April 25, 2019

17% of the Earth Day


17% of the Earth Day
Playing limbo without limbs works pretty well. teamrussiamascots / Instagram

Dodging sanctions, Saturday work, and penalties for picking up moss

1. How do you prevent your Olympic team from kneeling before its competitors and the problems that have plagued it in recent years? Well, your mascot can’t kneel if it doesn’t have knees, said Artemy Lebedev’s studio, which designed Team Russia’s 2020 Summer Olympics mascots: a knee-less bear and a two-legged [grumpy] cat, representing some of Russia’s most iconic wild animals. The team isn’t dodging tough issues like doping, scandals and sanctions. In fact, the studio released an official video of the mascot bear actually, roly-poly style, dodging doping, scandals, and sanctions. Over the next few weeks Russians will vote on the mascots’ names. Please, Russia, anything but Misha. 

2. From serfs to Stalin to subotniki – work on Saturdays – Russia has a history of forced labor that may finally come to an end. Springtime means it’s time to get outside and take care of the city and parks, such as fulfilling that unique Eastern European tradition of whitewashing trees (or not anymore). However, a lawyer argued that the common practice of municipal administrations requiring their employees to perform “volunteer” work around the city is illegal, and the head of the Duma Labor and Social Politics Committee agreed. Of course, he added, employers are encouraged to invite participation in subotniki, where one can chat with colleagues while enjoying the fresh air and doing something good, such as helping to plant millions of trees.

3. “Friends, very soon we will make most important changes in Oblast law,” said a deputy of Sverdloskaya Oblast. “Now we have access to moss, forest floor, reeds, and grasses.” The recently accepted law allows people to gather these woodland raw materials. This summer, be on the lookout for babushki in elektrichka suburban trains with buckets full not only of berries and mushrooms, but also… reeds. Which are apparently also edible. According to an opinion piece in Novaya Gazeta, it’s a concerted effort by ruling party United Russia to make easy, small concessions: share the reeds, not the oil. Whether or not you want to reed that much into it, to someone, probably, it is actually “mosst important.” 

In odder news

  • In Chelyabinsk a woman yelled after someone stealing her bike. A person in a cat costume interpreted this as a cat-call for help and caught the thief red-pawed.
cat catches bike theif
Komsomolskaya Pravda / Vkontakte
  • A St. Petersburg artist reacted to the fire at Notre Dame with street art he called a fresco. 
Fire notre dame russian art
Oleg Lukyanov / Vkontakte 
  • A giant diamond of almost 119 karats was mined in Yakutia. It sure rocks for Alrosa, the company that found it. 

Quote of the week

"Barvikha-Barvikha-hoo Barvikha-Barvikha-hoo Barvikha-Barvikha-hoo Krasnogorodskoye boulevard!”

– Lyrics of a rap song by candidates for the Council of Deputies of the Moscow region, inviting residents of towns such as Barvikha to vote. 
 
Russian rap voting invitation
oinfo / Instagram

 

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Life Stories
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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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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

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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. 

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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.

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.

The Moscow Eccentric
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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.

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.

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How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

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