All a-Twitter

Twitter is alive with tweets by the greats of Russian literature and history, who sometimes report on their lives as if in the past and at others offer biting commentary on current events. Among the more interesting tweets from the past are:

Tsar Nicholas II: An account that posts real diary entries by Russia’s last tsar, who was known for his brevity and lack of existential reflection. The person keeping the blog posts items on the same month and day as Nicholas’ original entries. Apparently, what the monarch loved most was walking outside, reading, and drinking tea.

@NikolayII

Alexander Pushkin: Although this blogger has gone on an unfortunate hiatus of several months, Pushkin’s tweets mimic the humor and wit of Russia’s beloved poet, using iambic tetrameter to reflect on modern Russian politics and news.

@Alex-Pushkin

Vladimir Lenin: A rather dark blog frequently calling for a Bolshevik-style hard line that became popular after the posting of Leninesque, but completely made up, quotes. Now it mostly consists of politically incorrect political commentary.

@LeninRussia

Leo Tolstoy: Actual diary entries tweeted with a hundred-year-plus delay. There are multiple Twitter accounts blogging on behalf of the author of War and Peace, who was a prolific diarist (he kept at least two diaries, one of which was read by his wife while another “small” diary was kept hidden in his boot). This blog posts the entries that adhere to Twitter’s 140 character limit.

@Tolstoy_Lev

Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Twitter feed mostly dedicated to the writer’s spleen and constant health problems. Meticulous observation of appetite, sleep, and weather conditions, as well as misanthropic rants by the famous novelist.

@FedorDostoevsky

Sex and Lit

“Today, the best sex education is Russian literature, and literature in general. Children should read more, literature has everything – love, relations between the sexes. Schools must foster chastity in children and an understanding of family values.”

Pavel Astakhov, the children’s rights ombudsman who supported the Russian adoption ban and the law banning dissemination of information about homosexuality to minors in Russia

Whether or not Astakhov has read all the classic works of Russian literature, his remark immediately had bloggers suggesting additions to the required reading list of novels considered “classic” but less than chaste:

Anna Karenina ~ one of Lev Tolstoy’s most famous works, centered on a woman who leaves her husband and son for an extramarital lover and ends her life by throwing herself under a train.

Demons ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s dark political novel, in which the central character is a borderline sociopath who confesses to raping a 14-year-old girl and driving her to suicide.

Light Breathing ~ a short story by Ivan Bunin in which a young schoolgirl is shot dead by a 56-year old officer who deflowers her.

Lady with the Lapdog ~ a short story by Anton Chekhov about an adulterous vacation affair that grows complicated.

The Kremlin has declared September’s Moscow mayoral elections “sterile,” and most observers did not witness the sort of blatant violations seen on past election days.

Still, there has been snickering over the incumbent mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s particular popularity at certain polling stations:

#3635 ~ Moscow’s psychiatric hospital and the regional center for forensic psychology: 100%

#3648 ~ a clinic in the Moscow suburb Khimki, where only four people
voted: 100%

#355 ~ a home for the mentally
disabled: 98.46%

#3672 ~ a tuberculosis clinic: 71.1%

Of course, these figures probably are not a sign of overwhelming support for the Kremlin’s candidate by tuberculosis sufferers or those with cognitive and psychiatric disabilities. More likely, these lopsided results in Sobyanin’s favor, in polling stations from which observers are barred, are the result of unsavory electoral practices.

Sobyanin won in the first round with just over 51 percent of the vote. Could the results from these off-limits polling stations have tipped the balance? We’ll never know. Sobyanin was inaugurated for his second term just four days after the vote.