May 16, 2019

It's an Animal World After All


It's an Animal World After All
That’s one bold thief right there. Alexander Vorobyov

Throwback Thursday

Maximilian Voloshin
Maximilian Voloshin. / Wikimedia Commons

On May 16, 1877, the poet Maximilian Voloshin was born. He lived through three very different eras: the Russian Silver Age, the 1917 revolutions, and the Russian Civil War. Read some of his poems in translation right here on Russian Life.

Planet of the Free Bees and Bears

1. If you can’t find a honey, then make some honey! Humans and bees don’t have a lot in common, but one thing’s for sure: we all get lonely when we’re single. Luckily, if you’re a bee, the Moscow Zoo has the solution for you. On May 13, the Zoo opened a brand-new “hotel for single bees and wasps.” It’s designed mainly to give single bees a resting place while they pollinate flowers, but if the bees so desire, they can raise bee families there. No wonder these hives are getting so much buzz!

Hotel for single bees and wasps
The swanky new bee hotel. / Photo: Moscow Zoo

2. Freeing the animals, one circus at a time. It’s not just the Moscow Zoo that empathizes with our animal relatives: the mayor of Magas has officially banned the use of wild animals in circuses. “Animals are not entertainment or soulless toys; they are living beings. Cruelty towards them is unacceptable,” he announced in a press release. Before we celebrate, though, we should note that right now, activists are being detained in inhumane conditions for protesting the new border with Chechnya. Ironic, because wasn’t it a wild animal who said, “We are all connected in this great circle of life”?

Horse
Free as a horse. / Photo: Администрация города Магас

3. When a bear (b)ruins your hunting plans. A couple of hunters were driving on Kamchatka peninsula when a bear came over and started raiding their truck. The bear picked up their ration box and absconded in what has to be the heist of the century. Incidentally, the previous day, another driver on the same highway noticed a bear searching for food; some speculate it was the same bear. We usually tell people not to feed the bears, but we can’t always help it if they take matters into their own paws.

Blog Spotlight

Are you a fan of Kidnapping, Caucasus-Style (Кавказская пленница)? Are you just curious about Caucasus culture? Either way, don’t miss Katrina Keegan’s article fact-checking the Caucasus.

In Odder News

Bentley tank
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Bentley tank! / Photo: Carbuzz
  • A mighty military mashina: Watch this Russian car enthusiast turn a Bentley into a tank.
  • Belgorod, best known for its Star Wars-loving mayor, is getting a major redesign. Check out the details here.
  • During a wrestling match, one fearless babushka intervened to defend her grandson.
Babushka defending grandson in wrestling match
The world needs more heroes like this. / Photo: Soviet Visuals

Quote of the Week

“The dead are burying the dead.”

— One Tweeter commenting on a scandal where Zvezda channel falsely claimed that a deceased opera singer commented on journalist Sergei Dorenko’s death

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Some of Our Books

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.
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. 
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
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 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.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
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.
Murder at the Dacha

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.

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