June 11, 2021

Kicking It to Katyusha


Kicking It to Katyusha
What a kick! Movers take over a piano in Moscow at the end of May / Screenshot from ViralHog's video on Youtube

When one lucky Muscovite heard a ruckus outside his apartment window in late May, he peered out to catch sight of four movers wheeling a piano on a dolly.

Beneath clusters of lilac, three of the men shifted the instrument to a better position while the fourth adjusted himself in front of the piano’s keys. To the delight of his coworkers – the gentleman to the right of the musician kicked straight into a jig, cigarette in hand – the pianist launched into “Katyusha,” a Soviet-era song sung from the perspective of a young woman whose love has gone off to war.

And such a sight it was! Four grown men in bright orange jackets swerving and laughing along to a war song, so caught up they nearly lost the piano’s lid.

All ended well as the quartet halted, readjusted, and set forth to fulfill their duty. Watch the video of the impish pianist and his crew below.

You Might Also Like

Nikolai Lugansky, musician

Nikolai Lugansky, musician

Born in April 1972 into a family of research scientists, Nikolai Lugansky was five when his innate musicality appeared, to the utter astonishment of his parents.
Sergei Zhilin, musician

Sergei Zhilin, musician

“Before, it was possible to just bring out a Russian Bear who raised up a paw, and everyone applauded and said ‘Ooh, super.’ Today that Bear has to do something.”
A Conservatory in Peril
  • March 01, 2005

A Conservatory in Peril

The Moscow Conservatory is dangerously threatened by the river above which it floats, and by the bureaucrats who underfinance it.
Trolley Drama and Piano Trauma
  • July 04, 2019

Trolley Drama and Piano Trauma

A funeral for a trolley, a near-funeral for a pianist, and scared birds: all this and more on this week’s TWERF.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

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.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
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.
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.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
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. 
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. 
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.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
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.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

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

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