June 10, 2020

Museum's Modern Masks


Museum's Modern Masks
Wearing masks has become part of daily life. Image by Snowmanradio via Wikimedia Commons

It seems that wearing masks has become a part of daily life in the current pandemic. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that masks are in high demand, and so suppliers are becoming more creative in their offerings. Take the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Despite being closed to the public, this cultural site is jumping on the mask bandwagon and has begun selling masks in its online store.

Among the famous artworks depicted on the masks are Claude Monet's Water Lilies, Edgar Degas’ Dancers at Rehearsals, Paul Gauguin’s Are you Jealous? and Michelangelo’s David. The masks also have “Maintain Distance” printed on them, available in four languages: Russian, English, Chinese, and Japanese.

According to the museum’s press service, it will open to the public again on July 10. The masks will be available for purchase in the museum’s store at that time, but for now, they can be bought via the museum’s online store. Each mask costs 700 rubles (approximately $10).

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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.
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A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
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Okudzhava Bilingual

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The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

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Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

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Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

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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.

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