Whilst it's not 'mandatory'.... it gives us a chance to welcome you!
This is a great site, with membership from around the world and all levels of culinary ability - everything from 'can't boil water', through enthusiastic amateurs (I'm in that group) to master chefs.
The wikis, blogs, articles, reviews and articles are all well worth spending time to view for inspiration - Feel free to join in on any thread you find of interest, or start your own in the relevant forum. The professional fora are read-only for those of us not employed in a culinary capacity (but still make interesting reading!)
Russian history, eh? My area is Scots history.
Hope we'll see you around the boards.