The film History of the Arkanar Massacre took up several decades of the late Alexei German’s life. Based on the Strugatsky brothers’ novel, Hard to Be a God, and finished by German’s son, also a director, it has finally been released to movie audiences.
The reaction of most has been shock.
Critics at the premiere in Rome in late 2013 said many in the theater left after the first hour, unable to handle the gruesome visuals, which the Hollywood Reporter said represented an “outhouse aesthetic.”
As in the book, the film’s protagonist, Don Rumata, is a scientist from a future Earth who arrives on the distant planet Arkanar to observe but not intervene, only to be confronted with a society that is being brutally dismantled by a murderous regime.
Viewers able to stick it out through the scenes of blood and gore praised the meticulous costume design and acting by Leonid Yarmolnik, who plays Rumata.
Another long-awaited film adaptation that was released last fall, The Geographer Drank His Globe Away, is based on the eponymous novel by Alexei Ivanov.
The story revolves around an unfortunate geography teacher the Urals city of Perm, a hero-of-our-time who falls short of the dreams of his youth and struggles with his rowdy students. Director Alexander Veledinsky’s film won the main prize at the Kinotavr Festival in Sochi, as well as a string of recognitions from smaller festivals. The leading role is played by Konstantin Khabensky.
Top-grossing Russian celebrity Grigory Leps found himself in hot water when the US Treasury suddenly blacklisted him over alleged links to The Brothers’ Circle crime ring.
Leps, whose real last name is Lepsveridze, is famous for crooning soft-rock ballads and for his bad-guy-gone-good image. His financial success – annual earnings of $15 million – recently placed him second in Forbes Russia’s ranking of the country’s wealthiest celebrities.
The decision to ban Leps from doing business with US nationals was met with a furious denial that he has any criminal links. The Foreign Ministry called the blacklisting “unacceptable.” Leps is a vocal supporter of President Vladimir Putin, and a promotional video ahead of the 2012 election had him explaining that he would vote for Putin because he “only has confidence in one individual.”
Russia has settled on a new symbol for the ruble, to be used in reporting and soon to be printed on the notes themselves.
Russian engineers have manufactured the country’s first smart phone – an innovative two-screen unit on which one screen is similar to an e-Reader that uses electronic ink and consumes much less energy.
Dubbed the YotaPhone, the Android device is assembled in China, though the makers called the phone the first Russian-made smart phone. Launched Apple-style in a Moscow gallery by director Vlad Martynov, the YotaPhone is rather pricey at €499 ($678). The two-screen feature will slow battery drain, the company said, since people won’t have to wake up their main screen as often.
The Kremlin has created a new Department to Battle Corruption and placed at its head Oleg Plokhoy. The Gogolian-named Plokhoy (his last name means “bad” in Russian) has worked in the presidential administration since 1999 (mainly in the division responsible for personnel). Before that, he spent ten years in the KGB.
Russia assembled the longest and most complicated Olympic torch relay ever ahead of this February’s games, when the Olympic flame will light the cauldron in Sochi. The flame has gone to the Pacific Ocean and back and traveled to the North Pole and the bottom of Lake Baikal (at a point where it is just 15 meters deep). It circled Buddhist temples with monks and swam in frigid rivers with Russian ice swimmers. It’s been on dog sleds, planes, trains, and even propelled with a jet pack (above). An unlit torch even went into space for the first time in history, aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, and was taken on a spacewalk.
This showcasing of Russia’s diversity was not without mythical elements. The flame passed through all sorts of rituals and was even dubbed the Firebird – a creature from Russian folk tales famous for igniting and rising from the ashes.
In Russia, the Olympics are always more than the Olympics.
Since detaining 30 Arctic protesters in the Barents Sea, Russia has gone from calling them terrorists and pirates to being just a step short of letting them go.
By December, the international uproar that began with the arrest of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and the detention of its crew, including two journalists and 26 foreign nationals, seemed to be slowly and quietly winding down. Russian authorities seem to want the world to forget that Arctic Sunrise was boarded by special forces from a helicopter and that its crew was held at gunpoint.
