June 02, 2016

Elton John Crocodile Rocks the Kremlin


Elton John Crocodile Rocks the Kremlin

Performances of the Week

1. Okay, he didn’t grace the Kremlin proper. But when President Putin’s long-awaited chat with Sir Elton John about LGBT rights was Sacrificed to the presidential schedule, it was still big news. After the singer got a prank call claiming to be Putin last year, the real president gave him a ring and promised a chat between Rocket Men. The Kremlin couldn’t squeeze him in this time, but don’t start singing Don’t Go Breaking My Heart just yet: Putin promises a rain check next time The Elton is Back.

2. The Eurovision Song Contest may be ancient history (well, two weeks back), but it lives on in hearts across Russia. Especially at a high school in Surgut, where students staged a lower-budget, but otherwise identical version of Sergei Lazarev’s pyrotechnically powerful performance. Was it an attempt to wow city officials visiting the school for a day, or a bid to be Russia’s pick for next year’s contest?

meduza.io

3. St. Petersburg’s Toponymy Commission has voted to dub an unnamed bridge the Kadyrov Crossing in honor of Chechnya’s former leader (that’s the current leader’s daddy). Some protests have popped up: first, because Kadyrov had no notable relationship with St. Petersburg’s history. Second, because of the Kadyrov clan’s “notorious” reputation. And third, because Commission members were allegedly pressured into the vote. But eventually it’ll all be water under the bridge.

RosKultLit
Russian Cultural Literacy

Elton John’s agenda to talk with the Russian president himself may sound like a tall order for a Tiny Dancer. But Sir Elton’s Russian roots go back to 1979, when he became the first Western rock star to perform in the Soviet Union. That’s why Elton John has a long, beloved legacy in Russia – whether or not he gets a meeting with the president out of the deal.

In Odder News 

  • A vegan’s worst nightmare: a crowd bearing bacon. A meat attack in Tbilisi targeted vegan cafe-goers, and possibly a broader counterculture, too.
  • What could be a better concert venue than a Ukrainian iron and steelworks factory? Especially if the hit number is the Game of Thrones theme song.
  • Yet another racist marketing campaign featuring Obama. This time a Kazan car wash promises to “wash out all the black.” Yikes.

Quote of the Week

“It is more poetic and less dangerous”

—Cecilia Hendrikx, a creator of a new app featuring photos of rainbows (a symbol commonly associated with LGBT identity), on making political commentary without going to extreme measures like nailing body parts to the ground. Incidentally, performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky (famous for nailing his body parts to the ground as political commentary) has been nominated for the Russian Security Service (FSB) Prize for Literature and the Arts. This time, the “artwork” was setting the door of the FSB on fire. 

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. 

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

Some of Our Books

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
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.
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...

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