Tag Archives: Russia

The one where I compare myself with Leo Tolstoy

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

You may be dubious that a humble blogger, bookseller, and failed author could possibly have anything in common with the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, but hear me out. Both Tolstoy and I have roots in Czarist Russia. The legenday … Continue reading →

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Was Mordor actually in Siberia

Posted on April 11, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I haven’t watched much classic Soviet-era Russian television, but I imagine that little of the content was as weird as the recently rediscovered version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Embedded below are parts 1 and 2 of the … Continue reading →

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Three and the Moon

Posted on January 5, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I recently stumbled upon this amazing title with mind-blowing illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff . The artist was a Russian refugee who arrived penniless in the U.S. after the Russian Revolution. He spent the next four decades creating illustrations for popular … Continue reading →

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An Honor Without Irony

Posted on June 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Last week, an outdoor sculpture honoring the iconic American author J.D. Salinger was dedicated on a hillside near his family’s ancestral home in Lithuania. The artwork celebrates the writer’s most acclaimed novel The Catcher in the Rye. Ironically, Salinger’s 1951 bildungsroman … Continue reading →

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Keep a sharp lookout

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“The Peasant and the Cucumbers” by Leo Tolstoy (trans. by Leo Wiener) A peasant once went to the gardener’s, to steal cucumbers. He crept up to the cucumbers, and thought: “I will carry off a bag of cucumbers, which I … Continue reading →

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Hermitage

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I was very fortunate to spend an entire day in the world renowned Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia a few years ago. It’s almost overwhelming to try and take in the immense institution in one visit. To save our … Continue reading →

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Russia Tourism Rebrands

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

A design team from ad agency Suprematika recently won an open competition to come up with an entirely new brand identity for Russia’s tourism board. They created a dynamic abstract design featuring bold geometric shapes and colors. The central graphic … Continue reading →

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Some Random Island In The Pacific Ocean

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Brian D. Butler
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Thinking of Saint Petersburg

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Since yesterday’s terrorist bombing,  I have been thinking about Saint Petersburg and all of the amazing people that I met there on my visit six months ago. With the heightened tensions between the United States and Russia, I had anticipated … Continue reading →

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Saint Petersburg Is Packed With Surprises

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

When I was in Saint Petersburg, Russia this Fall, I did my due diligence as a tourist and visited as many museums, palaces, cathedrals, and attractions as I could manage in a week. Unfortunately, I was a few months too … Continue reading →

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