Kotelnaya: Life in Moscow
@kotelnaya.bsky.social
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Detours on the Diameters: An Introduction
The МЦД Project
kotelnaya.substack.com
The introduction to a new series - which will run alongside other posts - Detours on the Diameters, or The МЦД Project: an exploration of the areas on Moscow's outskirts, serviced by the new МЦД lines. From Lobnya to Podolsk, Odintsovo to Zheleznodorozhniy kotelnaya.substack.com/p/detours-on...
Russians surpassed themselves at the airport yesterday, already queueing an hour before boarding because there was a single member of staff behind the desk. They all stood there for an hour and then, in any case, had to wait for everyone to go through the gate before the bus to the plane took off.
November 9, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Russians surpassed themselves at the airport yesterday, already queueing an hour before boarding because there was a single member of staff behind the desk. They all stood there for an hour and then, in any case, had to wait for everyone to go through the gate before the bus to the plane took off.
The decline of Moscow's Patriki -- something @jonnytickle.bsky.social has noted -- is complete with the closure of Gutai, one of my favourite lunch spots since 2017. The area, which used to be go to, is now just overrun with people filming vox pops and trying to be content creators.
October 21, 2025 at 12:33 PM
The decline of Moscow's Patriki -- something @jonnytickle.bsky.social has noted -- is complete with the closure of Gutai, one of my favourite lunch spots since 2017. The area, which used to be go to, is now just overrun with people filming vox pops and trying to be content creators.
A bit of rain in the last few days has knocked the leaves off the trees and the temperature was in the minuses over night. Winter on its way to Moscow, and reports are that it's going to be one of the coldest of the last twenty years.
October 16, 2025 at 11:05 AM
A bit of rain in the last few days has knocked the leaves off the trees and the temperature was in the minuses over night. Winter on its way to Moscow, and reports are that it's going to be one of the coldest of the last twenty years.
It's very much boeuf bourguignon weather in Moscow today
October 8, 2025 at 10:09 AM
It's very much boeuf bourguignon weather in Moscow today
Great article on the theft of rare Russian books from libraries across Europe www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist
The long read: Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, or were bi...
www.theguardian.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Great article on the theft of rare Russian books from libraries across Europe www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
A piece in the New York Review of Books about my favourite artist, Gustave Caillebotte www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
Catching Us Looking | Rachel Cohen
For a central figure of Impressionism, it is surprising how often Gustave Caillebotte seems to be disappearing offstage. Even in self-portraits he can be
www.nybooks.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:18 PM
A piece in the New York Review of Books about my favourite artist, Gustave Caillebotte www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
Completely anecdotal and not based on anything other than a feeling over the last few weeks but I've finally noticed that Moscow has become more expensive, especially for daily items. Speaking to family in the UK, it doesn't seem massively out of line with economic general trends post Covid.
September 30, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Completely anecdotal and not based on anything other than a feeling over the last few weeks but I've finally noticed that Moscow has become more expensive, especially for daily items. Speaking to family in the UK, it doesn't seem massively out of line with economic general trends post Covid.
The most recent issue of NLO (Новое литературное обозрение/ New Literary Review) features some brilliant reflections on the late Katerina Clark's work. For those who don't read Russian, some have been translated into English. www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/no...
195 НЛО (5/2025)
www.nlobooks.ru
September 29, 2025 at 10:00 AM
The most recent issue of NLO (Новое литературное обозрение/ New Literary Review) features some brilliant reflections on the late Katerina Clark's work. For those who don't read Russian, some have been translated into English. www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/no...
Sheila Fitzpatrick on denunciations, or why Americans are grasses www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Sheila Fitzpatrick · Diary: Two Cultures of Denunciation
From the MAGA perspective, snitching is the pejorative liberal word for the exercise of grassroots democracy needed to...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 29, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Sheila Fitzpatrick on denunciations, or why Americans are grasses www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
No surprise that Flesh by David Szalay has been nominated for the Booker Prize. Easily the best novel I read this year. www.ft.com/content/ee39...
Booker Prize 2025: the shortlisted novels reviewed
The FT critics’ verdicts on the six contenders for this year’s fiction prize, the winner of which will be announced on November 10
www.ft.com
September 29, 2025 at 9:03 AM
No surprise that Flesh by David Szalay has been nominated for the Booker Prize. Easily the best novel I read this year. www.ft.com/content/ee39...
It's autumn in Moscow, which, if you live in a Soviet era building like I do, means the heating is back on and you're back to regulating the temperature by opening your windows.
September 29, 2025 at 7:31 AM
It's autumn in Moscow, which, if you live in a Soviet era building like I do, means the heating is back on and you're back to regulating the temperature by opening your windows.
Reposted by Kotelnaya: Life in Moscow
Drinking in Moscow in 2025. You can now get far more beer imported from the West than you could before February 2022. kotelnaya.substack.com/p/a-pint-of-...
July 4, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Drinking in Moscow in 2025. You can now get far more beer imported from the West than you could before February 2022. kotelnaya.substack.com/p/a-pint-of-...
Reading Zubok's The World of the Cold War. It's a little bit disappointing. I've read all of his books and Zhivago's Children is one of my favourite books about that period. But this feels like a Wikipedia-level survey. It lacks depth and detail.
September 28, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reading Zubok's The World of the Cold War. It's a little bit disappointing. I've read all of his books and Zhivago's Children is one of my favourite books about that period. But this feels like a Wikipedia-level survey. It lacks depth and detail.
