September 08, 2016

Nomads, salad stampedes, and serious swamp business


Nomads, salad stampedes, and serious swamp business

Life is a like an enormous Greek salad

1. What’s left to root for now that the Olympics are over? The new Olympics: ancient nomadic sports, including a version of polo that involves scoring goals with a decapitated goat corpse. The Nomadic Games serve as a reminder of history and traditional culture, and this year’s events in Kyrgyzstan featured Steven Seagal in the opening ceremony, about 1000 athletes from 53 countries, and an extra-large Russian team in honor of the extra-large country – including the winners of the dead goat competition.

2. The latest Russian feat to make the Guinness Book of World Records: a 20.1-ton Greek salad on Red Square. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and pre-cubed cheese were mixed in a giant dump truck in a mid-tipping state. Some newspapers reported that spectators stampeded for salad and devoured the massive creation within minutes. The jury’s still out on whether the mix was a way to get healthy foods to folks facing sanctions or just a Guinness-worthy stunt.

tjournal.ru

3. With the first day back to school last week, citizens of Beslan in North Ossetia commemorated the 2004 hostage crisis, when armed Islamic militants took 1200 people hostage in a school. In a ceremony remembering the siege’s victims, five women in t-shirts with the words “Putin is the executioner of Beslan” were detained. Charged for violating a law against unauthorized protests, the women face fines and up to 15 days in custody.

In Wetter News

  • If you went to the Olympics from Chechnya, a gold medal isn’t enough. The president will also give you a Mercedes SUV.
  • A schoolkid known as the “swamp manager” for his unusual office space has won a trip to Kyrgyzstan, proving again how finding your social media niche can pay off.
kloop.kg
  • When a river turns red in northern Russia, do you blame biblical wrath, filming for Game of Thrones, or the nearby nickel factory?
theguardian.com

Quote of the Week

“It was the U.S.’s first time actually playing using the goat carcass, so the Russian team showed them how to pick it up and put it in the goal [...] It wasn’t just about winning the game, but about sharing the beauty of kok-boru and of nomadic culture.”
—Colleen Wood, an American Peace Corps volunteer, on the emphasis on sportsmanship and building cultural connections to be found in the Nomadic Games.

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

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

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.
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.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
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.
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 Golden Calf

The 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.
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.
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. 
The Moscow Eccentric

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.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part 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