April 02, 2023

Blame it On Adam


Blame it On Adam
The Flood of Noah and The Companions (Le déluge de Noe et les compagnons, c. 1911) Léon Comerre (Musée d'Arts de Nantes)

Alexander Kudryavtsev, director of the Russian Academy of Science's Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences said, while referring to a certain “graph from the Internet,” that people used to live for 900 years, but then life expectancy fell, due to “original sin.”

Kudryavtsev made his presentation in the middle of March, at the plenary session of the Third International Scientific and Theological Conference, "God - Man - World."

According to Kudryavtsev, human life expectancies only began to fall after the Biblical Flood. Further, the "scientist" and head of Russia's Institute of Genetics asserted that genetic mutations that cause human diseases originate from "original sin" – be it ancestral sin, original sin, or one's own personal sin, and that children carry the sins of their fathers down through seven generations.

Kudryavtsev also made comments about Russia's War on Ukraine, saying that the world wants to take control of Russia's resources, and thus the country must defend itself "militarily."

The presentation was reported in Komsomolskaya Pravda, and the article's author, Yevgeny Chernykh, went to great lengths to bolster Kudryavtsev's claims by explaining why "the first people lived so long." Chernykh reported that "the country's leading gerontologist," an academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences who is unnamed, allegedly stated that, in the Bible, "a month was considered a year," and that this is a "scientifically proven fact."

Another anonymous "respected gerontologist, geneticist, doctor of science" allegedly told Chernykh that the Bible had been translated into different languages and that there had been a "translation error." The original used the expression "lunar month," and the ancient translator used the word "year" instead. And thus, if one does the math, 900 months = 75 years. With this, Chernykh summarized that "the devil deceived the ancient translator" and that "it is possible to calmly close this journalistic investigation."

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

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.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

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. 

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

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.

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

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 Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

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.

 
White Magic
June 01, 2021

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.

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

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.

Jews in Service to the Tsar
October 09, 2011

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.

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, 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