February 10, 2022

"Slush Funds," Spotify, and a Subway Surprise


"Slush Funds," Spotify, and a Subway Surprise
In Odder News

In this week's Odder News: an Oscar nomination, slippery sidewalks, and IT-giants.

  • You may be familiar with Cheburashka, but did you know that some good cartoons are still coming out of Russia? In fact, the Russian cartoon "Boxballet" has been nominated for an Oscar in the short animation category. It tells a tale of love between a boxer, Yevgeny, and a ballerina, Olga.
  • Russian streets are covered in snow! Unintentionally. After receiving over one thousand complaints from citizens in St. Petersburg, the city's prosecutor's office has started an investigation into the embezzlement of funds meant for the removal of snow. Inspectors have found hundreds of code violations. It raises the question: where is all the money going? And from something so crucial?
  • An alpaca has been filmed taking the Moscow Metro with its owner. The alpaca walked around the train car and greeted many smiling passengers, but nobody really knows what the South American animal was doing in the Moscow subway in the winter.
  • One of the perks of living alone is having lots of space for yourself. Unless, of course, you're renting this apartment in St. Petersburg. For the small fee of R9,000 ($120) per month, you could live in a tiny, 10 square-meters apartment, decked out with a bed, a kitchen, and a toilet right above said kitchen. And we thought Raskolnikov had it bad.
  • Apple and Spotify have officially opened offices in Russia, something that has been made more difficult by a new law with strict requirements for large international IT companies wanting to operate in Russia. Gotta protect Yandex.

You Might Also Like

Cheburashka in the Fog
  • July 01, 2021

Cheburashka in the Fog

Just a little over a year ago, Russia was rocked by revelations that one of its most venerated authors of childrens’ fiction subjected his daughter to abuse in a cult.
Metro Station Shower
  • January 19, 2022

Metro Station Shower

A nice refreshing outdoors shower? Or a dangerous collapse waiting to happen?
The Art of the Fall
  • January 14, 2022

The Art of the Fall

A St. Petersburg artist draws attention to the city's ice and snow problem.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Fearful Majesty

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.
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. 
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.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
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.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
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.
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. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

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...
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. 
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. 

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