November 18, 2020

Packed Pillows, Drug Decreases, and Teacher's Top Dollars


Packed Pillows, Drug Decreases, and Teacher's Top Dollars

“A man caught the pillow. As it later turned out, it was the driver of the Tomskoe Pivo [Beer] enterprise, and tried to hastily hide it in his car… The driver was detained.”

– A source in Tomsk region’s law enforcement, on the latest developments in the arrest of the town’s mayor: his wife threw a pillow filled with around R1.3 million (approximately $17,105) out of a window during a search of their house

Runner-Up Quotes

“Largely thanks to the measures taken, over the course of ten years the number of officially registered drug users has decreased by more than a quarter… Over the same period, the level of drug-related crime has decreased by 17 %, and the number of those who committed crimes while under the influence of drugs has decreased by 30%... A fundamentally new legal mechanism for our country has been introduced into the legislation: encouraging drug addicts to undergo treatment and rehabilitation. In the last three years alone, over 85% of students in schools, technical schools, universities – more than 6 million people in total – have passed socio-psychological testing for drug addiction.”

– Russian President Vladimir Putin on improvements in the government’s anti-drug policy

“The minimum salary for a full-time teacher is 78,000 rubles [a month] – no full-time teacher receives less than 78 thousand [rubles], this is the starting point.”

– Alexander Molotkov, head of the Moscow Department of Education and Science, on preserving the average salary for Moscow’s teachers, at a monthly minimum of R78,000 (approximately $1,026).
 
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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.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

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At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

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

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. 
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Woe From Wit (bilingual)

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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.
Tolstoy Bilingual

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Okudzhava Bilingual

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Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Chekhov Bilingual

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

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