July 25, 2019

A Cross Wrapped in a Card, Inside a Khinkali


A Cross Wrapped in a Card, Inside a Khinkali
Pelmeni (allegedly). Wikimedia Commons

Throwback Thursday

Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Vysotsky. / Wikimedia Commons

On this day in 1980, the legendary bard singer Vladimir Vysotsky died. His legacy lives on in the dozens of Russian rock groups who directly or indirectly pay tribute to him. But it also lives on through his films and poetry (Vysotsky was an actor and poet, too). In one of his poems, Vysotsky commented wryly on the Sino-Soviet split, writing a sardonic “open letter” to the Chinese government from workers in Tambov. Read a translation of his poem from the Sep/Oct 2013 issue of Russian Life.


Street Art and Artful Renaming

1. A khinkali by any other name… Long ago, a famous Communist made Georgian cuisine popular in Russia. So it’s ironic that today Communists decry the popularity of Georgian food in Russia. “They spit at us, but we wipe it off,” declared one deputy, referring not just to the current Georgia-Russia spat, but also to the fact that Russians like Georgian food. They propose renaming khachapuri as pyshki (fried dough) and khinkali as pelmeni. Clearly, as one satirist puts it, this will once and for all restore the dignity of “disgraced Russia.”

2. Three, seven, king? In the gamble for Internet fame, one graffitist played their cards right. An intricately illustrated quadriptych at a Kamensk-Uralsky bus stop depicts four Russian politicians as face cards: Putin as the King of Spades, Dmitri Medvedev as the King of Hearts, Patriarch Kirill as the King of Clubs, and spokesman Dmitri Peskov as the King of Diamonds. The impromptu exhibition abruptly ended after four hours, when a resident started erasing Medvedev’s portrait. Nevertheless, viewers retain fond impressions of the drawings. “It’s clear the author meant to say a lot with this,” reflected one resident.

Graffiti of Russian politicians as face cards
No jokers in sight. / Podslushano Kamensk-Uralsky

3. An asphalty cross to bear. Yekaterinburg authorities crossed a few wires when they approved a new work of street art — a giant cross in the middle of a main square. But they drew even more wrath when street pavers inadvertently paved over part of the cross. The incident was “a crime against art, culture, and the city,” declared one news editor, while Instagrammers joked that they should start painting crosses over potholes to get them fixed. Fortunately, the artist, though justifiably annoyed, has volunteered to restore the artwork. He bears no grudges against the pavers… or, we might say, he isn’t terribly cross.

The original cross artwork
The original artwork. / Pokras Lampas

Blog Spotlight

In these tough political times, can you be both a Russophile and a Ukrainophile? Katrina Keegan says yes.

In Odder News

  • Muscovites started the weekend by staging an epic cake fight (albeit clad in protective clothing).
Muscovites throwing cake at each other
Get caked! / Moslenta
  • Creative Russian environmentalists hijacked the comments of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Instagram. (Story credits to David Edwards.)
  • While gathering food in an Arkhangelsk forest, a boy got lost. Fortunately, he was found safe and sound seven hours later. His only complaint? He couldn’t find berries for his mom to bake pies with.

Quote of the Week

“well, Alexei”

— Photographer Evgeny Feldman, responding to oppositioner Alexei Navalny’s plagiarism of his iconic photo of the ongoing Moscow protests

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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. 
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.
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Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
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.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
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.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

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