Painters
This painter created Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, depicting a tsar cradling his dying son.
Who is Ilya Repin?
This Lermontov novel, structured as five separate but linked stories, introduced Russia's first true anti-hero, Pechorin.
What is A Hero of Our Time?
Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent film featuring the Odessa Steps massacre scene.
What is Battleship Potemkin?
Moscow's most famous opera and ballet theater, home to some of the world's finest productions since 1825.
What is the Bolshoi Theatre?
This distinctive Russian craft features bright red, black and gold floral patterns painted on wooden kitchenware, originally from a village near Nizhny Novgorod.
What is Khokhloma?
Known as the father of Russian avant-garde, he painted his most famous work in 1915.
Who is Kazimir Malevich?
Nikolai Gogol's final novel, left unfinished and partially burned by the author himself in a fit of religious mania.
What is Dead Souls?
This 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky film, based on a Stanislaw Lem novel, explores memory and consciousness on a space station.
What is Solaris?
St. Petersburg's equivalent of the Bolshoi, this imperial theater is named after a tsar's wife and is famous for ballet.
What is the Mariinsky Theatre?
Peter Carl Fabergé created his most famous works for two Russian tsars — elaborately jewelled Easter eggs commissioned annually as gifts for their this.
Who are their wives / empresses?
This symbolist painter is best known for his haunting depictions of the Demon, a figure drawn from a Lermontov poem
Who is Mikhail Vrubel?
This Turgenev novel introduced the term "nihilist" to Russian culture through its character Bazarov, a young doctor who rejects all authority.
What is Fathers and Sons?
Eldar Ryazanov directed this beloved 1975 romantic comedy set on New Year's Eve.
What is The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!?
Founded by Konstantin Stanislavski, this Moscow theater became the birthplace of method acting.
What is the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT)?
This village near Moscow became famous for its miniature lacquer boxes, painted with scenes from Russian fairy tales in a style derived from icon painting traditions.
What is Palekh?
His monumental canvas Bogatyrs features three legendary folk heroes on horseback.
Who is Viktor Vasnetsov?
This novel follows a nobleman so paralysed by inertia that he spends the first 50 pages unable to get out of bed — and the rest of the novel barely does better.
What is Oblomov?
This 1979 Tarkovsky film follows a guide leading two men through a mysterious forbidden zone called the Zone.
What is Stalker?
This avant-garde Soviet director, associated with biomechanics, ran his own theater and was arrested and executed in 1940.
Who is Vsevolod Meyerhold?
Gzhel ceramics are instantly recognisable for using only two colours — cobalt blue on white — a restriction that originated not from artistic choice but from this practical reason.
What is the availability / low cost of cobalt oxide?
This Wanderer painted The Rooks Have Come Back, a celebrated symbol of the Russian spring.
Who is Alexei Savrasov?
Nikolai Nekrasov's 1873 epic poem follows seven peasants wandering Russia asking who lives happily — and never quite finding an answer.
What is Who Can Be Happy in Russia?
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, this 1957 film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and is considered a landmark of Soviet cinema.
What is The Cranes Are Flying?
This St. Petersburg theater, founded in 1756, is considered the oldest professional drama theater in Russia.
What is the Alexandrinsky Theatre?
The imperial Fabergé egg made in 1900 contains a miniature of this specific object inside — a fully functional golden replica that opens to reveal yet another hidden surprise.
What is the Trans-Siberian Railway / the Trans-Siberian egg?