August 29, 2019

Summer Fun for All Faiths and All Ages


Summer Fun for All Faiths and All Ages
You could lose your marbles trying to imagine how much marble it took to build the biggest mosque in Europe. The official site of the Head of the Chechen Republic

Quote of the Week

“Pobeda [a Russian airline], company of sadists, be cursed!”

– A priest from Yekaterinburg allegedly cursed an airline that refused to let a crying woman get on a flight in order to travel to a funeral, because of baggage issues. She didn’t take off, but the story did. 

 

Happy birthday, Akhmad Kadyrov and 6-year-old Artyom! 

1. Who says that Russia is only known for onion-domed churches? On August 23, the largest mosque in Europe was officially opened for worship in Shali, Chechnya. The massive mosque can fit 30,000 people inside – three times as much as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow – and 100,000 people on its overall territory, which is more than double the total population of Shali. The date of the ceremony coincided with the birthday of Chechnya’s first president, Akhmad Kadyrov (current president Ramzam Kadyrov’s father), who played a significant role in bringing peace to Chechnya. While some wanted to name the mosque in honor of Kadyrov Junior, the final decision was to look at the bigger picture for Europe’s biggest mosque, and name it after the Prophet Muhammed. Peace be upon him, and peace be in Chechnya. 

2. Erdogan screams, Putin screams, all of Russia screams for ice cream. At the annual International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) in Moscow President Putin bought ice cream for his guest, Turkish President Erdogan. He used a 5000-ruble note (about $75) and asked that the change be put toward Russian aviation development. He quickly changed his mind, though, and decided to buy ice cream for the whole delegation instead. His choice for Erdogan was a bit vanilla – literally vanilla – but Putin, never one to be boring, bought himself both chocolate and cream-flavored ice creams. (It sounds less redundant in Russian.) Putin bought the same ice cream at the same conference two years ago, when it was a whopping 15 cents cheaper, a fact that made headlines for some reason. 

Putin buying Erdogan ice cream
Certainly can’t accuse Putin giving the Turkish president a cold welcome. / Dmitry Smirnov | Twitter

3. Artyom, a five-year-old, reported that one of his toy cars had been stolen by another boy. And he reported it to the regional head of the police. The authorities didn’t play around. They took immediate action to settle the conflict between the children. Then, when Artyom turned six this past week, the local police chief came to his house to wish him a happy birthday from the regional head, gift him a new toy car, and give him a ride in a real police car. No wonder Artyom now says he wants to become a police officer when he grows up.

Russian police officer gifts a child a toy car
Never too young to start on the road to good citizenship. / Official site of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Primorsky Krai

 

In Odder News

  • The Ministry of Labor proposed national expansion of a program developed in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug to fight loneliness among the elderly. The program: paying families to host the elderly.  
  • Volunteering is now officially considered a qualification for work in Russia, so you can both do good and get a good job. 
  • A memorial to Yuri Gagarin, first man in space, appeared in… Cleveland
Reveal of Gagarin statue in Cleveland
People are gaga for Gagarin all over the world! / Embassy of Russia in the USA | Facebook

 

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Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

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Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
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.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

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The Latchkey Murders

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Woe From Wit (bilingual)

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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.
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Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

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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.

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