President Vladimir Putin’s surprise decision to dismantle the so-called 14th Wing – a 1930s Kremlin building that housed everything from a military school to a theater to the office of Boris Yeltsin – has yielded amazing archaeological treasures. The site contains the foundations of the fourteenth-century Chudov and Voznesensky monasteries (destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1929) and excavations are continuing.
At present, Kremlin authorities are saying the site will become a park, but there are many voices in favor of rebuilding the monasteries. Architects and archaeologists, meanwhile, would like the space to remain an archeological park, akin to places in Rome where ruins coexist with modern buildings.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin Museum is negotiating with the Federal Guard Service, which controls the territory, about introducing a new, cheaper ticket for tourists who merely seek to access the Kremlin grounds and want to skip the museum’s other offerings, like the Armory. This would grant unprecedented access to the previously restricted space.
The founder of Moscow’s renowned Falanster bookstore, Boris Kupriyanov, has partnered with a former editor of Afisha magazine, Nina Nazarova, to launch a new website focusing on literature.
Gorky (named after the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky) aims to popularize a topic that normally takes up just a page in popular weeklies. Recent articles include an overview of Soviet and Russian prison writers and an excerpt from the latest Viktor Pelevin novel, Лампа Мафусаила или Крайняя битва чекистов с масонами (Mafusail’s Lamp, or The Last Battle between Chekists and Masons).
gorky.media
See also: literatura.org
rara-rara.ru
Russia elected a new parliament in September with a record low turnout (see Snapshot, page 10). And it looks as if the lower house will be even more dominated by the Kremlin’s party, United Russia.
In this election, for the first time, voters could select specific candidates to represent their district, along with a party slate. The change was ostensibly initiated to improve representation, but it led to an even larger United Russia majority in the Duma: 338 seats in the 450 seat body – a hundred more than in the last election (when reports of fraud led to mass protests that continued for several months).
This fall there were no protests, and analysts are making different predictions about how the new chamber will behave during Russia’s protracted economic crisis.
“This Duma will be interesting and exciting,” analyst Yekaterina Shulman told the website Fontanka, predicting there will be haggling between the cash-strapped government and new MPs. The latter may start making quid pro quo demands in exchange for their rubber-stamp endorsements of the tax hikes and levies expected in the months ahead to cover the budget deficit.
The Zenit football stadium that Russia is building in St. Petersburg for the 2018 World Cup has had a particularly tough year. Construction started in 2007, and now, several contractors later, the facility – to be called Krestovsky, after the island it stands on – is still unfinished, despite already earning the title of one of the most expensive stadiums in the world.
At least four construction workers have died at Krestovsky; others have gone on strike several times to protest wage arrears; there were cracks in its foundation, a roof that flew away in the wind, and a fire that destroyed some of its seats; most recently, deadly mold covered its walls (thanks to repeated flooding because of a leaky roof).
“The universe does not want there to be football on Krestovsky,” Eurosport concluded in September.
Originally slated for completion in 2009, the deadline has been pushed back year after year. In August, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko admitted his “alarm” over the beleaguered building.
Internet giant Yandex has partnered with Kamaz, the Volga River truck maker, to produce Russia’s first driverless car. Unlike in the US, where some states are already amending legislation to allow for cars without steering wheels or pedals, Russia may have to wait a few years for the emerging technology to hit the streets. Kamaz and Yandex Taxi, the Russian equivalent of Uber, will launch a network of driverless transport in the Russian capital, where authorities have agreed to cooperate on a pilot version and set up separate lanes.
Svetlana Gannushkina, a veteran Russian human rights campaigner, won this year’s Right Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the “alternative Nobel prize.” The award is given out each year in Stockholm to individuals who make a difference in people’s lives.
Gannushkina was one of the founders of Memorial, the organization that researches Stalin’s purges, and is also the head of Civic Assistance Committee, which helps refugees. Since 1990, the 74-year-old has helped some 50,000 migrants, refugees, and Russians displaced by war gain access to education, legal advice, shelter, and humanitarian aid, according to award organizers. She shared this year’s prize with the Syrian Civil Defense group (The White Helmets), Egyptian feminist Mozn Hassan, and Turkey’s independent newspaper Cumhuriyet. Gannushkina is regularly considered a possible laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Archeologists in Pskov have unearthed an unprecedentedly large stash of coins and valuables – a numismatic collection that includes items dating back to the fifteenth century. The coins were packed in tin cans and hidden inside the hearth of an old house.
