The Moscow government has abruptly put to an end the city’s trolleybus network, in place since 1933. The capital’s trolleybuses, powered by electricity transmitted through cables to the car’s insect-like antenna, were part of the world’s largest trolley network – over 100 routes. But they have been done in by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s drive to replace them with electric buses.
In reality, most of the routes discontinued at the end of August are now served by regular buses running on diesel. The cables that fed the army of trolleybuses were gradually dismantled, first in the city center, then throughout the rest of the city.
Many Muscovites were against the change, particularly the idea of replacing electric transport with vehicles that add further pollution to the congested streets. Several protests against the mayor’s anti-trolleybus policies went unheeded. The mayor is not known for listening to dissenting voices.
Voronezh has opened a new museum in the building where Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin (1870-1953) was born. The Bunin Museum recounts the writer’s life story, including his time abroad. He was forced to flee to Europe after the Revolution, due to his vehement anti-Bolshevik stance.
The small, two-room museum has some of the writer’s personal belongings, like his hunting bag. In the 1980s, the building belonged to a man who left it to the local literary museum, requesting that it be dedicated to Bunin. After four decades, his final wish has been granted.
Address: Voronezh, Prospekt Revolyutsy, 3
Open by appointment.
muzeinikitin.vzh.ru
Archaeologists have unearthed a rare, previously undisturbed Scythian burial site in Khakassia, yielding several skeletons, weapons and other treasures worthy of a museum exhibition.
Dated to the early Iron Age, one of the graves in the burial site (also known as a kurgan) contained the remains of four people of the Tagar culture: a middle-aged male and female, an older female, and an infant, as well as bronze weapons, a mirror, and an ivory comb.
Archaeologists say it is incredibly rare to find a site such as this untouched by looters, whether ancient people, tribes that could come from Mongolia, or modern-age “black diggers.” “We have a truly outstanding example, the whole burial complex is ideal for exhibition in a museum,” said chief archaeologist Yury Teterin.
Further DNA research will show whether the four people found in the grave were related.
Archaeologists are hard at work in the area, because Russian Railways announced they will be building a new railway between Mezhdurechensk and Tayshet, in Siberia. Some ten archaeological sites lie on the railway’s planned route.
“Это внутреннее дело нашей страны. И критика только одна: не то тайна, не то таинство. Знаете, на инаугурацию были приглашены около 2 тысяч человек вместе с военными. И в тайне это сохранить практически невозможно.”
“This is our country’s internal affair. And there is just one criticism: it was done secretively, all in secret. You know, about two thousand people were invited, together with the military personnel. And you simply can’t keep something like that under wraps.”
Yekaterinburg’s futuristic “White Tower,” a constructivist water tower built between 1929 and 1931 that had fallen into disrepair, now has a chance of survival.
The tower quickly proved too small to serve the water supply needs of the housing district built for the Uralmash Factory. Though much beloved by that community, it began to crumble from neglect and was eventually targeted for demolition.
In 2014 a group of local architects and preservationists won the right to claim lifetime use of the landmark, and worked for several years to make stop-gap repairs, cleaning it up and raising awareness by hosting art shows, tours, and other events.
This year the Getty Foundation granted $180,000 to develop a scientific restoration plan, after the tower was selected as one of just 13 finalists from around the world in the Keeping It Modern grant initiative, which seeks to support conservation of modern architecture.
tower1929.ru
A team of cyclists set out on a trek from Moscow to St. Petersburg, aiming to conduct research into how cyclable Russia is. The 1150-kilometer route, which the group rode in 16 days in late September, passed through the tourist hotspots of Novgorod, Tver and Gatchina. The group documented their trip on the Telegram channel velo_one.
The trip, organized by the Russian cycling movement Lets Bike It and the urban planning studio Strelka, included both experienced and beginner riders, most all pedaling city bikes.
Russia’s growing bicycling community has been fighting for better infrastructure and updated road traffic rules to make bicycling safer in the country. Though bicyclists have become ubiquitous in cities like Moscow, where local food deliveries are often made by bike couriers, rules for cyclists are still unclear or outdated, while street planning ignores the “wheeled” population: creating ramp-less pedestrian underpasses and curbs without curb cuts that are friendly to bikes, strollers, and wheelchairs.
Add to this the fact that most cyclists are forced to store their bikes in their small flats, often hauling them up many flights of stairs, plus the reality that Russia is covered by snow much of the year, and the country would not seem to be the most velo-hospitable of places. Yet these intrepid cyclists argue, pointing at Finland and northern China as examples, that with the right infrastructure, demand for bike transportation will increase.
Yakutia’s unique film industry continues to triumph at film festivals. Dmitry Davydov’s film Pugalo (Scarecrow), about an ostracized healer, grabbed the Grand Prize at the Kinotavr Festival, while Yakut singer Valentina Romanova, who had the leading role, was named best actress.
Filmed in the Yakut language, like the majority of films made in the giant region of Yakutia (also known as the Sakha Republic), it is the second film to win a major prize. In 2018, The Lord Eagle took the prize for Best Film at the Moscow Film Festival.
Sakhawood, as the republic’s own arthouse film industry is called, has become something of a phenomenon, with many successful films shot by homegrown directors who did not attend Moscow or St. Petersburg film schools, and featuring actors who aren’t paid until box office returns are tallied.
