February 07, 2019

A Whole New World (of Nuclear Weapons)


A Whole New World (of Nuclear Weapons)
Gas masks are the hottest new children's accessory. Сибай - Подслушано №1.

The “FIN” of INF

1. When we take on headline news, you know it must be serious, seriously misunderstood, or both. So, what’s the deal (or no deal) with this INF business, anyway? After months and years of the blame game, both the United States and Russia have announced their withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which in 1987 eliminated American and Russian land-based nuclear missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Both nations have announced their intention to begin developing new weapons, though both have also cautioned that a new arms race need not begin. On the plus side, there’s nothing like a treaty breakdown to give you a fresh wave of Cold War nostalgia. With that out of the way, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming…

2. Too much smog? Just blow it all off, or at least away, just like you do with all your other problems. The Ural town of Sibay, Russia has installed massive fans to deal with toxic air that has been emitting from nearby abandoned mines. In addition, the town has begun handing out medical masks to mitigate possible health effects. One concerned parent took things a step further and, only somewhat jokingly, filmed children playing while wearing gas masks. Authorities rejected the notion that the masks were anything but a joke, so you could say… wait for it… they weren’t big fans.

3. A magic carpet ride, Nizhny-style. Two residents of Nizhny Novgorod took a spin through the city on a carpet attached to a car, apparently having a blast all the while. This despite the fact that both were in decidedly summer attire and that the carpet ride couldn’t have been too magically comfortable, either. Nizhny Novgorod police weren’t too impressed and fined the driver a whopping R1000 (about $15) for violating transportation laws. Too bad this Aladdin wannabes don’t have their own personal genie.

In Odder News

The Motherland Calls
The Motherland Calls./ ФСИН России
  • The Motherland Calls” is hands down the best ice sculpture you’ve ever seen (and oh, by the way, it was made by Russian prisoners)
  • Google Translate’s self-congratulatory Superbowl ad doesn’t get one thing right: the Russian words that it shows being translated! (skip to second 14 for the mistranslation of vareniki as pelmeni - the horror!
  • The ghost of soccer games past… one Russian man is apparently being haunted by Andrei Arshavin, one of the greats of Russian soccer

Quote of the Week

"In a rating of the most stupid crimes of the 21st century, he has grounds to deserve an honorable mention”

— Culture Ministry official Vladislav Kononov is not impressed by last week’s art thief

 

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

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.
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. 
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
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...
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.
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.
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.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
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.

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