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

The Best of Russian Life

The Best of Russian Life

We culled through 15 years of Russian Life to select readers’ and editors’ favorite stories and biographies for inclusion in a special two-volume collection. Totalling over 1100 pages, these two volumes encompass some of the best writing we have published over the last two decades, and include the most timeless stories and biographies – those that can be read again and again.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
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.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
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.
Russia Rules

Russia Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

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
PO Box 567
Montpelier VT 05601-0567

802-223-4955