The activists were protesting a Gazprom drilling platform in the area, territory where Russia has only limited jurisdiction and where the case for prosecuting the activists may be shaky at best. Authorities sought to bring piracy charges, but dropped the effort as the platform that the activists “stormed” is clearly not a ship and the activists were not armed.
At press time, the crew was only being charged with hooliganism, a charge that is itself questionable, since only a handful of people (according to Greenpeace) were involved in the stunt of approaching and scaling the rig carrying a safety pod before being detained. In the end, authorities returned the detainees’ passports and said they were free to leave, stopping short of issuing them exit visas.
NATALIA GORBANEVSKAYA, a Soviet dissident who wrote poetry and published an underground bulletin chronicling repressions in the Soviet Union, has died at 77.
Gorbanevskaya associated with dissidents even as a student and was involved in publishing samizdat literature. She became widely known when she decided, together with a small group of others, to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The group consisted of eight people who stood near Red Square’s iconic Lobnoye Mesto with signs like “Hands off the CzSSR” and “For your freedom and ours.”
The group was quickly arrested and their slogans judged slanderous. Gorbanevskaya was not jailed, but slapped with the diagnosis “sluggish schizophrenia,” a Soviet invention frequently used against those with “delusional” ideas about human rights.
Gorbanevskaya later spent two years in an asylum and subsequently wrote about her experiences. She moved to France and worked for Radio Svoboda and the Russkaya Mysl newspaper. She visited Russia in recent years, including last summer, to mark 45 years since the Red Square protest.
YURY YAKOVLEV, a celebrated actor who appeared in popular Soviet-era movies, has died in Moscow. He was 85 years old. Best known for portraying Ivan Vasiliyevich in Ivan Vasiliyevich Changes His Profession, he started out as a driver for the US Embassy in Moscow after dropping out of school in the tough postwar years, when his single mother did not have enough money to support her sons.
Yakovlev later had trouble gaining entry into acting school – the commission thought he was too simple-looking and told him he should go work at a factory instead. But he finished his studies and worked for the Vakhtangov Theater for many decades. Fame came with his first movie role, as the noble but unstable Prince Myshkin in Ivan Pyryev’s interpretation of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. But it was his portrayal of the time-traveling Ivan Vasiliyevich that turned him into a star, a status reinforced by his memorable role as Ippolit Georgiyevich, the stiff suitor of Nadezhda, leading lady in the New Year’s classic, The Irony of Fate.
Russia’s football (soccer) squad, led by Italian coach Fabio Capello, will be in the World Cup finals. The Russian team secured its berth with a 1-1 draw in Azerbaijan. Capello, who led England to South Africa in 2010, helped Russia secure the top spot in qualifying Group F, ahead of Portugal.
This will be Russia’s first appearance at the World Cup in 12 years, which is a good trend, given that Russia is hosting the event in 2018.
“I’m very happy with this qualifying cycle,” Capello said. “In the face of such a serious opponent as Portugal, we’ve taken first place in the group... Congratulations to everyone.” Capello was equally happy with the results of the draw ceremony held in Brazil on December 5, as Russia was fortunate enough to have been drawn with such football “feather-weights” as Algeria, Belgium and South Korea, and now stands a good chance of advancing to the knock-out stage.
Russia’s qualifying play started with four straight wins, but stumbled with defeats away versus Portugal and Northern Ireland over the summer. However, two wins over Luxembourg and Azerbaijan were enough to secure passage for Brazil next summer.
Yelena Isinbayeva was honored at the IAAF World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo on November 18 with the Distinguished Career Award – and promised to return again in 2016 as Olympic champion.
Last summer Russia’s top female pole vaulter regained gold (which eluded her in London) by winning at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow.
Isinbayeva, 31, said, “I am really looking forward to coming back here on this stage in 2016, but as the best female of the year. I have made a decision: after the birth of my baby – to try to get my third Olympic gold medal from Rio.”
Isinbayeva is not yet pregnant, but plans to take time out of the sport to start a family before returning in 2016.
In all, Isinbayeva has won 14 gold medals at major championships: two Olympic titles (2004, 2008), three world titles (2005, 2007, 2013), four world indoor titles (2004, 2006, 2008, 2012), one European Athletics title (2006), one European indoor title (2005), a European under-23 title (2003), a world junior title (2000) and a European junior title (2001).
