January 26, 2017

Bacon, comics, and fairy tales on ice


Bacon, comics, and fairy tales on ice

Like Pigs to the Water

1. Over 100 pigs narrowly avoided becoming bacon when firefighters saved them from a burning barn. In a perverse distortion of the story of three little pigs, the building that caught fire was made of brick, and although a wolf couldn’t huff and puff it down, fire could. But most of the pigs still lived happily ever after, carried out in groups by grinning firefighters. Safe from being cooked, the pigs were moved to a nearby sty, and the firefighters hailed as heroes who saved the bacon.

thesun.co.uk

2. A controversial brochure uses fairy tale figures to help immigrants adapt to life in Russia. Cartoons of snow maidens, knights reborn as police officers, and folk heroine Vasilisa Premudraya offer advice on “rules of conduct in Moscow.” The 100-page brochure is causing a stir not just because of its portrayal of migrants, who look notably different from the ethnic Russians depicted as folk heroes, but also because it cost 7.3 million rubles ($122,957) to make. For such an expensive comic book, you’d think Batman would at least make a cameo.

3. What better way to have an epiphany than jumping into a freezing lake? Ice swimming – often in a cross-shaped hole – is how thousands of Russian Orthodox believers celebrate the Epiphany on January 20. Immersed in the festivities, President Vladimir Putin had to sit out (or swim out) that day’s inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the decision was based on the holiday, rather than politics – though he reiterated that U.S.-Russian relations have a long way to go. If they’re playing hard to get, they should invite the new administration for a dip in a frozen lake.

In Odder News

  • Watch for squirrels. Watch for walruses. Watch for Pikachu? Here’s a sampling of Russia’s strangest traffic signs.
rbth.com
  • Krasnoyarsk has its own Harry Potter. He may be a Daniel Radcliffe lookalike, but he’s doubly asking for it with his choice of spectacles.
themoscowtimes.com
  • What did a Soviet-era zombie look like? This.
calvertjournal.com

Quote of the Week

"Foreign citizens come to Moscow, and we believe they are also fantastic heroes, and they are welcomed by fantastic heroes from Russia."
—Alexander Kalinin, director of Support for Moscow's Working Migrants, on the new brochure with colorful, folktale-inspired cartoons designed to help migrants integrate into Russian culture.

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

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

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.
A Taste of Chekhov

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.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
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.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

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.
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.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

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.
Survival Russian

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.
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.

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