Walk into a travel agency or pull up a map of California today, and the name Sebastopol conjures images of Sonoma County’s sprawling apple orchards, bohemian art markets, and liberal wine-country charm. Yet, rewind the clock to the Golden State’s infancy in the 1850s, and a traveler could have stumbled into five different frontier settlements...
Editor’s Note: The editors of Russkaya Zhizn, with the agreement of the Press Service of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, are publishing a letter addressed on August 27, 2026, by Metropolitan NICHOLAS of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, to Metropolitan ARSENY of Svyatogorsk...
The San Francisco skyline is a vibrant tapestry of architectural history. Yet, when the signature Pacific fog rolls through the avenues of the Richmond District, the sharp profiles of the modern city fade away, leaving the gleaming contours of Eastern Orthodox domes and tilted, three-barred crosses to pierce the gray mist. For nearly eight decades,...
This year the United States of America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from England on July 4, 1776, and the beginning of the formation of the new Republic. In the capital, Washington, the festivities on this day were especially solemn. As always, the finale of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture...
The historical community has suffered a profound loss with the passing of James R. Gibson (1935–2026), Professor Emeritus at York University and one of the world’s foremost scholars of Russian America, Siberia, and the Russian Pacific. Gibson died at the age of 91, leaving behind an extraordinary body of scholarship that transformed the study of...
“Give me liberty, or give me death!” is one of the main slogans of the American Revolution. Back then, in 1775, at the Virginia Convention, delegate Patrick Henry proclaimed his readiness to die for the ideals of freedom. Another slogan of the American Revolution is “No taxation without representation!” This symbolic phrase expressed a protest...
In the first years after the end of the Cold War, Russian-American relations experienced an extraordinary upsurge: cultural and student exchanges became more frequent, American economic advisers, financiers, journalists and politicians became frequent guests in Russia, and the “fourth” post-perestroika wave of emigration from Russia to the United States began. Air traffic and visa departments...
On June 14, 2026, on the Third Sunday after Pentecost, the day of the celebration of the Synaxis of All Saints who have shone forth in the Russian Land, His Grace Peter, Bishop of Seattle, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of All Russian Saints in the city of Burlingame, State of California. Concelebrating...
The concert of the rock band “Leonid & Friends” in Greater Washington was in full swing when the MC suddenly announced to the pumped-up American audience that the Russian musicians would set aside their saxophones, guitars, and trombones for a few minutes to sing an a cappella song of their own about Russia, simply and...
On May 24, the Day of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Brothers and Enlighteners Cyril and Methodius was celebrated. In many countries of Eastern and Southern Europe, which are today divided by politics and even front lines, these “Teachers of the Slavs” were and remain a symbol of the spiritual and cultural brotherhood of the Slavic peoples....