Six weeks month off social media. The world keeps turning. Would recommend it.
September 10, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Six weeks month off social media. The world keeps turning. Would recommend it.
Lots of fun arriving back in Moscow this weekend with airspace closures. We started circling over central Russia, then we landed at a random airport for 3 hours, set off again, started circling, eventually got to a different Moscow airport to the one we were supposed to, and sat there for 3 hours.
July 22, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Lots of fun arriving back in Moscow this weekend with airspace closures. We started circling over central Russia, then we landed at a random airport for 3 hours, set off again, started circling, eventually got to a different Moscow airport to the one we were supposed to, and sat there for 3 hours.
The Russian Premier League season —which, like Christmas adverts, seems to get earlier every year — starts tonight
July 18, 2025 at 9:26 AM
The Russian Premier League season —which, like Christmas adverts, seems to get earlier every year — starts tonight
a great piece from Kommersant Weekend about the band behind the Bashkir song which took over the world a few months ago www.myweekend.ru/doc/7872806?...
Ay Yola: больше чем хит
Накануне выхода новой песни «Ural Vasyaty» — все, что нужно знать о ее исполнителях
www.myweekend.ru
July 17, 2025 at 8:46 AM
a great piece from Kommersant Weekend about the band behind the Bashkir song which took over the world a few months ago www.myweekend.ru/doc/7872806?...
Fyodor Smolov is in trouble after hitting two people in a Kofemaniya in Moscow, the same one that Pavel Mamaev and Aleksandr Kokorin previously battered someone, for which they were imprisoned. More than anything, why are millionaire footballers hanging out in chain coffee shops?
July 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Fyodor Smolov is in trouble after hitting two people in a Kofemaniya in Moscow, the same one that Pavel Mamaev and Aleksandr Kokorin previously battered someone, for which they were imprisoned. More than anything, why are millionaire footballers hanging out in chain coffee shops?
It's Saturday, you might be having a pint. Here's what it's like drinking in Moscow in 2025 and what's changed since February 2022 kotelnaya.substack.com/p/a-pint-of-...
A Pint of Sanctions, Please: Drinking in Moscow in 2025
There are far more imported beers available in Moscow in 2025 than before February 2022
kotelnaya.substack.com
July 5, 2025 at 10:45 AM
It's Saturday, you might be having a pint. Here's what it's like drinking in Moscow in 2025 and what's changed since February 2022 kotelnaya.substack.com/p/a-pint-of-...
Drinking in Moscow in 2025. You can now get far more beer imported from the West than you could before February 2022. kotelnaya.substack.com/p/a-pint-of-...
July 4, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Drinking in Moscow in 2025. You can now get far more beer imported from the West than you could before February 2022. kotelnaya.substack.com/p/a-pint-of-...
Having never read Ferrante, I just read My Brilliant Friend, which is excellent, but I don't really understand the level of praise. Is it the evocation of Naples? There are plenty of family sagas published by Russian authors this century (Ulitskaya's Big Green Tent, for one) which are just as good.
June 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Having never read Ferrante, I just read My Brilliant Friend, which is excellent, but I don't really understand the level of praise. Is it the evocation of Naples? There are plenty of family sagas published by Russian authors this century (Ulitskaya's Big Green Tent, for one) which are just as good.
A great novel and an absolutely spot on depiction of the vapidness of the sort of image-obsessed, Instagram-reliant generation of yuppies found all over Europe
June 22, 2025 at 2:11 PM
A great novel and an absolutely spot on depiction of the vapidness of the sort of image-obsessed, Instagram-reliant generation of yuppies found all over Europe
Israel playing media warfare on easy mode. This Economist article is basically -- "Israel says Iran has nukes. They have a dossier. We haven't seen the dossier but we see absolutely no reason to question the official Israeli version of events". Awful journalism, clever media manipulation.
Exclusive: inside the spy dossier that led Israel to war
We review its secret intelligence on Iranian nukes
www.economist.com
June 19, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Israel playing media warfare on easy mode. This Economist article is basically -- "Israel says Iran has nukes. They have a dossier. We haven't seen the dossier but we see absolutely no reason to question the official Israeli version of events". Awful journalism, clever media manipulation.
Leeds signing Jaka Bijol, who I watched play for CSKA for four years. He came over from Slovenia as a defensive midfielder but never really fit in. Then, in his last season, he moved to centre-back and things started to click. A good play but very slow for a Premier League centre-back.
Bijol to undergo Leeds medical, Gudmundsson on radar
www.nytimes.com
June 18, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Leeds signing Jaka Bijol, who I watched play for CSKA for four years. He came over from Slovenia as a defensive midfielder but never really fit in. Then, in his last season, he moved to centre-back and things started to click. A good play but very slow for a Premier League centre-back.
Is there are more attention seeking pair of academics than Shore and Snyder anywhere in the world? Snyder, in particular, seems to have completely given up on being a historian, which he wasn't great at anyway, to churn out rushed think pieces. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Why a professor of fascism left the US: ‘The lesson of 1933 is – you get out’
Marci Shore made news around the world when her family moved to Canada. She discusses Trump, teaching history and how terror atomises society
www.theguardian.com
June 16, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Is there are more attention seeking pair of academics than Shore and Snyder anywhere in the world? Snyder, in particular, seems to have completely given up on being a historian, which he wasn't great at anyway, to churn out rushed think pieces. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...