January 08, 2021

Death of a Snowman


Death of a Snowman
Kids, look away! NikaTV

Kaluga's first act of vandalism in 2021 is both impressive and depressing: the destruction of dozens of snowmen.

A massive New Year's event this week involved local participants building over two hundred snowmen in a town square, complete with carrot noses, stick arms, and bucket hats. Afterwards, the works were left for people to enjoy and take photos with snowy friends in the winter wonderland.

However, residents awoke the next day to find the snowmen in gruesome, chunky pieces, with noses, eyes, and hats strewn around the square, destroyed by vandals.

One newspaper even has declared the crime a "pogrom".

If it's any consolation, the snowmen only had a few months left anyway.

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Steppe
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Steppe

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

Faith & Humor
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Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

Survival Russian
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Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
November 01, 2012

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.

A Taste of Chekhov
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A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

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