Rainer Maria Rilke visited the country that would remain both his home and a place of longing for him throughout his life only twice: in 1899, together with Lou Andreas-Salomé for two months, and in 1900 for nearly four months. However, these trips represent one of the most impactful foreign experiences in the history of German literature and triggered a significant cultural transfer between East and West. The intense engagement with "Russian matters" has left a multitude of traces in Rilke's work, evident in his prose and poetry as well as in his essays, letters, and diaries. The selection presented here impressively documents the awakening experience that Russia meant for Rilke in personal, artistic, and spiritual terms.