this... more

Leading the Russian cultural calendar this month: something for the kids. It's "The Stone Flower", a puppet show that is being described as "an original Russian tale". It certainly sounds that way. The story line involves a young prince who must fend off danger and a scheming uncle to find a stone flower if he is to become the tsar. The show is at Children's Fairyland in Oakland, Calif. at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on November 3 and 4.

On the other side of the country, a cabaret performance that deconstructs the Kurt Weill/Ira... more

I got a lovely surprise in the mail over the weekend. No, not the six new cookbooks I've ordered (the "Jessica's Biscuit" catalog was too compelling). It was my first copy of Russian Life, a bi-monthly gem of a magazine about all things Russian.

Maybe you know all about Russian Life; after all it's only been around for 50 years. But maybe you remember what it used to be--a bit too much one-sided cheering--and hadn’t thought to pick up a copy lately. If that's your only memory, or if you've never seen the magazine, you... more

I'm going to take things a bit out of chronological order this month because October 18 is a special date in Russian-U.S. history. As my Alaska readers know, Oct. 18, 1867 was the transfer of Russia's claim to Alaska to the United States. And if you are in Alaska, or going to Alaska this month, you should know that there is a full schedule of events in Sitka, where the transfer took place, for Alaska Day. They begin on Thursday, October 11 and run through the 18th, and include dancing, bike and kayak racing and an Alaska Day ball.

My... more

Every month at my kids' elementary school they have a Red, White & Blue Day assembly. They were started in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which claimed two lives in town, but civics has always been a strong focus of the school's curriculum.

Each Red, White & Blue Day assembly has a theme--the military's role for Veteran's Day, civil rights for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the history of America's flag and the writing of the national anthem for Flag Day this past week. The lessons are simplified, as I suppose they must... more

Never underestimate what you will find on the Internet.

I started out this morning to write a little primer on Independence Day, the holiday that Russia celebrates today, June 12. It's Russia's newest holiday, and so doesn't have quite the weight of Victory Day (May 9), which commemorates Russia's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, or even those Soviet holdovers like International Women's Day (March... more

In the United States, we spent today remembering the men and women who have served and died in our armed forces. That is about 576,000 combat deaths from the Revolutionary War through the current engagement in Iraq.

That number seems large, and its size is reinforced every day by the casualty reports from Iraq. But I wanted to take a moment to put these deaths in the context of the world I write on here: Russia.

Wars have taken an enormous toll on Russia, both its military and civilian populations. Russia lost 1.8 million soldiers... more

What are the odds of this: Two positive stories about Russian adoption appearing in the mainstream press on the same day, which just happens to be Mother's Day? I just about fell off my chair this morning when I opened my Google Alerts. I had been reading a very dreamlike sequence in Anna Karenina last night and, looking at the news alerts at 6 in the morning, I had to make sure I wasn't still dreaming.

But it gets even better:... more