February 09, 2017

Buddha in a blizzard, tsar in the tropics


Buddha in a blizzard, tsar in the tropics

Cold, Snowy Nature vs. Cold Hard Cash

1. Buddhists dwelling at a mountaintop monastery in the Urals are defending their snowy sanctuary from Evraz, a mining company owned by oligarch Roman Abramovich. Residents of the Mount Kachkanar monastery have ignored requests to move, and authorities are scheduled to raze the area on March 1, 2017. Some locals think the mining company will boost the region’s economy, while others don’t love the idea of scrapping a Buddha statue in the name of cash.

rferl.org

2. What’s weirder: reinstating the Romanov dynasty after 100 years, or doing it on a tiny, sinking island in the Pacific? No need to choose, because Russian millionaire Anton Bakov is hoping to revive the empire on three of Kiribati’s uninhabited islands. His goal: an alternative, monarchist Russia that doubles as tourist spot and boosts Kiribati’s economy by millions. One Pacific development specialist called the proposal “very strange” and “scary,” but hey – if you’re reviving a monarchy, why not do it in the sun?

3. For Orthodox Christians who are feeling down, exorcisms are available in Stanovoi Kolodez, a village 300 km south of Moscow. The exorcist is Vladimir Gusev, formerly lead singer of a rock band, also titled The Exorcist. Since then, Gusev founded a rehab center for people suffering from addiction, occult practices, and other impurities, and he welcomes pilgrims who come to have their demons purged. And he delivers: satisfied exorcism customers report massive life improvement, from selling houses to weight loss to finally shaking their ancestral demons.

In Odder News

  • It’s almost Valentine’s Day. That may not be as Hallmark-y in Russia as it is in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean people don’t go out of their way with creative displays of affection.
englishrussia.com
  • Queen Elizabeth II’s reign spans 65 years and 11 Russian rulers. Here are the photos to prove it.
  • It’s official: Russians were 1% happier in 2016 than 2015. That may not sound like much, but the statistics get more joyous from there.

Quote of the Week 

"There's a peace here that I just never find in normal life."
—Yulia Gasheva, a resident at the monastery in the Ural Mountains, on the importance of the Buddhist sanctuary on the mountaintop.

Blog Spotlight

A new media project titled “1917: Free History” has letters, newspapers, and other historical records to let readers track the days leading up to the 1917 Revolution exactly 100 years after it took place. Interested in a historical figure? The social media format lets you make friends and comment on their timelines. The site is in Russian, but it’s worth checking out.

project1917.ru

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Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

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Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

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Okudzhava Bilingual

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Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
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The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
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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 gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

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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.

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A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

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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.

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