January 31, 2019

Art Theft Made Easy and Pizza vs. the New Cold War


Art Theft Made Easy and Pizza vs. the New Cold War
Air traffic controllers with their Russian Pizza. ATC Memes Facebook Page

The Best Crimes (and Gifts) are the Simplest Ones

1. A picture is worth a thousand words, which might explain why we’re speechless. This weekend, a man walked up to a painting in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery, plucked it off the wall, and brazenly sauntered out of the museum. The painting was a relatively low profile one – of the mountains of Crimea by the landscape painter Arkhip Kuindzhi, but luckily, it didn’t remain missing for long. Police arrested the thief and found the painting unharmed just one day later. The man has stated that he doesn’t quite remember what he was doing at that time, which, given his clear appreciation of art and creativity, we find rather uninspired.

 

2. Remember all the World Cup fans who fell in love with Russia and said they never wanted to leave? Well, it turns out not all of them did. Russian police estimate that 5,500 World Cup fans remain in Russia, enjoying the now expired visa exemption. However, they won’t be able to stay in their Russian vacation bliss for long: the police are hoping to get everyone back to their rightful place by March 31. If only getting our in-laws to leave was that easy.

3. Just when you thought there wasn’t any hope left in Russian-American relations, a story pops up to remind you that people will find a way to share their similarities, not just highlight their differences. In a show of support, Russian air traffic controllers bought pizza for their American brethren, who were working without pay thanks to the partial government shutdown. The move was inspired by Canadian air traffic controllers who did the same. To say this story gives us that warm glow might sound cheesy, but, just like our pizza, that’s the way we like it.

Air traffic controllers with Russian pizza
Air traffic controllers with Russian pizza. / ATC Memes Facebook Page

In Odder News:

  • Incredibly rare footage of endangered Siberian tiger cubs playing like the kittens they are? Yes please.
  • From “rags” to riches: read the Cinderella story of a South African print business that hit it big and decided to invest in the (apparently booming) Russian classifieds industry
  • Maybe you should count your eggs: Russians are surprised to find one less egg in their carton, thanks to rising food prices

Quote of the Week

“I hope that all of them will be expelled by March 30.”

— Andrey Kayushin, discussing the World Cup fans that overstayed their welcome

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Some of our Books

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This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

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This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

Moscow and Muscovites
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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. 

Survival Russian
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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.

Fish
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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.

Driving Down Russia's Spine
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The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

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.

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A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

Bears in the Caviar
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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.

The Moscow Eccentric
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The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

A Taste of Chekhov
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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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