February 23, 2021

Regions Measure Up


Regions Measure Up
Moscow, the capital of Russia, capital of our hearts, and the capital of Russian quality of life. The RussianLife files

The 2020 update of Russian news outlet RIA Novosti's comprehensive ranking of all Russian regions is live, and the results aren't very shocking.

As with every year, the survey lists each part of Russia, comparing it to all others on the basis of education, unemployment, housing conditions, level of income, transportation infrastructure, and more. Each region is then assigned a score out of 100.

Moscow, of course, came in first, with an impressive 82.164/100. St. Petersburg came next, at 80.634. In third place was the Moscow Region, with 76.068. Tatarstan came in fourth, with 66.624.

The last three places were the Tuva Republic (17.506), Trans-Baikal (26.889), and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic (27.693).

Experts noted that the results of this year are roughly in line with those from years previous: regions at the periphery tend to score lower than those at the center of administration. While the middle of the list tends to shift, the top and bottom are fairly consistent.

See the ranking for yourself here.

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Some of Our Books

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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. 
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
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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.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

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White Magic

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.

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