September 12, 2019

Homecoming to Mother Russia


Homecoming to Mother Russia
No Russian "welcome home" is complete without (an odd number of) flowers. the Institution Responsible for the Rights of Children | Facebook

Quote of the Week

“It turned out that Ukraine was not prepared to elect a president-father and “tsar” [like in Russia], but rather a president-cute son (or even boyfriend), whom Ukraine is ready to befriend.

– Ksenia Sobchak, journalist and former Russian presidential candidate, expressed her approval of Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s new president, on a recent trip to Kyiv

 

There is no place like home, unless you don’t have the paperwork to live at home.

1. Elections this past week were held all over Russia, and when elections aren’t really all that competitive, you have to get creative to draw voters to the polls. For example, belly dancing with a live peacock. Preferring Russian national symbols – or just having more access to fish in the Far East – authorities in Sakhalin went with 5,000 free caviar sandwiches. And if you want a mix of foreign and domestic policy? Try hockey players, but with Viking hats. As it turns out, turnout was not just affected by local election officials being weird, but also by the least weird, most dull and ordinary thing possible. The current mayor of Sevastopl didn’t vote because his landlord still hadn’t bothered to give him a propiska (housing registration document dating back to the Soviet era), two months after he was sent there by Putin. Turns out that even if Putin’s party can win elections, he can’t force people to fulfill their bureaucratic responsibilities.

Peacock and belly dancer at Russian elections
Alec Luhn | Twitter
Viking hockey players at Russian elections
nskkp | Instagram

2. Russia played a lot of non-so-fun lost and found this week. A 15-year-old boy went mushroom gathering in the taiga, got lost, and ended up eating only mushrooms for thirteen days until he was rescued. The hunt for Russia’s iconic autumn mushrooms also ensnared two babushki, who climbed into a hunter’s treehouse to escape bears overnight. Sometimes nightmares are a little closer to home: police and volunteers searched for 24 hours for a 10-year-old boy, who was eventually found hiding under his own bed. The person that was probably most at a loss for words, though, was the mother whose son returned home six months after she recognized a body that looked like him, cremated and buried him. He was busy being homeless and thinking about the meaning of life. We hope he at least managed to find himself. 
 
3. Four young Russian children were released from Syrian prison. They were born to Russian women imprisoned in Syria for fighting on the side of the rebels. According to the Russian Children’s ombudsman, they didn’t see the sun for a year, and ate food with cockroaches in it; on the plane ride they looked with interest through the windows and ate hungrily. They are currently in the hospital, and while they do not seem to have physical injuries, they have suffered severe psychological trauma. In a few days they will return to their families in Chechnya and Dagestan. It is a bittersweet homecoming, because there are still hundreds of children in Syrian prisons who were born to Russian parents in Syria.

 

In Odder News

Moscow mural of woman and man kissing
Alex Senna | Instagram
  • A Moscow suburb was declared to have some of the best street art in the world. 
  • Many women are excited to start the formerly illegal career of driving Moscow metro trains.
  • The wife of Putin’s press secretary and a woman who runs a giant portion of Russia’s state-owned press, Margarita Simonyan, made the news not for, well, making the news, but rather for nearly getting into a fistfight over… borsch recipes. 

 

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

White Magic

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.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

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.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
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.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
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.
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.
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.
Bears in the Caviar

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.

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