November 20, 2021

Birchpunk, an Internet Gift


Birchpunk, an Internet Gift
The weird world of birchpunk. Birchpunk website

Cyberpunk + Russia = Birchpunk. It is a brave new world on the internet.

Cyberpunk is a "combination of lowlife and high tech." Indeed. Just watch some of Russian musical group Little Big's videos to see lowlife and high tech – though Little Big is not considered cyberpunk.

The Birchpunk YouTube channel, in contrast, combines lowlife, high tech, and big ethical questions about exactly what all that high tech will bring us. In the video Russian Cyberfarm, the farmer shows us around the dystopian kiberderevnya in heavily-accented English. Life is lived online on the farm – even if all you have is dial-up internet.

"Heart" asks whether technological progress is good for us humans while using that very technology to get attention. The song has choruses in Russian and verses in English, which is fun. It considers the breakdown of infrastructure-poor village Retrozavodsk – where Grandma has to walk herself to the hospital on foot – while QR codes cover the landscape. The QR code is, by the end of the video, almost the only art left. How timely since every Russian city either has had, has, or will soon have a QR code regime to make this pandemic go away.

In "Heart," Birchpunk sings, in English, these provocative lines: "I know the progress will never end / I know bodies will turn to sand," "For robot, there is no good and bad," and "I know soldiers would need no head / But until we're dead, the best thing we have is what I call it: serdtse (heart)."

Birchpunk also has a news report parody of Russia Today called Russia Tomorrow.

The project combines hip hop and traditional village folk singing – but with groups of village women singing about themes like androids and robots.

As dystopian as Birchpunk is, it is not as downright bizarre as Little Big or as frightening as some other cyberpunk projections of what the future holds. Plus, it is somehow extremely pleasant to listen to a skilled blend of rap in purposely bad English and Russian. But it does show how disturbing it is to have high-speed internet in your village but no clean drinking water.

You Might Also Like

Pay with your Face
  • December 13, 2020

Pay with your Face

The Moscow Metro plans to allow passengers to pay with Face ID.
Ready the Space Force!
  • April 11, 2020

Ready the Space Force!

The US President's decree on lunar resource extraction has the Russian space community crying foul.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

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.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
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.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
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.
How Russia Got That Way

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.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
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.

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