October 11, 2018

Things Look Different Below the Surface


Things Look Different Below the Surface
Freaky Fish, Fake Feminists, and Freed Fishermen

1. One fish, two fish, red fish, what-the-heck-is-that fish?! Roman Fedorstov is a Russian fisherman whose life’s work is finding the weirdest, creepiest, and sometimes cutest fish you’ve ever seen. Roman is a deep-sea fisherman based in Murmansk, an Arctic Circle city. He goes out for months at a time, returning to the internet with photos that elicit all types of emotions, from disgust to fear to love. Whatever emotion it is, we’re taking the bait.

Fish breath

Photo: Роман Федорцов

2. Not just punked but double-punked… Russians outraged by a feminist prank video may just be falling into a trap. Last month, a video of a woman appearing to dump bleach on metro-riding, manspreading men went viral on Russian social media. This, of course, caused outrage beyond compare against “feminists who take things too far.” Well, the video may be fake. A St. Petersburg publication found evidence that the disgruntled men in the video were paid and suggests that the studio that shot it is linked to the Kremlin. In this light, the video may have been created to stir resentment towards feminists, taking he said, she said to the next level.

Fake bleach

Photo: The Verge

3. In the past week, Russian border guards have helped rescue at least six North Korean fishermen stranded in capsized boats during deadly typhoons. The helping hand isn’t limited to aiding North Koreans: officials said that in the past 2 months 540 Chinese, South Korean, and North Korean vessels sought safety in the port of Primorye during dangerous typhoons. However, it’s not all good neighborly generosity, as the acting governor of Primorye stated that the need to rescue North Koreans demonstrated the amount of North Korean poaching in Russian waters.

In Odder News:
  • Fines are temporary, glory is forever. One helicopter pilot flew under a St. Petersburg bridge and is now paying the (minor) price

  • Tough stuff for Russians: Russians rank second in the notorious death-by-selfie

  • Udder destruction: a bus colliding with a cow in Dagestan left 10 people injured (no word on the cow)

Quote of the Week:

“I will be at sea for 2.5 months. Without internet. See you in late autumn. I hope you will like my new photos!”

Roman Fedorstov, as he leaves for a new funky-fish-finding voyage

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

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
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.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
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.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
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. 
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
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.
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.
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.

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