June 10, 2021

Inbreeding Animals, Escaping Arrestees, and Zhiguli Is Back

In this week's Odder News, new old Zhigulis are for sale, animal populations need more diversity, and a music awards ceremony turns into a protest.

The cutest arrestee ever was recorded this week jumping out of a police van. The Saransk man is seen opening the back door while the vehicle is stuck in traffic, making the "shh" gesture to the car behind him, and walking off camera. Unfortunately for the man, two police officers jumped out of the van and grabbed him, shoving him back into the van – probably less gently than they had the first time.
The Berlin Zoo was thrilled to get a bouncing baby polar bear from the Moscow Zoo... until it discovered that the cub's parents were brother and sister. The Moscow Zoo realized the mistake and admitted it to Berlin. The cub, with the very non-Russian name of Hertha, appears to be healthy. But her parents, Tonya and Volodya, have spread their genetic material so far and wide among the zoological community that biologists better keep a keen eye on the paperwork going forward.
It's official: enough time has passed that a Zhiguli is more valuable than a Mercedes for nostalgia purposes. The Soviet car has "moved from the category of junk to the category of vintage car." In the past year, the price of a new Mercedes has risen by twenty-five percent, and for a used one, thirty-one percent. But get this: the Zhiguli (used only!) price has risen by more than thirty-two percent. According to one writer, people over forty buy the cars their dads drove when they were kids, or that their dads wished they could afford, thus fulfilling their fathers' dreams. So, go out and get your dad's Soviet-era car while it still runs! It will apparently announce your arrival with a "graceful retro-style cough." While you are at it, be sure to read the cover story in our May/June issue about Zhiguli mania and racing.
To start off the post-pandemic (kind of) summer resort season, a mutant dolphin showed up near Crimea's shores. As if to welcome the sunbathers from the sea, the dolphin showed off its trident-shaped fluke. This is not the first mutant dolphin found in the region, and biologists suspect inbreeding from lack of local variation to be the cause. Darn, we were hoping it was King Triton!
Russian rapper Morgenshtern protested Muz-TV giving its singer of the year award to Alexander Revva – who sings under the pseudonym Artur Pirozhkov. Morgenshtern leaped up from his wheelchair, which he was apparently using for the first time, to yell, "I protest!" Revva-Pirozhkov put his finger to his head as if indicating Morgenshtern is crazy, and Sergei Lazarev smiled awkwardly while Ksenia Sobchak tried to usher Morgenshtern quickly off the stage. The internet still does not know if the whole wild affair was a prank or not.

Tags: pirozhkov sobchak morgenshtern zhiguli dolphins polar bears saransk

April 01, 2021

The Little Classic That Could

The Fighting Classic Club (Боевая классика) is an informal group of teens who love old Zhigulis. They purchase the aged (often non-functioning) cars for kopeks, restore them, souping them up in their lilliputian garages, and then improvise nighttime races and rallies through city streets, in shopping complex parking lots, or on frozen lakes just outside the city.

December 07, 2020

Soviet Disneyland: Exploring VDNKh

One of our favorite spots in Moscow is a surreal blend of theme park, museum, and Stalinist kitsch.

January 30, 2021

Moskvarium: Making a Splash at VDNKh

One of the newest VDNKh pavilions is Russia's most dramatic oceanarium, embracing captive orcas even as other countries begin to abandon the practice.

May 14, 2021

Beastly Benefits

When the show can no longer go on, animal members of the Russian State Circus will now be given the opportunity to retire in style in Crimea.

May 07, 2021

Happy Birthday to Russia's Quirkiest Pop Icon

Russian television celebrated pop singer Philipp Kirkorov's 54th birthday in grand fashion at the end of April.

March 16, 2021

Draining the Tanks

The Russian Duma is seriously considering putting a slow end to the dolphin and whale display industry.

February 02, 2021

The Zoo Animals Who Outlasted the Hermitage Cats

The Leningrad Zoo kept its animals alive during the siege – the 77th anniversary of which was commemorated this week.

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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...

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Frogs Who Begged...

This edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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December 01, 2014

East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia

The very word Siberia evokes a history and reputation as awesome as it is enthralling. In this acclaimed book on Russia’s conquest of its eastern realms, Benson Bobrick offers a story that is both rich and subtle, broad and deep.