February 01, 2018

Fights, Oversight, and Voting Rights


Fights, Oversight, and Voting Rights
Warm Weather Brings Hot Tempers

1. Sometimes the best way to have a serious debate is with good old-fashioned fisticuffs. Two prominent Russian journalists got their brawl on during a live radio show while discussing the question, “Is Stalinism a disease that needs to be treated?” One answered with a vehement no and accused the other of “spitting on” Stalin’s victims, and then the fists started flying. The original discussion topic was inspired by the Ministry of Culture’s recent decision to ban the movie The Death of Stalin from Russian theaters for its disrespectful portrayal of Russians. Clearly, Stalin controversy is just as catching as this year’s flu – not to mention as likely to knock you out.

2. It’s 2018, but getting your rubles is starting to feel a little bit like 1984. The private Russian bank Alfa-Bank announced that it will begin tracking the emotions of its customers through special cameras. These cameras will capture and analyze the emotions of the clients and then give service scores to staff. Big Brother – er, Alfa-Bank – claims this will help customers avoid surveys and phone calls. That part doesn’t sound so bad, but let’s hope they can read an “I’m creeped out” face for folks who didn’t sign up for Candid Camera.

3. When they say everyone has a right to vote, they mean every ONE. The Russian diplomatic mission in Pyongyang, North Korea, will be opening a polling station on March 18 for the one and only permanent Russian resident of North Korea, Vladimir Li, to take part in the presidential election. For his part, Mr. Li will be traveling 100 miles from his city of Wonsan to fulfill his democratic duties. And you thought finding your way to the local elementary school to vote was a chore.

In Odder News
  • Two baby bear cubs were rescued in the Tver region, and they are now in the paws-ession of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. As you might imagine, it's unbearably cute.
     
  • A man fished two pike with multiple horns out of the the River Irtysh. What’s the catch with this catch? Pike aren’t supposed to have horns.
  • Unusually warm temperatures across Russia (so, above freezing) are presenting Russians with a strange weather phenomenon: rain.
Quote of the Week

“Is it possible for God’s temple to be built without permission? This is decided from above.”

—Andrei Khobets, a local government official in St. Petersburg, in response to questions about why a new Orthodox church was being built without all of the proper permits.

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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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. 

At the Circus
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At the Circus

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.

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

Marooned in Moscow
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Marooned in Moscow

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.

Fearful Majesty
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Fearful Majesty

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Little Golden Calf
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Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

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.

Steppe
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Steppe

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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