October 01, 2011

Contest Anyone?


Contest Anyone?

It's our anniversary, so we're celebrating with a contest!

Fifty-five years is a long time for a magazine to be bumping around this uncertain world. And while we've only been stewarding Russian Life for the past 16 years, we do take unmeasured pride in the fullness of our heritage, even those wayward years when the magazine (then known as Soviet Life) was overcome with propagandistic fervor (oh, wayward youth!)...

In any event, to celebrate our 55th anniversary, we're holding a contest. Appropriately, there will be 55 prizes, including a Kindle (pictured, right) as the Grand Prize. That means some pretty good odds of winning for everyone.

How do you enter? Simple, between October 1, 2011 and October 31, 2011:

It's that easy. What is more, if you do more than one of these things, each one gets you a new entry. So, for example, if you come on as a new subscriber and buy a gift for someone else, you will get two entries and your friend will get one!

The prizes are an amazing array of gifts that are of interest and value to Russophiles, readers and travelers. We are still compiling the final list, and will drop it in here as soon as it is complete (with photos and links!). But here's an initial taste:

  • New generation Amazon Kindle with built-in wi-fi
  • Fine Russian linens, courtesy of Russia House Collection
  • Newly published works of Russia-related non-fiction and fiction
  • Tshirts and totebags (with Russian imprints, of course!)
  • Vermont maple syrup from Morse Farm, just 5 minutes up the road from us (personally, we consider this to be the top prize!)
  • Little Pim's Wake up Smiling language learning DVD for children
  • Oxford Russian-English Picture Dictionary
  • DVDs of Russian films (with subtitles)
  • Music CDs
  • The last laminated Russia Wall Map in the known world
  • ...and much, much more!

Enter early and often! And help us spread the word through Facebook and the Twitterverse!

{The full, official rules are posted here...}

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Some of our Books

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

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.

Murder and the Muse
December 12, 2016

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.

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

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.

Steppe
July 15, 2022

Steppe

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.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

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.

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

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 Samovar Murders
November 01, 2019

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.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

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Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955