Russian boxer Evgeny Gradovich defended his IBF World Champion title by beating Australian Billey Dib on November 24 in a rematch held at Macau, China. Gradovich won by technical knockout in the ninth round. The fight was a rematch of a split decision bout in March.
The 27-year-old Gradovich – known as “The Mexican Russian” for his punchy attacking style, outboxed Dib, a fact apparent as early as the fifth round from Dib’s heavily bruised face.
Russia finished first in the overall medal count at October’s World Weightlifting Championships, held in Wrocław, Poland, gleaning 6 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals. This was a welcome change after the 2012 London Olympics, where Russia won no gold in weightlifting.
Both Russian men and women did well, yet Tatiana Kashirina set a record in clean and jerk, with a 190 kg lift in the 75+ kg category. Kashirina was also awarded the “Best Woman” trophy at the tourney.
In November’s 2013 Fed Cup tennis final held in Cagliari (Sardinia), Italy shut out Russia’s women 4-0. The Russian team had advanced to the finals after a comeback win over Slovakia in Moscow, yet the instrumental players in that semi – Maria Kirilenko, Ekaterina Makarova, Elena Vesnina and Anastasiya Pavyluchenkova – were all unavailable to play in the final for various reasons. In all, 11 Russian women were ranked ahead of Russia’s highest ranked Fed Cup singles player, Alexandra Panova (136).
US tennis observer Peter Bodo quipped that it is rarely injury issues that keep Russian women from the Fed Cup: “These days, Russian women seem to have mostly indifference issues – for example, even when Sharapova is fit as a fiddle, she’s a Fed Cup refusenik.”
Italy and Russia have dominated the Fed Cup over the last decade. Each have now captured four titles in the last eight years.
Что касается событий на Украине, то это напоминает мне больше не революцию, а погромы.
“The events in Ukraine seem more like a pogrom than a revolution. Strange as it may seem, it has little to do with Ukraine’s relations with the European Union.”
President Vladimir Putin at a December 2 press conference, branding the pro-Europe demonstrations that swept across Ukraine in December.
их сердца в случае автомобильной катастрофы зарывать в землю или сжигать как непригодный для продолжения чей либо жизни
“I feel it is too little to fine gays for propagandizing homosexuality... They should be forbidden from donating blood or sperm, and, in the case of an automobile accident, their hearts should be buried or burned as ill-suited for prolonging any type of life.”
Dmitry Kiselev, television “agitator” and host, during a live TV program this summer. Kiselyov has just been named the head of a newly revamped Russia Today news agency, to replace RIA Novosti, which also supplies foreign media with imagery and news of Russia.
Депутат — это такая же тяжелая работа, как если бы ты с полной отдачей разгружал вагоны.
“Serving in the Duma is as difficult as if you were unloading cargo trains full-tilt.”
Duma member Vadim Dengin (LDPR), responding to criticism that Russian MPs get too many perks and never show up for work. (Interfax)
кто в ней участвовал, кто подписался на участие в этой акции, прекрасно знали
“This action was planned, and everyone who participated in it, who signed up to participate in it, knew perfectly well who they would be photographing, what they would be photographing, and who they would be cooking for.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, referring to a Russian photographer arrested among the crew of Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace ship seized in the Barents Sea for protesting oil exploration. The crew members, who spent two months in jail before Russia released them on bail, included two journalists, a cook, and a doctor. (Vedomosti)
Собирать произведения искусства значительно лучше, чем собирать иностранных футболистов.
“Collecting artwork is much better than collecting foreign soccer players.”
Culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, in a jab at businessmen who acquire foreign soccer teams, at the opening of Vekselberg’s Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg. (Interfax)
Пока в стране есть политзаключенные, находиться поблизости от правителя, просто даже в одном с ним помещении, я не могу.
“As long as the country has political prisoners, I cannot be near its leader, not even in the same room.”
Novelist Boris Akunin, who supported the opposition in protests two years ago, explaining on Ekho Moskvy website why he ignored an invitation to attend a meeting of literary figures that also featured a visit by President Vladimir Putin.
Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.
Russian Life 73 Main Street, Suite 402 Montpelier VT 05602
802-223-4955
[email protected]
