Alyenka Chocolate

Produced by the Moscow-based Krasniy Oktyabr (Red October) confectioners since the mid 1960s, this is one of the most recognisable products on Russian shelves.

Documentary review: Storyville. Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned

This is Russia's prison for its most dangerous men; 260 inmates convicted of 800 murders collectively. The documentary, shown as a part of the BBC4 Storyville series, was as interesting as it was depressing. It focused on half a dozen prisoners, the governor and, briefly, a handful of family members and takes us through how they came to be in prison, their guilt, prison hierarchy, family and their future, giving an insight into thoughts and lives, or rather existences, of some of its prisoners and, to a lesser extent, of others involved. Welcome to a world of thin faces, sunken eyes and missing teeth in mouths offering few smiles. a place where hope and hopelessness vie for supremacy in the minds of people who have much to fear on both sides of the walls.

All along the watchtower

Tales of the Russian Post Office #2

The Russian Post Office can be a mixed bag. Sometimes they go the extra miles and then some; other times...

You can always visit their website, if you're prepared to wait.

Gruppa Kino/ Группа Кино

Of this legendary Soviet rock group, I once told a friend that I'd translated a couple of songs. He answered, "You cannot understand. You can know the words but you cannot understand." But I'll try to explain anyway.

Gruppa Kino

Recipe: Golubtsi #1 (with peppers)

Golubtsi is an Eastern European dish, claimed as theirs by half the nations of the former USSR even though it's found across Europe and the Middle East. Essentially it's something stuffed with rice and/or meat, usually cabbage leaves or occasionally vine leaves, particular further south. The Russian name means little pigeons, hopefully not from the original filling. I've done another Russian variant, what we in the UK would call stuffed peppers.

vkontakte

Vkontakte (VK) is to Russia what Facebook is to Britain and America, and more besides...

Small Shops

For a lot of Russians, supermarkets are not the first port of call for their shopping. Instead, they tend to use smaller shops.

Open all hours

Tales of Russian Banks #1

One day, three intrepid teachers ventured into a bank in search of travellers cheques - even then an anachronistic means of cash transfer, but the best way for us in Russia in 2006. We left feeling lucky to escape with our lives...

Banking in Russia

I've never had a bank account in Russia (was paid cash and left to trust that it was all above board on the employer's part - Russia... what could possibly go wrong?!). I did have dealings with banks though for money transfers, currency exchanges and buying travellers cheques. If you only know British banks, those friendly places with smiling staff and complimentary tea or coffee, you're in for a shock...

Football: CSKA Moscow v Spartak Moscow (24/09/05)

I'd worked in Russia a year before I got to see my first match over there.

The Dinamo Stadium's imposing floodlights in the background.

Racism in Russia

Football-related incidents bring issues of racism in Russia to the attention of more people. But that sadly is not the limit of the problem's scope: according to the Levada Center, 28% of Russians feel hostility towards other ethnicities, 34% think that non-Russians hold varying degrees of responsible for Russia's problems, 45% have negative feelings towards people from 'southern republics' and 56% agree with fully or partially implementing policies of 'Russia for Russians'.

No to Halloween

With the end of October fast approaching and the accompanying annual festival, it is only appropriate that Russian politicians come up with some of their own appropriately creepy ideas. Russia Today reports on one such suggestion from the Public Chamber.

Photo of the month

I'll be uploading a photo every month - one that means something to me personally or somehow represents something about Russia.

I thought I'd begin with this one...

Strange connections

While waiting for the kettle to boil, I noticed the Russian bicarbonate of soda on our shelf and started reading the box, as you do,

Russian bicarb

and made the connection with

A match I went to in Khimki, near Moscow

Any guesses?

Animals in the streets

If you saw a cat or a dog in the street in the UK, you'd bet that it had a home to go to, even if it didn't have a collar. Not so in Russia.

No collar, no home

blog name change

Goodbye Life As We Know It: Russia, Hello Another Shore. Call me fickle, but I'm back to second one, this blog's original name.

Squirrels, metaphorically speaking

Lily and I are trying to declutter. We'd been acquiring stuff in the way typical of many new-weds, for whom money isn't free-flowing and life plans change with the seasons. 'We'll take it' and 'we'll keep it, just in case' saw us become overwhelmed by possessions... two washing machines, three Christmas trees (yes, seriously), a printer for which we have no cables or adapter. Insane! Now... ebay if it's worth something, recycling if it's beyond repair in the damp cellar and charity for things that we can't be arsed to deal with any other way. All this got me thinking about stuff and the British and Russian attitudes.

A Siberian squirrel.

The Dacha

Many Russians have a dacha, a country house. If a Brit mentions going to spend the weekend at the country house, you think of the landed gentry and large country estates. In Russia, it could mean many things.

Picking potatoes.

Is Going to Work in Siberia (or Russia) Right for You?

I went over to Russia for the first time in 2004 to teach English; not just Russia, but to Surgut - a smallish town in the frozen wastes of Siberia. The time was right for me and it was just what I needed. That, however, isn't the case for everyone.

Siberia... snow and apartment blocks... get used to it.

Blood Pressure and the North of Russia

In Siberia, there is a common belief relating to the effects of living in such a cold, northerly environment on people's blood pressure.

Nine months of this can't be good for you, can it?

Book review: Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum

Given as a present to take on my first trip (to inform or to put the fear of god up me?), ten years later I finally finished this impressive work.

Russian food in the UK

When you live abroad for a while, especially when you're talking years, you pick up a taste for the local food, eating habits which stay with you. You miss elements of British food and certain products when you're over there - I remember wanting malt loaf for about a month and having to make do with a dark, fruit bread. Equally, this leads to similar quests for particular delicacies back in Britain...

beer snacks

Recipe: Shortbread with Curds/ Рецепт: Сочень с Творогом

The place where I worked in Russia had its own cafe and they prepared the food in a home-cooked way, but on a larger scale. One of the delights there was the sochen s tvorogom, shortbread with curd filling.

We had two packs of curds in the fridge and the plastic wrapping was starting to expand. They needed using up and there was only one thing for it... shortbread and curds on an industrial scale!

Russian-style shortbread with curds

Tips: Russian Railways

If the very mention of the Trans-Siberian Express fill you with wonderment and a longing for adventure, read on for some tips on long, Russian train journeys.

Adler Train Station

Tales of the Russian Post Office #1

Russia... why queue anywhere for 10 minutes when you can wait for over an hour? I'm beginning to suspect that if there were bread queues in the Soviet Union, it wasn’t for the lack of it but for the inefficiency of people serving.

Russian Post Office/ Почта России

This behemoth of an organisation is as necessary as it is frustrating... and as bewildering to a foreign user. It's one of the most bi-polar of instituions: one day they'll help you wrap a parcel, giving you the paper for free; another day (that's most other days) they are obtuse and the proverbial mule.So, here are some tips.