March 21, 2019

A Dog and a Muscovite Come In from the Cold


A Dog and a Muscovite Come In from the Cold
No guns, fast driving, or killing in this new video game. Ilya Mazo, Alexander Ignatov

Throwback Thursday

Today in 1839, the composer of Boris Godunov, Pictures at an Exhibition, and Night on Bald Mountain was born. Happy 180th birthday, Mussorgsky!

Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky. / Wikimedia Commons

It’s Snowing (Wholesome) Cat and Dog (Stories)

1. “It’s Winter”: the coolest new game on the block. Produced by Moscow-based poet Ilya Mazo, “It’s Winter” is an avant-garde video game where all you do is make tea and watch TV in a suburban Russian apartment. And while most English-speakers only know about the game, “It’s Winter” is just one part of a multimedia digital opera. Fans of the game’s timeless yet uniquely post-Soviet feel can read an ebook or watch “It’s Winter: The Movie,” an eight-minute film where ordinary people intone everyday phrases to the accompaniment of buzzing lights and humming washing machines. We think it’s weirdly creepy, but chillingly beautiful.

2. Stop kitty, go kitty. Since the last time we wrote about Zelenogradsk, the city’s love of cats hasn’t lessened. On the contrary, Zelenogradsk has installed a new traffic light eschewing the traditional walking man for images of cats. There is some controversy over whether it’s a good idea. Some believe it is “simply super!”, while others lament that at this rate, Zelenogradsk might as well be renamed “Zelenokots.” Regardless, kitties are here to stay. Even if the traffic light goes, the new sculpture of cats at Zelenogradsk’s entrance isn’t leaving anytime soon.

Cat stoplight
Go kitty go! / overhear_zlk

3. Siberians to the rescue…in America! Two dogs fell into an icy pond in Yonkers, New York, but luckily, a Siberian-raised swimmer just happened to see them. Russian immigrant Timofey Yuriev thought of calling an ambulance, but “I was looking at them and I realized […] the rescuer, they will come maybe in 10, 15 minutes,” he said. So summoning the wisdom of his grandfather, a hunter who had taught him to swim in icy waters, Yuriev took off his shirt and dove in to save them. His loyal golden retriever Kira followed him in, nudging along the two dogs until everyone made it back, safe and sound. The pond may have been icy, but this story has a heartwarming ending.

Yuriev, Kira, and one of the dogs brave the chilly swim back. / Melissa Kho

Blog Spotlight

Robert Blaisdell reviewed Friedrich Gorenstein’s Redemption, a novel about a young woman who betrays her mother and courts a Jewish lieutenant in a town recently liberated from the Nazis. Read his review here.

In Odder News

Slapping championship
Aftermath of the winning blow in Tuesday’s slapping contest. / NTV
  • If you slap someone hard enough, you might just win $500. In Krasnoyarsk, one man won 30,000 rubles ($465) in a slapping championship.
  • Being vegan in Russia can be tough, but it’s worth it. Just ask these five people.
  • In the Novosibirsk Zoo, a polar bear gave birth to twin cubs. The men in the slapping championship may want to learn from the bear mother’s tenderness.
Polar bear cubs

Twin polar bear cubs. / V. Shadrin

 

Quote of the Week

“There’s a point on our arms that you can push, and suddenly, your nervous system gets reactivated. My grandfather, a hunter from Siberia, taught me this.”

— Timofey Yuriev, explaining how he braved the cold of an icy pond to rescue two drowning dogs

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Murder and the Muse

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A Taste of Russia
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A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

Bears in the Caviar
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Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

Driving Down Russia's Spine
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The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

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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.

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.

White Magic
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White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

The Moscow Eccentric
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The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

Survival Russian
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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.

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