September 04, 2010

Etcetera


Russians are wearing less and will have to do with fewer mushrooms this year.

President Medvedev is Russia's Internet President (while PM Putin apparently does not even have a cellphone), but he does not appreciate it when his minions Tweet during meetings.

Senior ranking spies in Russia earn more than the president.

Prime Minister Putin got behind the wheel for a four-day drive across Russia's Far East, while President Medvedev largely stayed in Sochi.

Foreign tourism to Russia was up 17% in the first half of 2010, vs. 2009, according to Interfax, and Russian tourism is up similar levels abroad, including a 25% increase in Russian tourism to Cuba.

Some 46 percent of Russians don't remember what the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was, while forty-one percent of Russians feel the worst of the economic crisis is behind them.

Russia is slightly more equitable, income-wise, than the US. Over the past decade, Russian GNP has increased 7.5-fold, while average wages increased 14-fold, and 48% of Russians say they can comfortably afford food and clothing.

Quote of the week: "If you get [permission], then go out and demonstrate. If not, you do not have the right. If you go out without having the right - you are going to get beaten with a club. It's as simple as that." [Prime Minister Vladimir Putin]

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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.
The Little Humpbacked Horse

The Little Humpbacked Horse

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Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

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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...
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 Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

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.  
Fearful Majesty

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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.

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