March 15, 2018

Cats, Cars, and Non-existent Countries


Cats, Cars, and Non-existent Countries
A Purr-fect Prophet, a Flashing Flashmob, and an Imaginary Island

1.  Picking brackets just got a whole lot easier, at least when it comes to this summer’s World Cup. The Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg has chosen Achilles, a deaf snow white cat, as its Official Oracle of the World Cup. Achilles, a veteran seer, will choose between two bowls of food, each with the flag of a competing country on it. A paws-itive response from Achilles is sure to guarantee the favored team a win, leading to the question: how is the museum (not to mention FIFA) ensuring that Achilles won’t be bought off?

Photo: The State Hermitage Museum

2. Putin is a middle-of-the road candidate. At least, he was for a night. Over 250 drivers gathered in the city of Khabarovsk to create a portrait of Putin with their cars. They only had enough for half of his face, but still, the result is impressive. The organizers were quick to note that this in-car-nation of Putin had nothing to do with the upcoming election (which, by the way, is Sunday). In other words, don’t take this as their hint for Putin to hit the road.

Photo: Типичный Хабаровск

3. What’s the problem with passports from the Kingdom of the Free Island of Aspi, a small Pacific nation? Well, said small Pacific nation doesn’t exist. That didn’t stop four Russians in St. Petersburg from selling Aspi passports and driver’s licenses to undocumented foreign workers for 15,000 to 100,000 rubles (about $260 to $1,750). They’ve been doing this for three years, even winning a court case when the court could not prove the Kingdom of Aspi didn’t exist. The four were recently arrested, and it’s likely that any hopes of deportation to their “home” country are just aspi-rational thinking.

In Odder News: 
  • A Russian psychic on the run was just arrested (and in possession of “magic salt”). Why didn’t he see this coming?

  • St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t offer enough green for snow-covered Moscow: they need a whole Irish Week.

  • Two men rigged up a fake currency exchange booth and stole one million rubles from an unsuspecting victim: talk about a cents-less crime.

Quote of the Week:

“His character traits include a tendency to choose, to analyze… suggesting that he can foretell anything.” 

—Maria Khaltunen, assistant to the General Director of the State Hermitage, explaining why Achilles the Cat makes a good oracle.

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.

You Might Also Like

Hermitage Cats
  • March 09, 2006

Hermitage Cats

A look at the cats that guard one of the world's great museums.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
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.
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.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Survival Russian

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.
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.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
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. 
The Moscow Eccentric

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.

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