September 19, 2019

Bus Parades, Pumpkin Beheadings, and Other Dumb Ways to Die


Bus Parades, Pumpkin Beheadings, and Other Dumb Ways to Die
“Because I could not stop for Death, / He kindly stopped for me.” Открытый Архангельск

Quote of the Week

“Value life!”

— Arkhangelsk city officials explaining how a cleverly installed Grim Reaper statue will prevent car accidents

Morbid Municipal Mayhem

1. Last Saturday was a great day to be a bus. Almost seven hundred public utility vehicles took part in Moscow’s Parade of Municipal Service Vehicles. Every vehicle got its moment to shine, from humble buses and street sweepers to concrete mixers and police cars (although as one Tweeter noticed, the organizers wisely left out the police vans used to haul away protestors just a few weeks ago). After the parade, Muscovites were treated to a riverside water show from the city’s rescue boats. Overall, the vibe was: Ask not what your city service vehicles can do for you, but ask what you can do for your city service vehicles.

Parade of City Service Vehicles on September 14
That’s not a traffic jam — it’s a truck parade. / Office of the Mayor and Government of Moscow

2. Have you ever beheaded a pumpkin with a sword? If not, then you can visit the “World Executions Tournament” in Markova, a town over 40 miles from Yekaterinburg, where Cossacks stage mock executions using pumpkins instead of people. According to one of the organizers, the tournament is a harmless “parody” of Cossack traditions, such as the kazarva, where bottles were chopped up in a similar fashion. But not all Cossacks agree: one protests that the Cossacks were “warriors of God,” not human guillotines. Regardless, if you ever feel too lazy to chop your pumpkins, now you know who to call.

Cossacks "behead" pumpkins
Someone’s ready for Halloween… / bazabazon

3. The city of Arkhangelsk has a typical problem: drivers accelerate dangerously on one section of highway, leading to accidents. But the city has an odd solution: Install a statue of the Grim Reaper at the section. Some defended the city’s “creativity,” but others objected that the statue would scare children and waste money that could be used for real road improvements. To top it all off, thieves stole the statue hours later (not sure if they liked it or hated it). In any case, like real-life death, the city’s Death statue isn’t going away anytime soon. The city plans to turn it into a “mobile” statue. Clearly this Death statue is not taking any holidays.

In Odder News

  • Bringing your pet to Moscow? Your pet can now use public transit for free.
cat
This cat is thankful. / Pixabay
  • Many Russians fled to Istanbul after the 1917 revolutions, but few remain. A Turkish historian is uncovering the story of those who stayed; read an English-language summary of his research here.
  • One opposition activist was well prepared to deal with the police. During a raid, he put his important files on a hard drive and flew it out the window on a drone.
Oppositioner flying hard drive on drone
Who needs carrier pigeons anymore? / ROMB

Thanks to David Edwards for a story idea!

Want more where this comes from? Give your inbox the gift of TWERF, our Thursday newsletter on the quirkiest, obscurest, and Russianest of Russian happenings of the week.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

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.
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.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
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. 
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
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.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

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. 
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
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.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955