June 27, 2019

Duck, Duck, Owl?


Duck, Duck, Owl?
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an owl drone! TV Zvezda

Throwback Thursday

Battle of Poltava, painting
The Battle of Poltava by Denis Martens the Younger (1726). / Wikimedia Commons

You might know what happened at the Battle of Poltava 310 years ago today. (Peter the Great routed the Swedish army in an early showing of Russian military might.) But did you know that Pushkin wrote a poem about it and that there’s a Soviet joke about it? Find out more, right here on Russian Life.


Perched on the Ledge Between Foul and Fowl

1. The new dining alfresco. A man sits at home drinking vodka, with a carpet on the wall behind him. But you’re not watching a Soviet film. You’re watching Arseny “Is He a Pest?” on Instagram. And he’s not at home — he’s on the side of a building. Arseny is a performance artist working on a project exploring how a single square meter of space impacts people’s lives. Notwithstanding the Soviet imagery, the project critiques the capitalist penchant to “buy houses in anthills and burden yourself with mortgages for half your life.” In other words, he’s not sweeping any critiques under the carpet.

Man drinking vodka on square-meter platform on side of building
Did he take a magic carpet ride up there? / vreditel_li

2. Giving a duck about ducks. While driving down a Petersburg highway, a driver witnessed a car crash. This was distressing, but the reason they crashed was even worse: A family of ducks was trying to cross the highway. The driver left the car and hurriedly escorted the ducks to the side of the road. However, the baby ducklings couldn’t jump over the curb, and they cried until the mother duck came back to street level. Fortunately, several passerby noticed their plight and lifted the ducklings to safety. They really ducked a catastrophe on this one!


The heroic rescue. / Sergey Karasyov

3. Three hoots for high tech! The latest Russian military drone looks like an owl. Unlike most owls, it looks like it’s permanently screaming, but don’t be fooled: it’s designed to be able to approach up close without being recognized. The drone primarily detects targets using a laser and satellite navigation, so if it flew at night, you could say it’d be a real night owl. And for those who are fans of (f)owl-inspired tech, the military plans to create a falcon-shaped drone that plays the cry of a falcon. Let’s just hope these drones don’t engage in fowl play…

Blog Spotlight

Do you like museums? Do you like tech? Discover some of the best Russian museums that incorporate multimedia technology.

In Odder News

5000-ruble notes
A million, million, million scarlet rubles… / Pixabay

Quote of the Week

“IS IT SERIOUSLY THAT HARD FOR YOU TO USE THE RIGHT FILTERS FOR SWEAR WORDS IN MEDIA????? WOULD IT KILL YOU TO DO THAT????? IS IT THE END OF THE WORLD????? NO, B****, NO!!! SO THEN WHY, @, DON’T YOU USE THE RIGHT FILTER?????!!!! OUR EYES ARE ROLLING, YEAH GO F*** YOURSELF!!!”

— The official Roskomnadzor Twitter account, demonstrating how to correctly self-censor profanities when rage-tweeting

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.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Survival Russian

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.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

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.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

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.
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. 
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

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.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955