May 18, 2017

Pop music, Pythons, and Kindergarten on the Run


Pop music, Pythons, and Kindergarten on the Run
From Hollywood to the tundra

1. A new pop song berates underachieving youths who participate in political protests. Or does it mock teachers who try to dissuade their students from getting involved in politics? The song “Baby Boy” by Alisa Vox, formerly a singer in the rock group Leningrad, appears to criticize Alexey Navalny’s anti-corruption movement. A source close to Vox alleges that the Kremlin paid the singer to create a song with an anti-opposition message, though Vox denies that the song is political in intent.

2. Hollywood movies are too fast and too furious, and Russian counterparts are struggling to catch them if they can. To counter the trend of American films outperforming domestic productions at the box office, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky has recommended bumping ticket prices for foreign movies. Citing protectionism in the car industry as a comparison, Medinsky urged the State Duma to consider taxing foreign films, renewing an argument he’s made several times before.

3. When you live a nomadic life herding deer in the Russian tundra, the education system looks a bit different than what stationary folks are used to. Unless they happen to have a visiting anthropologist to experiment with on-the-move kindergarten classes, children start school when they’re old enough to be sent to boarding school in the nearest settlement. Otherwise, following the deer's grazing patterns takes precedence over lessons. These are just a few of the findings of anthropologists researching life in the Russian tundra.

In Odder News
  • To drive from Scotland to Russia, it takes 53 days, 9,898 miles, and countless photographs. Here are a few of them.
  • The natural way to bide time while waiting for bilateral talks with another world leader? Play the piano. That’s what President Vladimir Putin did while waiting for Chinese President Xi Jinping, at least.
  • A few things you’ll find in a Russian trash can: empty sour cream containers, vodka bottles, and the occasional python.
Quote of the Week

"Freedom, money, girls — you’ll get it all, even power.
So, kid, stay out of politics, and give your brain a shower."
—Translation of Alisa Vox's new song "Baby Boy," allegedly an anthem against Russia's opposition movement. 

Cover photo: somewhere between Scotland and Russia, bbc.com

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

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

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

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