July 18, 2019

The Illegal and the Unbelievable


The Illegal and the Unbelievable
This girl isn’t sitting at home playing (para)Chutes and Ladders. Personal archive of Chernikh family | Komsomolskaya Pravda

Still-developing child brains, dead brains, missing brains.

1. Dead Souls has come to life. The plot of this classic novel by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842, in which the dead are used to inflate the value of a landowner’s estate, became an actual news story on July 15. Four candidates in the Moscow City Duma elections allegedly included the signatures of dead people in their petitions for inclusion on the ballot. The candidates involved think this is all a grave mistake and will dispute the decision to exclude them from the election. 

2. Here’s a story that will blow your mind. Sixty years ago, a man was born without half his brain. Oblivious to this fact, he grew up, had kids, worked as an engineer, and retired. Only after going to a hospital in the Moscow region, because of a transient ischemic attack in the left side of his brain, did doctors realize that… there was no left side of his brain. He refused to participate in additional studies, saying that he didn’t want the “glory.” Doctors eager to study this unique phenomenon surely would like to give him a piece of their mind. (Except he actually doesn’t need any more pieces of mind; the right side is doing just fine on its own.) 

Brain scan with half of brain missing
It is almost unthinkable that a man could think with this. / Marina Anikina, Federal Center of Extrapyramidal Illnesses and Psychiatric Health FMBTs | Gazeta.ru

3. Russian children from Yekaterinburg are going places, by trolleybus and parachute. A seven-year-old boy who thinks hard work is the ticket to success has decided to spend his holidays selling tickets on trolleybuses. The regional children’s rights spokesman is conflicted, because he says such underage labor is illegal, yet he also wants to support the kid’s initiative. Meanwhile, a 10-year-old girl became the youngest parachutist in Russia. The young sportswoman has also already won awards in tennis, running, and weightlifting competitions. Next up is climbing Mount Elbrus

Kid conductor counting change in Russia
Earning pocket change by counting change. / Anton Derbenyov | Facebook

 

In odder news

  • Modern Robin Hoods from Tyumen stole 140 bars of chocolate and distributed at least some of them to random people on the street. 
  • A woman from Moscow made a fake call to the police about a bomb in a train station, because she wanted to be arrested and go back “home” to jail. 
  • Guess which of these phenomena is natural: a bright blue lake in Siberia, or an orange sea in the Far East? 
Bright blue chemical lake Siberia
The news that this lake has turned poisonous from chemicals doesn’t seem to be making these visitors as blue as it should. / @Maldives_nsk | Instagram
Orange water in Vladivostok
No, it’s not spilled orange juice, it’s algae. / @vdk_news24 | Instagram 

 

Quote of the week

“I want to talk to mom so bad… Mom looks at me and listens, but doesn’t say anything.” 

– A 10-year-old boy who will have his first ever conversation with his mother, who was completely paralyzed in a fire ten years ago and will now get to communicate thanks to the neurochat system.


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

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
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...
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.
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.
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.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

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

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