February 24, 2022

Bass Guitar, Baby Goats, and a Break for Guys


Bass Guitar, Baby Goats, and a Break for Guys
In Odder News

In this week's Odder News: planting forests as a present, a light thief, and a head-banger's fantasy.

  • One lucky go-getter's dreams came true at an Aria concert in the Moscow Oblast. The heavy metal band noticed his sign in the crowd which read, "I want to play Rose Street [one of Aria's songs] on the bass!" To the boy's shock, he was invited onto the stage to do just that! If you haven't heard of Aria, perhaps you need a refresher on Russian rock.
  • February 23 is Defender of the Fatherland Day, a holiday in Russia on which people celebrate the men in their lives. However, according to a new survey, nearly half of all Russians questioned consider the holiday to be only for military personnel. This doesn't stop the majority of Russians from taking the day off work, however.
  • On the other hand, if you're one of the people that do celebrate the gendered holiday, you will need a gift to give to the men in your life. Luckily, project Plant a Forest has you covered. They are running a promotion called "Trees Instead of Socks," whereby you can pay to have a tree planted in areas affected by fires and natural disasters around Russia.
  • Some people will steal whatever isn't bolted down, but even that doesn't stop everybody. One ambitious thief was caught on film carrying an entire light post home in the Moscow Oblast. Although it remains a mystery how or why the man would steal such a heavy object, we can only hope that he puts it to good use.
  • Don't worry, we didn't forget to add a bit about animals! Several baby goats have been saved from a garbage can in Chelyabinsk Oblast by children that heard their squeaks and called for help. But who would put such cute and useful animals there in the first place? A mystery, much like our light-pole-stealing friend.

You Might Also Like

Buy a Goat
  • May 01, 2020

Buy a Goat

It mows and fertilizes. What could possibly go wrong?
Gender Equality in Gift Giving
  • February 24, 2021

Gender Equality in Gift Giving

Russian women seem to luck out more than their male partners during the spring holiday season, a new study shows. 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

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. 
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.
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.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
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...
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.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
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 Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.

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