Welcome

Dear Readers,

Welcome to our monthly Newsletter and Articles. This page will be updated monthly and will explore different subjects in Russian Soviet culture that a western audience may be less familiar with.

For instance, what is a “closed society”?

What’s a Closed Society?

I recently learned that not many people in America know this term.
Soviet Russia was a “closed society” in the sense that no one could freely leave the country or freely visit it. The borders were closed.

What about Human Pyramids?

As it turns out, during Stalin’s times, this was a very fashionable kind of sport–much like the gymnastics circus in China. Think of it as Chinese acrobats. My grandmother’s older sister was a P.E. teacher and also an active participant in those famous Stalin’s “human pyramids.” And so was her husband. Below is a sample photo of what Russian people did… let’s say “for recreation” in the 1930-1950s:

Sometime the Newsletter will introduce interesting facts like that. Sometimes there will be just an update such as, “New Russian recipe has been posted!” And it has! Please check out the Recipe section for the famous Borsch.

On occasion, there will be a simple Russian words to learn like: PRAVDA – pronounced prAv-da (that means truth). It was also the name of our main Russian Soviet newspaper… more on that in the book.

There will also be some anecdotes and stories. As well as pictures of some interesting historic Russian sights to see… and more.

But also I am hoping to use this blog to share some materials with interesting details about Russian Soviet culture, which didn’t quite fit into the book of memoirs (due to space). Those are articles (some written for magazines and some were not).
I hope you enjoy it and come back! You can also subscribe below to this Newsletter, not to miss it. It’s free.

Sincerely,
~ Anya Stork