July 06, 2017

Toxic Waste, Putin Farms, & Crazy Seals


Toxic Waste, Putin Farms, & Crazy Seals
Tractors and Statues Fit for Presidents

1. If you sow a field of Putin, will you reap the most loyal crops ever? Or get a territorial dispute with the field next door? Italian farmer and artist Dario Gambarin decided to find out, using a tractor to draw a giant portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a field. The 443-foot-wide decoration to his farm comes in advance of this week’s G20 summit. Gambarin, who has also depicted Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and others, says he doesn’t measure fields before he starts his art; it’s all a good eye and knowing your way around a tractor.

2. Special delivery! In early 2016, Kaliningrad got a shipment of about 160,000 gallons of Geminex G30, allegedly an emulsifying agent for cleaning metalwork. Over a year later, those 2,500 barrels of toxic waste are still waiting for a home. In addition to toxic waste, it seems that there’s dirty money involved, not to mention a lack of disposal facility, disappearing owners, and a whole lot of bureaucracy.

3. The Burganov House Museum in Moscow has unveiled a statue of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev shaking hands. It’s not Russia’s only sculpture of American presidents, but it’s the most topical: the sculptor said his piece was motivated by the hope that the countries’ current presidents, too, will find diplomacy possible. Gorbachev similarly expressed hope that today’s “dangerous impasse” in U.S.-Russian relations will soon pass.

In Odder News
  • Satanic ballrooms, bugged emblems, and crazed seals (yes, the animal). The secrets of Spaso House, the U.S. ambassadorial residence in Moscow, are too weird to miss.
  • Is Russia trying to boost alcoholism? Easy answer: no. However, the market is emphasizing wine consumption in a bid to steer drinkers away from vodka and other harder beverages.
  • Lake Baskunchak is 20 km long, 30 cm deep, and provides 80% of Russia's salt. Grab some seasoning and watch the video about it.

Quote of the Week

"Our message to the two presidents: stop and think about it, guys: we don’t want any of the tragic repetitions that have taken place through history, and maybe you'll somehow be able to agree."
—Eduard Lozansky, president of the American University in Moscow, on the message behind the new sculpture of Reagan and Gorbachev.

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Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

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.
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.
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. 
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.
The Little Humpbacked Horse

The Little Humpbacked Horse

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.
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.
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.
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.

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