April 15, 2024

From the Club to Ukraine?


From the Club to Ukraine?
People dancing at a party under purple lights. Vyacheslav Argenberg, Wikimedia Commons.

Russian nightlife – from hookah lounges to karaoke venues to bars and clubs – made headlines on April 12 after a deputy in the State Council proposed mobilizing those who attend clubs on Fridays to the frontline in Ukraine.

State Council member Eduard Sharafiev, who represents Tatarstan, declared himself a party pooper after announcing on his Telegram account, "I proposed a one-day mobilization! It must be done across the country on Fridays in all nightclubs." Sharafiev added that those with medical exemptions found inside a club should also be drafted, because "their health status allows them to visit a club" — the logic being that, if you can dance, you can fight.

Rumors are swirling around a possible mass draft. In late March, reports emerged that the Kremlin was planning to call up 300,000 reservists after the elections were over. Pro-government blogger Vladimir Romanov posted on Telegram that more people would be mobilized in May, but government authorities quickly denied his claims.

Sharafiev decided to call for this unusual draft method to address Russia's mobilization crisis. According to the Tatarstan State Council member, commanders in the army are holding back from mass enlistments due to labor shortages in certain sectors of the economy.

In his post, Sharafiev recognized that his proposal was unlikely to be accepted. However, the deputy added, "On the other hand, why not? After all, those people jumping around at the nightclubs are pretending nothing is happening. So, we will open their eyes to what is happening!"

Sharafiev traveled to the frontline in Ukraine in the fall of 2022 and April 2023. His visits inspired him to propose sending dance groups and artists to combat zones. The deputy has also justified his absences from the State Council's meetings as "military missions." 7x7 Gorizontalnaya Rossiya points out that politicians often go to Ukraine to strengthen their political positions, wait out a scandal, or avoid prison.

You Might Also Like

Migrant Flow Slows to Trickle
  • February 25, 2024

Migrant Flow Slows to Trickle

Immigration into Russia from Central Asian countries has slowed since the start of Russia's War on Ukraine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
White Magic

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.
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. 
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.
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.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
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.
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.
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