Forgotten Secrets of the Golden Language

Are you sure you know the Russian language well? Can you explain how a tsar differs in essence from a king and an emperor—and what invisible thread links a bear to a governor?

Vitaly Sunkadov—philologist, traveler, and creator of the Slavic Kremlin—invites you to look at familiar words and meanings in a different way, uncovering the deep layers of our speech and cultural memory.

Vitaly Vladimirovich Sunkadov is known not only as a traveler-researcher, president of the Foundation for Russian Expeditions and Travel, and founder of the Slavic Kremlin. He is also called a master of words—and that is only natural. A professional philologist with two higher educations, he is a poet, writer, and journalist. He is the author of the books “Paper Walking Stick,” “Fairy Tales from a Trunk,” “Sleeping Barbarian,” and “The Love Epidemic.” Sunkadov speaks about the Russian language the way it isn’t taught in school or university: through what shapes not only speech, but also the very fabric of Russian culture.

This book is a course of lectures created based on materials from the Russian School of the Russian Language, and the first in a series devoted to the secrets of speech, culture, and hidden pages of history. Together with the author, you will learn why Slavs are called Slavs, what distinguishes a tsar, a king, and an emperor, how a bear turns out to be connected to a governor—and you will feel the living atmosphere of our land’s rich past.