(Dorothy Butchard’s article appeared in Russia Beyond the Headlines, 11/1; photo: Russia Beyond the Headliens/TASS)

“You are among us, you’re alive,” the great Soviet-era novelist and poet Vladimir Nabokov wrote in his poem, Shakespeare. Imagining a “hundred-mouthed, unthinkably great bard” strutting from Elizabethan times into the modern era, Nabokov captured Russia’s enduring fascination with Shakespeare. His words still resonate in Russia today as appetites for classical English literature remain undiminished.

Earlier this year, commuters in Moscow were greeted by an unusual sight: a metro train brightly decorated with quotes and characters from Shakespeare’s plays.

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http://rbth.com/arts/literature/2016/11/01/why-shakespeare-is-an-honorary-russian_644097