September 13, 2021

A Dedication to Dairy


A Dedication to Dairy
This one is vanilla, but you can buy these in so many different flavors and varieties too!  Photo by Aurin via Wikimedia Commons through CC BY-SA 2.5

Residents of Voronezh have made us all proud (and a little bit jealous) by setting the Russian record for eating the most syrki (a sweet cottage cheese-based dessert common in Russia) in one day. 

Anyone who has spent some time in Russia is familiar with the allure of a fresh syrok (the singular form of syrki); its crispy chocolate coating along with its smooth creamy filling makes it an ideal treat to accompany tea or breakfast, especially on a hot day. So it's easy to understand how a group of fair attendants were able to gobble down approximately 1,355 syrki in a single day, breaking the national record, according to the Russian Book of Records. 

The number given is only an approximation because the vendor at the fair wasn't able to write down the names of the individual persons who came and purchased their desserts. Also, quite understandably, many people came back for second servings, but officially, this double-dipping couldn't count toward the final total of syrki consumed. Still a pretty sweet accomplishment!

Maybe the editors at Russian Life can try to beat the record for most bliny eaten next. Let's just not think about all the calories.  

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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.

Faith & Humor
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Faith & Humor

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
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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.

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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.

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