January 24, 2019

Mud-slinging and Money-making


Mud-slinging and Money-making
"Our boys in Salisbury," Russia's newest board game. theins.ru

Trash, Taxes, and Trolling

1. You’ve got mail! Siberian activists sent packages of trash to four State Duma members and one senator to viscerally impress upon them the odious and odorous cost of Russia’s continuing garbage crisis. Piles and piles of trash have been stacking up around the country, with little action taken to staunch the stench. In extreme examples, overfilled landfills have led to extreme sickness in children and animals. We suppose these activists are trying to prove the more literal sentiment to the phrase “waste not, want not.”

2. Don’t want to pay taxes? Join a trade union! Such was the brilliant idea of Sergei Dymokin, who claims that by joining his trade union, Union SSR, one can legally evade both taxes and utility payments by claiming they are citizens of the USSR. Sounds great, doesn’t it? All this is allowed because Dyomkin published (the fire background is a nice touch) a contract on behalf of the members of Union SSR that Vladimir Putin has not personally responded to, and because a few technicalities might mean that the Russian constitution never took effect. While people across the country are following Dyomkin’s lead, law enforcement (amazingly) hasn’t yet taken the bait.

3. International intrigue isn’t all fun and games… or is it? A hot new Russian board game has been released that is based on the Skripal poisoning story. The game, “Our Boys in Salisbury” (Наши в Солсбери), follows the path of the two men accused of poisoning former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England. You can partake in the “fun” for cheap, as the game costs less than two dollars! Who says crime doesn’t pay?

"Our Boys in Salisbury." / theins.ru
In Odder News:
Putin's 10-year challenge. / Alec Luhn
  • Russians took on Facebook’s viral “10-year challenge,” and the results are perfection
  • A purr-fect ending: animal rights activists bought a lioness that had been seen on the streets of St. Petersburg
  • Not their swan song, after all: a rare breed of swans were spotted in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast for the first time in a century!

Quote of the Week

“The anti-extremism center has summoned me so many times! I start telling them everything, and they always crack up. And then they let me go.”

—  Sergei Dyomkin, explaining his relationship with law enforcement

 

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.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
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.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
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.
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.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
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.

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