The beauty of this dish is that you can make it using any meat you like. Traditionally, Russians use pork to make “otbivniye.” However, I often use chicken, and the end result is just as tasty! What I like about this dish is its “usability.” Nobody makes “otbivniye” for one meal only. If you make 15-20 “otbivniye,” you have your  […]

Первома́й [May Day] also known as День междунаро́дной солида́рности трудя́щихся [International Workers’ Day] was celebrated illegally in Russia until 1917. It became an important official holiday for the Soviet people. It was celebrated across the Soviet Union. There were парады [parades] held in the center of many towns. People carried транспара́нты [banners] and возду́шные шары́ [balloons] in celebration of the holiday. Here you can watch […]

Черно́быльская катастро́фа [the Chernobyl disaster] occurred on April 26, 1986 на Черно́быльской А́томной Электроста́нции [at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant] in a small town of Черно́быль [Chernobyl] located in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. The worst hit regions were Белару́сь [Belarus], Украи́на [Ukraine] and Росси́я [Russia]. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the the residual radiation hazard from the nuclear explosion landed in Belarus. On April […]

Па́сха [Easter] is древне́йший [the oldest] and са́мый большо́й [the biggest] пра́здник [holiday] in Russian Orthodox Church. Because Правосла́вная Це́рковь [the Orthodox Church] uses юлиа́нский календа́рь [the Julian calendar], ру́сские христиа́не [Russian Christians] often пра́зднуют [celebrate] Па́сху [Easter] later than the Western Christians. A week or two пе́ред Па́схой [before Easter], мно́гие лю́ди [many people] in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus do some major spring cleaning. Everything must be clean: ме́бель [furniture] is dusted, полы́ [floors] are […]

Кра́шение пасха́льных яи́ц [Coloring Easter eggs] is one of my funnest memories of celebrating Па́сха [Easter]. In our family, we used a traditional way кра́сить [to color] я́йца [eggs] by boiling them в лу́ковой шелухе́ [in onion shells]. A few weeks пе́ред пра́здником [before the holiday], my mother would start collecting лу́ковую шелуху́ [the onion shells], so we would have enough for coloring я́йца [the eggs]. Also, the […]

А́лла Бори́совна Пугачёва [Alla Borisovna Pugacheva] celebrates her День Рожде́ния [Birthday] on April 15th. I have intentionally left out her age because the Prima Donna is ageless, or мо́жет быть [maybe] I simply don’t want her to age. I don’t want to part completely with that era that graced our lives with such amazing artists like Valentina Tolkunova, Bella Akhmadulina, Liudmila Gurchenko, […]

Ру́сская неде́ля [Russian week] begins on a Monday and ends on a Sunday. Дни неде́ли [days of the week] are not capitalized in Russian language. First, let’s take a look at the literal meaning of each day of the week in Russian: Понеде́льник (по + неде́ля + ник): The prefix по means “after” and the word неде́ля means “week.” So понеде́льник can […]

April 12, 1961 marked the history as день [the day] when весь мир [the whole world] learned that human exploration of outer space was possible. On that date, a 27 year old Soviet пило́т [pilot] and космона́вт [astronaut] Ю́рий Гага́рин [Yuri Gagarin] circled the Earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes aboard his Восто́к 1 [Vostok 1] spacecraft. Here is the outer space experience in the words […]

Поздра́вьте свои́х друзе́й с Рождество́м по-ру́сски! [Wish a Merry Christmas to your friends in Russian!] Watch the video below and learn how to say “Merry Christmas” in Russian language. С РОЖДЕСТВО́М!  –  [S  RAH-ZH-DEES-TVOH-M]  –  MERRY CHRISTMAS! The most common way to wish a Merry Christmas in Russian language is to say c Рождество́м. The phrase literally translates into English as “with Christmas.” […]

Поздра́вьте свои́х друзе́й с Но́вым Го́дом по-ру́сски! [Wish a Happy New Year to your friends in Russian!] Watch the video below and learn how to say “Happy New Year” in Russian language. С НО́ВЫМ ГО́ДОМ!  –  [S  NOH-VYM  GOH-DAHM]  –  HAPPY NEW YEAR! The most common way to wish a Happy New Year in Russian language is to say с Но́вым […]