According to the head of the Pskov Archeological Center, Tatyana Yershova, the collection most likely belonged to Fyodor Plyushkin – a local merchant who died in 1911 and was one of the largest collectors in Russia. Some of Plyushkin’s treasures were purchased by Tsar Nicholas II.
Legend has it that Alexander Pushkin tipped Nikolai Gogol off to the Plyushkin family name after seeing it on a sign in Valdai, where Fyodor was born. Stepan Plyushkin is a character in Gogol’s Dead Souls who is an obsessive collector: as a result, the family name is today used colloquially to describe people who take collecting to a different level: a person with a синдром Плюшкина is a compulsive hoarder.
The Carnegie Corporation, which funds the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and hands out millions in grants to support work in education, peace, and international security, announced in September that it is giving grants of $1 million each to Columbia University, Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to encourage Russia-relevant training and research, and to “advance the understanding of Russia in the United States.”
The move followed a commissioned study, which concluded that study of Russia in the US has “atrophied” due to a decline in federal funding and interest.
Как вы видите, выборы проходят активно. Я не волнуюсь, изберут ли меня или нет, потому что я люблю свой народ, а народ любит меня.
“As you can see, there is lively voting. I’m not worried whether or not I’ll be elected, because I love my people and my people love me.”
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, commenting during September polling, which saw him elected as governor with approximately 98 percent of the vote, a common result in the tightly controlled region. (TASS)
Даже когда мужчина бьет свою жену, все равно нет такой обиды, как если унизить мужчину. Мужчину унижать нельзя.
“Even when a man beats his wife, it is not as hurtful as when a man is humiliated. A man must not be humiliated.”
Russian senator Yelena Mizulina, sharing her views on gender roles. (Dozhd TV channel)
Вы знаете, как я отношусь к развалу Советского Союза. Совсем необязательно было это делать. Можно было проводить преобразования, в том числе демократического характера, без этого.
“You know how I feel about the breakup of the Soviet Union. This absolutely did not have to be done. Reforms could have been carried out, including democratic ones, without it.”
Vladimir Putin, on the breakup of the Soviet Union, which he blamed on the Communist Party in power at the time. (RIA-Novosti)
Естественно, что ливнёвка, которая строилась не под тропические ливни, а совсем под другой климат, она не везде выдерживает.
“Of course, the storm drain system, which was not built with tropical rains in mind, but for a completely different climate, is not coping everywhere.”
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, on why the Russian capital flooded after every summer rain in 2016; City Hall admitted that mistakes were made during street renovations. (the-village.ru)
МИД РФ рекомендует россиянам, находящимся или проживающим за рубежом, проявлять завтра разумные меры предосторожности, воздерживаться от посещения тех мест, где “гнев и протест” могут быть обращены против их достоинства и безопасности.
“Russia’s Foreign Ministry recommends that Russians located or living abroad exercise reasonable caution tomorrow, refrain from visiting places where ‘wrath and protest’ could be directed against their persons and their safety.”
Official Foreign Ministry warning to Russians for September 30, which marked one year from the start of the Syrian bombing campaign, and when, according to the Ministry, a “day of wrath” was planned to target Russian citizens.
The Soviet Union’s first Olympic champion, Nina Ponomaryova, whose discus throwing won gold at the 1952 Games after she trained for just three years, has passed away at 88.
Ponomaryova landed in sports quite by accident, in a manner that could only happen in the Soviet Union. When she was working as a shop cashier in the southern city of Yessentuki, a directive came to her employer to send a quota of athletes to participate in a group run. She loved it, but quickly switched from running to discus, winning a bronze medal in the 1949 Soviet championships.
When the Soviet Union sent a team to the Olympic Games in Helsinki, the first in which the USSR participated, Ponomaryova topped the podium in a Soviet sweep of the event, along with Nina Dumbadze and Yelizaveta Bagryantseva. Ponomaryova held the world record for several years and finished her career coaching in Kiev.
The creator of Russia’s beloved Winnie the Pooh and animator of many iconic Russian films, Eduard Nazarov passed away at 74. His death was particularly mourned in a year when Russian animation celebrated its 80th anniversary (Soyuzmultfilm was founded on June 10, 1936).
Born in Moscow, Nazarov worked as an artist for Soviet periodicals before working with Winnie the Pooh director Fyodor Khitruk as a director/producer. He is credited with the Soviet Winnie’s round and slightly perplexed look.
Nazarov’s affecting 1982 film, Once Upon A Dog (Жил был пес), about an unlikely friendship between a wolf and a dog, toured European festivals to great acclaim; many Russians know it by heart. Nazarov went on to teach and mentor many young animators and was the president of CROC, an annual animation festival held on riverboats in Russia and Ukraine.
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