August 24, 2017

Rap battles, Moscow's move, and mixing dating and politics


Rap battles, Moscow's move, and mixing dating and politics
A Match Made In...The Voting Booth?

1. Flowers, dinner, a movie, and the democratic process – now that’s romance. In a bid to boost turnout for September’s gubernatorial elections, the dating site Mamba has launched a special version of the app called “Together at the Elections.” Mamba is Russia’s most popular dating site, and the Kremlin is said to have enlisted it specifically to encourage voter turnout this fall – and if it’s successful, possibly for next year’s presidential elections, too. You know what they say: from the ballot box straight to the altar.

2. Moscow’s had its day in the sun. And now, go east, young folks, go east! That’s the idea of politician Yuri Krupnov, who has proposed relocating Russia’s capital to the other side of the Urals. The goal is to make the capital more accessible, help the government maintain sovereignty over distant regions, and halt “hypercentralization,” which has led to a fifth of the Russian population dwelling in Moscow. Still, the likelihood of the move is slim, with most officials either ridiculing the proposal or suggesting economic reform rather than redrawing the map.

3. Next time you join (or re-post) a rap battle, make sure it’s rated PG. The state supervisory service Roskomnadzor fined six media networks and warned 26 more for posting a video of a rap battle that included obscene language. The rappers involved in the battle were Oxxxymiron and Gnoynoy, whose performance gathered 7 million hits within hours after being posted. Here’s a bit about the history of rap battles and why they’re appealing to Russian youth culture.

In Odder News

  • 320 years ago, Peter the Great set off for Europe. He brought back potatoes, sunflowers, the modern calendar, and a burning hatred of beards.
  • Show your melons: the city of Kamyshin is hosting a watermelon festival to feature a costume parade, carving contest, and performances.
Quote of the Week

"With all due respect to Yuri Vasilievich, there’s no point in wasting time debating fake ideas...We could debate the question ‘is there life on Mars’ with the same degree of success.”
—Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin responding to Yuri Krupnov’s “de-Moscowization” proposal. He also compared the idea to Soviet-era deportations. In other words, the move is a no-go.

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

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.
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.
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.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

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

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
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.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Marooned in Moscow

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.

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