January 18, 2021

The Family Panties


The Family Panties
Airing the dirty laundry. / Настоящее Время. Настоящее Время, Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFoUB27mdIY

Quarantine might have gotten many of us used to hanging around in our underwear, but Russian film director Vitaliy Mansky has taken his to the streets of Moscow.

Last month, Mansky stood outside the office of the FSB in a one-man protest in support of Alexei Navalny, who plans to return to Russia on January 17 after an alleged assassination attempt.

Mansky was holding a pair of light blue boxer shorts.

When two police officers who arrived at the scene approached the director to ask why he was holding the boxers, Mansky reportedly answered that they stood for his civic position – “I think that everything should be clean – clean conscience, clean underwear.”

The day before Mansky stood in protest, Navalny published a recording where he claims to have duped an FSB operative who was involved in his poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok. The officer admitted, on the phone, that the chemical was applied to Navalny’s underpants.

Russian officials have rejected the claims. In top form, Press Secretary Dmitriy Peskov has stated that Navalny suffers not only from mania, but also a fixation on “the codpiece zone.”

The Russian prison service has announced orders to detain Navalny upon his arrival in Moscow. Officials have justified his arrest with assertions that Navalny missed parole hearings for a 2014 conviction for embezzlement and money laundering.

It seems that at least a few Russian officials might have to deal with more dirty laundry than they bargained for.

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White Magic

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.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
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.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
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.  
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
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Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

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Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

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Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

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.

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