December 14, 2017

Superputin, Sly Wolves, & Censorship Stalkers


Superputin, Sly Wolves, & Censorship Stalkers
The Finest of Fine Art

1. It’s a bird...it’s a plane...it’s Superputin! A new art exhibit centers around the Russian president in various heroic guises, some based in fact (Putin playing hockey, Putin cuddling his pets) and others in imagination (an armored Putin riding a bear, Putin as Father Frost). The goal, according to the gallery, is to showcase Putin’s popularity and the ways his public perceives him. Opened at Moscow’s UMAM Museum on the same day Putin announced his bid for a fourth presidential term – a pure coincidence, but if the incumbent succeeds in his bid, it’ll be more proof of his superpowers.

2. With the World Cup opening in Russia just months away, it’s high time to start collecting merchandise. But only official stuff: authorities are on the hunt for fakes and clamping down on counterfeit World Cup products. The World Cup mascot, Zabivaka the wolf, has been especially sneaky: last week 640 toy wolves were stopped trying to cross the border from China, and over 100,000 products illegally bearing the trademark image have been withdrawn from sale. Luckily for football fans aiming to get some merch in time for the New Year, an official fan store is now open in Moscow.

3. Obscenity, pornography, information on drugs or suicide, and anything falling under the broad label of “extremism” is off limits for Russian mass media. And if you're lucky, you can get PAID to read it. After all, someone’s got to go through all the bad stuff to weed it out, and that someone is GRCHTs, the state enterprise that pays people to scan the web for inappropriate material. GRCHTs has a hefty contract with Roskomnadzor and is even hunting for more employees to ensure that internet censorship is going a-okay. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

In Odder News
  • How does a leopard cub nurse if it’s separated from its mom? The Vladivostok Zoo knows: enlist a golden retriever as a wet nurse.
  • The U.S. has got one all-Russian radio station. It broadcasts from Portland, but not all expats like what it plays.
  • What did Kiev look like in 1966? Rainy and gray, grandiose and ordinary, all in one.

Quote of the Week

"Each artist depicted positive attributes of Vladimir Putin. Every artist loves him and respects him and supports him."
—Pro-Putin activist Yulia Dyuzheva on the Superputin exhibit, of which she was one of the organizers.

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May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

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December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

Fearful Majesty
July 01, 2014

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.

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February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

Jews in Service to the Tsar
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Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

The Latchkey Murders
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The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

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A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

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Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

Life Stories
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Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

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