December 14, 2017

Superputin, Sly Wolves, & Censorship Stalkers


Superputin, Sly Wolves, & Censorship Stalkers
The Finest of Fine Art

1. It’s a bird...it’s a plane...it’s Superputin! A new art exhibit centers around the Russian president in various heroic guises, some based in fact (Putin playing hockey, Putin cuddling his pets) and others in imagination (an armored Putin riding a bear, Putin as Father Frost). The goal, according to the gallery, is to showcase Putin’s popularity and the ways his public perceives him. Opened at Moscow’s UMAM Museum on the same day Putin announced his bid for a fourth presidential term – a pure coincidence, but if the incumbent succeeds in his bid, it’ll be more proof of his superpowers.

2. With the World Cup opening in Russia just months away, it’s high time to start collecting merchandise. But only official stuff: authorities are on the hunt for fakes and clamping down on counterfeit World Cup products. The World Cup mascot, Zabivaka the wolf, has been especially sneaky: last week 640 toy wolves were stopped trying to cross the border from China, and over 100,000 products illegally bearing the trademark image have been withdrawn from sale. Luckily for football fans aiming to get some merch in time for the New Year, an official fan store is now open in Moscow.

3. Obscenity, pornography, information on drugs or suicide, and anything falling under the broad label of “extremism” is off limits for Russian mass media. And if you're lucky, you can get PAID to read it. After all, someone’s got to go through all the bad stuff to weed it out, and that someone is GRCHTs, the state enterprise that pays people to scan the web for inappropriate material. GRCHTs has a hefty contract with Roskomnadzor and is even hunting for more employees to ensure that internet censorship is going a-okay. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

In Odder News
  • How does a leopard cub nurse if it’s separated from its mom? The Vladivostok Zoo knows: enlist a golden retriever as a wet nurse.
  • The U.S. has got one all-Russian radio station. It broadcasts from Portland, but not all expats like what it plays.
  • What did Kiev look like in 1966? Rainy and gray, grandiose and ordinary, all in one.

Quote of the Week

"Each artist depicted positive attributes of Vladimir Putin. Every artist loves him and respects him and supports him."
—Pro-Putin activist Yulia Dyuzheva on the Superputin exhibit, of which she was one of the organizers.

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The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
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 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.
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.
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. 
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.
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. 
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

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