September 20, 2018

Ice Age Part 10, Coming Soon to a Russia Near You


Ice Age Part 10, Coming Soon to a Russia Near You

Let your voice be heard! Russian Life’s documentary Resilience (Переживем) is a contestant in a competition being held by ArtDocFest, and we’d love it if you supported us and the film with your vote. Haven’t had a chance to watch the movie? No problem, watch it here. To vote, join the ArtDocFest Facebook group, go to their poll, and click on the option that reads “Переживем, реж. Михаил Мордасов.” Thank you to all of the documentary’s fans and supporters, and happy voting!

Ice, Ice, Wooly Mammoth Baby

You know the phrase “when wooly mammoths roamed the earth?” Well, it may actually be closer to the present than you think. That’s because Russian scientists are predicting that the cloning of wooly mammoths will be successful in the next 10 years. The wooly mammoths would be recreated from original wooly mammoth cells found in the Siberian permafrost, and they would be birthed by a surrogate elephant mother. Although we’re pretty excited about this, is anyone else getting Jurassic Park vibes?

2. Speaking of cold things, the icy Navalny-Zolotov conflict has been picked up by meme artists across the country. If you didn’t read last week’s newsletter(shame on you!), Russia’s Director of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov (who also happens to be Putin’s former bodyguard), recently challenged opposition leader Alexei Navalny to a duel after Navalny’s negative video about the National Guard. And, as you may have guessed, the internet is loving it. Memes, such as the one below, are picking up on the humor in this tense situation and running with it. Who knows, maybe they’ll lead to a thaw.

choose your fighter

Photo: Lentach / VKontakte

3. If you’re looking for some warmth in this newsletter, here’s a relationship that appears to be getting less icy by the day. At an economic forum in Vladivostok, President Putin taught Chinese president Xi Jinping how to make blini, Russian pancakes, which they then ate with caviar and followed with vodka. The meeting came just as Russia launched massive war games that included Chinese troops. Really, the only thing that goes better with blini than caviar is a big old pretend fight.

Putin and Xi

Photo: kremlin.ru

In Odder News:
  • It’s finally official: Russia and Ukraine are no longer friends, at least according to a nullified treaty
  • Is it a genius sausage-making life hack, or is it drug paraphernalia? You decide.

  • And you thought there couldn’t be more marches to celebrate the Romanovs. Check out this procession held for Yelizaveta Fyodorovna

Quote of the Week:

“Thanks to cooperation with Korean and Japanese scientists, in my opinion, [cloning a mammoth] will happen in the next decade.”

— Russian scientist Aisen Nikolaev

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.

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Some of Our Books

Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

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

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
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.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

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

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
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.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

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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