Barely shown outside Yakutia, the films nevertheless do well in local cinemas, often proving more popular with audiences than expensive Hollywood flicks.
“People want simple stories” rather than over-produced blockbusters, Davydov told the Kultura TV channel. The director has a day job as a school teacher.
Watch Sakha films here: sakhamovie.ru
A group of professors opposed to the government are launching their own university, after their employer, the acclaimed Higher School of Economics (HSE), announced that would not be renewing their contracts. The announcement added to a steady flow of news suggesting that the HSE is not the free-thinking, liberal-minded intellectual center it once was.
Since last year, the HSE no longer supports student media – which often discuss political news and give a platform to dissident voices. The student journal Doxa, which has covered changes at the university, said the HSE had also banned students from communicating with political prisoners (many of the currently jailed protesters had been students themselves), while one very politically active student, Yegor Zhukov, complained of being booted from the HSE master’s program for his opposition views.
The new “Free University” is an independent project meant to rebuild the concept of a university free of censorship and administrative arbitrariness.
“If the university can no longer be free, that means a new free university is needed. This is where the paths of the university and the state must part,” the project founders wrote.
freemoscow.university
“Мы все таки не только ‘страна бензоколонка’, как некоторые пытаются нас представить, а это страна с ярко выраженными новыми технологическими возможностями, которые мы в состоянии быстро развивать, адаптировать к вызовам сегодняшнего дня.
“As it turns out, we’re not just a ‘gas pump’ of a country, as some people make us out to be; we’re a country with clear technological capabilities, which we can quickly develop and adapt to present-day challenges.”
A new national park was created in southern Siberia to protect ancient aspen-fir forests, as well as rare cedar forest ecosystems, home to many protected plant and animal species including black stork and eagle owl.
The park spans over 600 square miles, straddling the Altai Krai, Novosibirsk Oblast and Kemerovo Oblast. The government plans to also develop tourist routes to the area’s historical and geological landmarks like caves and seventeenth-century settlement posts.
Moscow has announced its next mega-sized development project. After investing billions into streets and the renovation of housing and transport links, it will now turn its attention to rivers.
Under the plan, called My River, 150 kilometers of city embankments will be revamped in the coming years, of which 70 kilometers are already in the planning or work stages. For the most part, the Moscow River is not very pedestrian or cycle-friendly, and in some areas the shores are occupied by industrial facilities.
“Сварил на кухне ‘Новичок.’ Тихо отхлебнул из фляжки в самолете. Впал в кому. До этого договорился с женой, друзьями и коллегами, что, если Минздрав будет настаивать, чтоб меня увезли лечить в Германию, они ни в коем случае не позволяли это сделать. Помереть в омской больнице и оказаться в омском морге, где установили бы причину смерти “пожил достаточно” — вот конечная цель моего хитрого плана. Но Путин меня переиграл.”
“Cooked up some ‘Novichok’ in the kitchen. Then discreetly took a sip from a flask on the plane. Went into a coma. Beforehand, my wife, friends, colleagues, and I had all agreed that if the Health Ministry insisted on flying me to Germany, they should do everything they could to prevent it. To die in an Omsk hospital, end up in an Omsk morgue with a death certificate saying ‘he’s lived enough’ – that was the ultimate goal of my cunning plan. But Putin outwitted me once again.”
The Russian website The Insider has published the annual salaries of top celebrities and commentators on Russian state television (the website claims that the figures were received from a source with access to Russia’s tax service database).
Here are the top five from the list of 13 persons named by the website, which expressed the salaries in the multiples of average Russian monthly pensions (R14,000 or $179)
R156 million ($2 million) / 928 pensions
Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT channel, and her husband Keosayan have been the subject of an in-depth investigation by Alexei Navalny, who said that the duo receives R120 million a year for producing one show, called International Pilorama, while Simonyan also receives about 36 million as the head of RT and Rossiya Sevodnya (Russia Today). Always outspoken on international news, Simonyan also opines via her popular Telegram and Twitter feeds.
R18.2 million ($232,000) / 107 pensions
A longtime diplomat and politician, Pushkov is best known for being quoted in various state media as a go-to expert on international issues. He also hosts a show called PostScriptum on the national TV Center channel, which has been criticized for its vehement anti-Western rhetoric. Pushkov once argued that the Moon landing was a hoax, which earned strong pushback from Russian scientists.
R100 million ($1.28 million) / 587 pensions
Sheinin is famous as the host of the show Vremya Pokazhet (Time Will Tell) on Channel One. A typical evening show with several invited guests and an audience, Time Will Tell launched in 2017 and marked a new low for Russian TV. Known for his “gopnik” style, Sheinin is flagrantly rude to his guests, often tells below-the-belt jokes, and uses obscene language on set. Yet he happens to be the best-paid of Russian propagandists.
R52.6 million ($673,300) / 310 pensioners
A long-time host and commentator on Russian radio and TV, Solovyov is one of a select few who have done in-depth interviews with Vladimir Putin. His latest project is called unambiguously Moscow. Kremlin. Putin. It is a weekend evening dispatch of what Putin has done each week. Solovyov also runs a YouTube channel commenting on current affairs. Like Simonyan, he has been the subject of various investigations by Alexei Navalny, who trolls him incessantly for being a top propagandist and enjoying the status of a resident of Italy. His shows are famous for opponents yelling at each other, and once even throwing a glass of water.
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