August 08, 2019

Missing Lakes, Concert Mistakes, and Séances with Darwin


Missing Lakes, Concert Mistakes, and Séances with Darwin
A reservoir of photo ops. smoke316 via Instagram

Quote of the Week

“The [Moscow] police’s actions, I think, have been pretty lenient…”

— An opponent of the Moscow protests, moments before his arrest

Free Food for Moscow, Free Advice for Darwin

1. Welcome to Dead Sea, St. Petersburg. Normally, Lazurnoye Lake is right what it says on the tin: an azure lake. However, this summer the lake has evaporated, and along with it some Petersburgers’ hopes for a picturesque weekend getaway. Still, one man’s missing lake is another man’s sea of opportunities. Instagrammers are flocking to the former lake, posing with clever captions like “At the bottom of the lake.” And plenty of visitors come to admire the sky, which, unlike the nonexistent lake, is still very much azure.

The priest who got Darwin to repent (allegedly)
On the origins of bad jokes. / Telekanal “SPAS”

2. Charles Darwin repents! While in London, a Russian priest visited Darwin’s grave. He asked Darwin’s tombstone if he still believed in evolution. To the priest’s shock, Darwin replied: “Father, do not be tempted by my theory… I put forward this hypothesis, which I now repent.” If this were true, Darwin would have joined the ranks of those spiritually reborn after talking to Russian priests. But as it happens, this is not true. The priest drew raised eyebrows and eventually had to clarify that he was joking. Can jokes win Darwin Awards?

Shashlyk Live promo pic
Shashlyki and rock: the new bread and circuses? / Medialeaks

3. Where there’s (barbeque) smoke… August 3 and 4 saw the “Shashlyk Live” rock festival in Moscow’s Gorky Park. Attendees heard legendary rockstars for free, while local restaurants served up a whopping 12,500 portions of shashlyki. But despite the meat, there was something fishy about it all. None of the headliners knew they were invited. The city claimed afterwards it had more attendees than Coachella. Most importantly, “Shashlik Live” was announced just two days before a planned protest, eliciting suspicion it was grilled up to lure away potential protestors. As they say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.


In Odder News

  • A dedicated fisherman caught a 4-foot-long pike (that’s 130 cm for you non-Americans) in the Ob River. This 30-pound (13.5 kilo) fish isn’t fishing for compliments.
Big pike fish
We like pike. / Dmitri Giss
  • The saddest cat in Moscow needs a home! He sure has a home in our hearts.
Filya, the saddest cat in Moscow
Mood after a long day at work. / zverikivdar
  • Tank man, meet Olga. Meduza profiles the 17-year-old girl who made headlines reading the Russian constitution to riot police in Moscow. (Headline credits to David Edwards.)
Olga Misik
Olga Misik in the now-iconic photo. / Alexei Abanin

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Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
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.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

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.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
White Magic

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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.
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. 
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

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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.

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