Going to the movies has become a popular pastime for Russians again lately, though ticket price in night hours is rather high, in most lovely places it comes to 10-13$.

Autumn and winter nights are long in Russia, and very often rainy in Moscow. So movie theatres is a good place for a company to come and have fun, mix and have a chat in a cosy bar before a movie starts. It is also a nice place for a loving couple to sit in back rows, holding hands and kissing in romantic moments. Sometimes it's just an appropriate place for a first kiss.

Russian girls like coming to historical places on special occasions with their boy-friends.
Girls and guys like having a date there, walking around holding hands, sitting by the pond, taking pictures, and kissing in hidden places of the estate park.

Gossip is not a trivial pastime: it is essential to human social, psychological and even physical well-being. The mobile phone, by facilitating therapeutic gossip in an alienating and fragmented modern world, has become a vital 'social lifeline', helping us to re-create the more natural communication patterns of pre-industrial times.

Gossip is the human equivalent of 'social grooming' among primates, which has been shown to stimulate production of endorphins, relieving stress and boosting the immune system. Two-thirds of all human conversation is gossip, because this 'vocal grooming' is essential to our social, psychological and physical well-being. Mobiles facilitate gossip. Mobiles have increased and enhanced this vital therapeutic activity, by allowing us to gossip 'anytime, anyplace, anywhere' and to text as well as talk. Mobile gossip is an effective and important new stress-buster.

The number of people using mobiles in Russia has tripled over the last 3 years. Ownership of mobile phones is most common among young people (18-24 years). In Russia the number of young owners equals 48,4 % which is twice more than the share of average adult owners. In Moscow this number is even higher: 71 vs 45.
Vast majority of ladies are indifferent to extra phone features, such as IrDa, voice memo, GPRS and others. They regard a cellular phone as a device, which enables to make phone calls.

Winter in Moscow should mean snow and ice - but even if Mother Nature is being coy with her seasonal specials, there's no reason to abandon any prospect of donning your skates and taking a turn on the ice. It's one of the great Russian traditions - no less an authority than Pushkin himself describes St Petersburg's high society sliding out on the frozen Neva - and it's as popular as ever today.


Skating is a favorite pastime for children and adults alike, especially for teenagers, youth and young couples, even for those who do not feel very confident on ice. Long winter months in Russia offer a lot of time for training. And Russians come to skating rinks with their families just to have a good time together, skating, dancing to music, walking along the paths and playing snowballs in the park.

Television shows «Stars on Ice» and «Dancing on Ice» starring prominent athletes and actors shown recently on two nationwide television networks have further roused public's interest in figure skating.

Nowadays almost every Russian woman goes to the church, but rarely more often than once or twice a year to fire a candle to honor the memory of the dead or to pray for the health of the living. Many couples sanctify their marriage by going through the church rite. But modern Russian women observe only the exterior of the rites without knowing the meaning of them: they go through the rite of christening and get their children christened, they go to the church on Easter and Christmas, some observe church fasts. But this is a tribute to the tradition, religious fanatics are not numerous. Russian Orthodox church did not manage to restore its former impact on the hearts and souls of its followers. But the link between the woman and the church is inherent in all Russian hearts, for they have always sought help from God in difficult situations.

The phenomenon of ageing and attitude to it is different here, in Russia. Russians sort of grow up faster than Europeans and Americans. That has more to do with self- perception than looks. We get married, have children, and start thinking about career, own business, having property and settling down in life in general earlier than our coevals in other countries. Even though it is changing at the moment, most people are married and have kids by the age of 30.

So do not be surprised if a 23-year-old girl tells you things you would expect to hear from a lady that is 10 years older.

It is an ancient custom for a woman to run the house: cleaning, cooking, washing up, looking after the children, washing and mending the linen, making preserves. As a matter of fact, the ideas of the wife's duties have been adjusted in the long run but haven't essentially changed.

In Russia the responsibility for maintaining order in a home (daily and overall cleaning) usually lies upon the woman. Russian women are very clean by nature, therefore their home, either a town apartment or a country cottage, is practically always shining.

Kitchen has always been the working place of the russian woman in the house. One of the characteristic features of the Russian cuisine is a great number of ingredients, and it's very time and effort consuming. Russian women treat with distrust the semi-finished products and prefer to do everything with their own hands.

Looking after the children is exclusively mother's duty in Russia.

The position of Russian women in social structure of Russia has always been a sore subject in Russia. Up to the middle of the 19th century the woman in Russia had no legal rights. She was the property of her husband and her social status depended on that of her husband. All education a woman could get was private, any public service (i.e., a possibility of taking some post) was out of the question.

In modern Russia the situation is different. Still, keeping in mind that russian women nowadays may, though, volunteer army service, publish their works, play football and hockey there is a certain discrimination. This it is more difficult for a woman than a man to find a well-paid job, to start her own business, to launch a political career. Women account for 53 per cent of the population of Russia but this majority is represented in Parliament by only 10 per cent of its members.

Most of my former classmates live in our native town, near it, and in Moscow. So every year we try to make "Reunion". Everybody is busy with their jobs and families, of course. That's why we never can get together all of us. And sometimes only a few people come to the party. But we still organize reunions, get together and always celebrate our anniversaries. Sometimes it turns to be really funny when one after a long break can't recognize their classmates. We usually get together on the first Saturday of February, that's the tradition of our Russian schools. We have dinner, chat a lot, dance , take pictures.

In our free time we like playing sports, meeting our friends, going out. One of my friends has a big detached house near Moscow. We get together, play billiard, make barbecue and discuss all our news. Our childreh are also friends. They ride bikes, scooters, sometimes we play mini-golf together.
In winter we go skiing to our local wood and skating at our town skating rink. Skating is very popular now after the ice show with russian stars. Unfotunately this year skiing was practically impossible because of the unusually warm winter.