Velikiy Post or Great Lent leads up to one of the biggest festivals of the Russian Orthodox Church. Learn more about Russian Lent here

A famous standard from Russian cuisine - top them with caviar, honey, sour cream, whatever takes your fancy.

Not a day, but a whole week, Maslenitsa is the pancake festival to end all pancake festivals

A sweet and sticky Russian yeast cake with poppy seeds and honey, rolled up like a swiss roll. Rulet s makom - Roulade with poppy seeds.

Myshkin is the quirky gem in the travel crown of the Northern Volga - the mouse that learnt to roar.

A flamboyant figure for the revolutionary era, this Russian poet shocked to the end.

This authentic Ukrainian borshch recipe will give you a deep red soup, filling, warming and really ridiculously healthy

New Year celebrations in snowy Russia

Closed faces in public places - how those little every-day dealings are done in Russia

Simple, tasty, good! Russian pancakes from potato, similar to rosti or deruni