December 23, 2022

Dangerous Dreams


Dangerous Dreams
George Orwell's book "1984"  Ivan Radic, Flickr

Russian crackdowns on dissent are only becoming more draconian.

A court in Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, fined 26-year-old entrepreneur Ivan Losev for sharing (on Instagram) a detailed description of his dream about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to the Telegram channel Astra, Losev’s Instagram post contained the following text:

"Today I dreamed I was mobilized and taken to some kind of training camp, and then the Ukrainian army, led by Zelensky, stormed in. They captured everyone and were going to shoot us. At that moment, Zelensky walks past me and says, 'Oh, I saw your stories on Instagram, Glory to Ukraine!' I responded, 'Glory to the Heroes!' Zelensky cheerfully pats me on the shoulder and says, 'Let him go, but shoot the rest.' So, we are standing there, looking at this, and I ask him, 'Can I take a selfie with you for Instagram?' Zelensky says, 'You can.'"

According to Sibir.Realii, the FSB opened an investigation into Losev’s post in September. A few months later, on December 8, the Chita court found Losev guilty of discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation. He was ordered to pay a R30,000 ($460) fine.

Then, a week later, police launched an administrative probe of Ivan Losev's mother. She was charged with discrediting the Russian army for her activity on the social network Odnoklassniki. Apparently, she "liked" a post that said that Crimea is part of Ukraine, and another post that was anti-Putin.

A law against the discrediting of the Russian army was passed in March 2022. It provides for fines of up to R300,000 ($4,600) or a penalty of up to three years in prison. According to Mediazona, since March security forces have filed over 5,000 reports against Russians for discrediting the armed forces for everything from listening to Ukrainian music, standing while holding a blank sheet of paper, comparing Vladimir Putin with the anti-hero of Crime and Punishment, and "silent support" during a protest action.

You Might Also Like

The Wrong Kind of Patriotism
  • November 30, 2022

The Wrong Kind of Patriotism

A student in Karelia was reportedly disciplined for wearing a sweatshirt with an American flag on it.
Dangerous 10-year-olds
  • October 10, 2022

Dangerous 10-year-olds

Moscow police have detained a 10-year-old girl for using a yellow and blue avatar in her online chats with friends.
Mrs. Crimea Under Fire
  • October 11, 2022

Mrs. Crimea Under Fire

A regional beauty pageant winner is under investigation by Russian police after singing a patriotic Ukrainian song (on the internet).
Sci-fi Author, Meet Dystopia
  • June 14, 2022

Sci-fi Author, Meet Dystopia

A well-known science fiction author has been placed on the Kremlin's wanted list for protesting the war in Ukraine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
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.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Survival Russian

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.
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.
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. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.

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