August 15, 2019

A Legal Message in a Bottle


A Legal Message in a Bottle
Cheers to strange connections between America and Russia, the past and the present! Tyler Ivanoff / Facebook

Quote of the Week

“And in demonstrations, in gatherings,
Your rights are guaranteed.
And to participate in meetings
You are always free.”

– A version of the Russian Constitution recently written in verse for children. 

Protests for free and fair elections continue, and many people have been arrested and injured over the past few weeks in Moscow. Read about the 17-year-old girl who became the symbol of the protests by reading the Russian Constitution to policemen, and take a look at one artist’s take on the protests. 

 

Save our ship, our heads, and our vegetables!

1. The “heartfelt” feelings of Soviet sailors had been bottled up for exactly fifty years, until an American from Alaska found their message in a bottle. The writers were part of the Far Eastern Shipping Company based in Vladivostok, and asked whoever found the message to get in touch with the whole crew. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the writers probably thought that ship had sailed and the bottle was forever lost at the sea. As it turns out, however, their wishes for good health, long life, and happy sailing were at last fatefully received by a citizen of the Soviet Union’s arch enemy, who happened to have studied enough Russian to recognize Cyrillic and recite a bit of Russian poetry to his curious children. 

2. Putin has been getting hell for lacking a helmet at a biker show organized by the motorcycle club the Night Wolves. A Russian lawyer and a Crimean Oblast Council deputy complained about the issue on Facebook, and the latter sent a formal letter to the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office, requesting that the issue be investigated and Putin be fined $15. This isn’t the first time Putin has neglected his safety on a moving vehicle, ignoring seat belts and life jackets. Given that this happened against the backdrop of much bigger issues, like the simultaneous protests in Moscow, and the whole Crimea thing, something tells me Putin will ride out this moto-scandal just fine.

Putin on a motorcycle without a helmet
The motor-cycle of unsafety continues. | Kremlin.ru

3. Help for the elderly is growing in Yekaterinburg. A businessman started selling the food products grown by pensioners on special shelves in his food store, which will help keep them from having to sit outside in the heat and cold, trying to earn some extra money. He has previously used the store, appropriately called Zhiznmart (“Lifemart”), for other good deeds, such as selling expired food products and leftover food to the hungry. 

Pensioner food products in Russia
Producing opportunities for pensioners, one jar of jam at a time! | Ivan Zaichenko / Facebook

 

In Odder News

  • The latest monument to Pushkin will be erected in the capital of Ethiopia, the home of the poet’s great-grandfather. 
  • A man in a town in Vladimir Oblast didn’t just want to go to the bathroom; he wanted the bathroom itself, and proceeded to steal a toilet seat from a cafe. 
  • A whale seems to wave hello to some bears, and a Russian caught it on camera.

Want more where this comes from? Give your inbox the gift of TWERF, our Thursday newsletter on the quirkiest, obscurest, and Russianest of Russian happenings of the week.

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Some of Our Books

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A Taste of Russia

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.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

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Moscow and Muscovites

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. 
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This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

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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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The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.

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This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

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.

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices
May 01, 2013

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

Steppe
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This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

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