July 18, 2019

The Illegal and the Unbelievable


The Illegal and the Unbelievable
This girl isn’t sitting at home playing (para)Chutes and Ladders. Personal archive of Chernikh family | Komsomolskaya Pravda

Still-developing child brains, dead brains, missing brains.

1. Dead Souls has come to life. The plot of this classic novel by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842, in which the dead are used to inflate the value of a landowner’s estate, became an actual news story on July 15. Four candidates in the Moscow City Duma elections allegedly included the signatures of dead people in their petitions for inclusion on the ballot. The candidates involved think this is all a grave mistake and will dispute the decision to exclude them from the election. 

2. Here’s a story that will blow your mind. Sixty years ago, a man was born without half his brain. Oblivious to this fact, he grew up, had kids, worked as an engineer, and retired. Only after going to a hospital in the Moscow region, because of a transient ischemic attack in the left side of his brain, did doctors realize that… there was no left side of his brain. He refused to participate in additional studies, saying that he didn’t want the “glory.” Doctors eager to study this unique phenomenon surely would like to give him a piece of their mind. (Except he actually doesn’t need any more pieces of mind; the right side is doing just fine on its own.) 

Brain scan with half of brain missing
It is almost unthinkable that a man could think with this. / Marina Anikina, Federal Center of Extrapyramidal Illnesses and Psychiatric Health FMBTs | Gazeta.ru

3. Russian children from Yekaterinburg are going places, by trolleybus and parachute. A seven-year-old boy who thinks hard work is the ticket to success has decided to spend his holidays selling tickets on trolleybuses. The regional children’s rights spokesman is conflicted, because he says such underage labor is illegal, yet he also wants to support the kid’s initiative. Meanwhile, a 10-year-old girl became the youngest parachutist in Russia. The young sportswoman has also already won awards in tennis, running, and weightlifting competitions. Next up is climbing Mount Elbrus

Kid conductor counting change in Russia
Earning pocket change by counting change. / Anton Derbenyov | Facebook

 

In odder news

  • Modern Robin Hoods from Tyumen stole 140 bars of chocolate and distributed at least some of them to random people on the street. 
  • A woman from Moscow made a fake call to the police about a bomb in a train station, because she wanted to be arrested and go back “home” to jail. 
  • Guess which of these phenomena is natural: a bright blue lake in Siberia, or an orange sea in the Far East? 
Bright blue chemical lake Siberia
The news that this lake has turned poisonous from chemicals doesn’t seem to be making these visitors as blue as it should. / @Maldives_nsk | Instagram
Orange water in Vladivostok
No, it’s not spilled orange juice, it’s algae. / @vdk_news24 | Instagram 

 

Quote of the week

“I want to talk to mom so bad… Mom looks at me and listens, but doesn’t say anything.” 

– A 10-year-old boy who will have his first ever conversation with his mother, who was completely paralyzed in a fire ten years ago and will now get to communicate thanks to the neurochat system.


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

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.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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