October 06, 2021

Devil-May-Care or Crazy Like a Fox?


Devil-May-Care or Crazy Like a Fox?

“We did not have a fox in the monastery, definitely not ours, but it’s probably someone’s pet. They write that someone [at the monastery] was scared, but the fox was the most scared of all – a hundred people chased after her with their phones; she is the main victim.”

– A resident of the Srtensky Monastery in Moscow speaking to Russia’s news service RIA Novosti

On September 28, a sleek young fox was seen flitting around the territory of Moscow’s Srtensky Monastery. Monks claimed that the fox had been “running the show” since that morning and terrorizing parishioners, so the priests called the city’s Ministry of Emergency Situations to come haul off the little red scare.

Telegram channel Baza published a video of three responders attempting to corral the beast. It had made its way up to a higher floor of the monastery, where it flitted along an exterior ledge, scurried partway up a wall as a rescuer attempted to capture it by its neck scruff, then evaded capture as it made its way around the side of the building.

It is unknown whether the fox has been apprehended, but the lost little devil was surely having one hell of a time.

 

 

 

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The Little Golden Calf

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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.

The Latchkey Murders
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Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

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.

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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.

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