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

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...
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.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
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.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
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.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
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.
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.
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.

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