June 28, 2018

Against Some Odds, Still in the Game!


Against Some Odds, Still in the Game!
A Loss Does Not Mean All Is Lost

1. Russia’s glorious football winning streak ended this week with a three-point loss to Uruguay. But with Russia’s assured participation in the Round of 16, most Russians are pretty content. Some were even relieved by the performance against Uruguay, as they finally recognized the Russian team, which allowed two goals in the first 25 minutes, as their own. In terms of both optimism and accuracy, one Team Russia fan outdid the rest, however, in correctly predicting the scores of Russia’s first two games before the start of the tournament. Upon learning of this, Twitter users quickly set to asking this mystical figure for more predictions: namely, how many kids would they have, what does the future of bitcoin look like, and of course, what will happen after Putin retires?

2. Sometimes all you need to fix a problem is a couple of Croatians in a hole. Two Croatian fans, spying a particularly deep pothole in Nizhny Novgorod, decided to jump in and have a photoshoot. Wanting in on the fun, four Argentinian fans jumped in next. And then, the next day, the pothole was magically filled. This is one of many good deeds that tourists have bestowed on Russia: among other acts, foreigners rescued a man from drowning and saved another man with CPR after a moped accident. Perhaps most notably, fan contingents from Japan, Senegal, and Saudi Arabia took out trash bags and started cleaning the stands after the games they attended. So how do Russians feel about all of these tourists? Well, we think they should be big fans.

Croatians in pothole

Photo: Vkontakte

3. The world somehow still exists outside of the World Cup madness, and in Barnaul nature put on a violent show. Barnaul, a city in Siberia, was hit with a tropical storm last Saturday. The tempest, which led to some stunning images, generated temperatures over 100° Fahrenheit and stripped the city of power. One heroic crane operator remained at his post to move a heavy load away from drivers and pedestrians, an act that led to his own death but saved many lives. Not to be outdone, several Russian cities were treated to the sight of a fiery meteor.

Storm

Photo: Vyacheslav Postnikov

In Odder News:
  • A Rostov-on-Don by any other name… World Cup tourists make some pretty major cartographical errors

  • Spirits are high, but we’re low on drinks: World Cup fans are running cities’ beer stocks dry

  • Football philosophers: the best Russian commentators engage in high-level conversation, even if they do miss a goal here or there

Quote of the Week:

“Ah, that's the Russian team we know.”

— One Twitter user expressed relief during Russia’s match against Uruguay

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

Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
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. 
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.
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.
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.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
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.  

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