December 19, 2019

Tik-Tok Goes the Progress Clock


Tik-Tok Goes the Progress Clock
Let the wedding bells jingle this holiday season! Erika Ashrakova | RIA Novosti

Quote of the Week

“I listen to music and horse sounds in my apartment. I also knock on the walls all night.”

– A man who was arrested for inflicting mental suffering on his neigh-bors. (Pun credit to Moscow Times)

 

Transgender marriage? Rap and roll!

1. Two transgender people got married in Kazan, Russia. The bride said that they encountered no problems because they had already changed their appearance to look like a traditional man and woman, and received new documents that reflect their gender identity. It is unknown whether this is the first case of transgender persons getting married in Russia, though the bride Erika said she has heard of others. First came love, when the couple met two months ago, then came marriage, and soon may come a baby in a baby carriage – the newlyweds are planning to stay in Kazan for now, but may later move to Europe and adopt a child. Shout out to the Russian media, which used their correct pronouns. 

2. The All-Russia People’s Front, an organization founded by Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently counts teenagers as part of all Russian people. They demonstrated this by creating a TikTok account this week. So far, their focus seems to be on fighting use of snus – smokeless tobacco packets that are placed under the lip. They even enlisted the rapper Ptakh to help convince kids not to “waste their health on dangerous amusements.” The account only has about 500 subscribers so far, but there are eight million active users of TikTok in Russia, spending an average of 39 minutes on the video site every day. Tick tock goes the clock, the People’s Front is wasting no time modernizing.

All-Russia People's Front TikTok
Staying in front of the latest trends. / Website of All-Russia People’s Front

3. Nothing says the Russian holiday season like rolling up to an office party with… sushi rolls? The food ordering and delivery app Delivery Club found that sushi was the most popular large advance order of the holiday season in Russia. They drew the same conclusion from March 8th Women’s Day orders. Clearly, sushi is on a roll in Russia. Just don’t expect the Japanese version: almost all Russian sushi is made with cream cheese, and some even includes chicken and mayonnaise. Continuing the trend of localized foreign foods, the second, third and fourth most popular orders were khinkali, kebabs and pizza. 

 

In Odder News

  • A pine tree saved the life of a 16-year-old Russian girl, whose accidental fall from her ninth-story balcony was softened by the tree’s branches. Who needs birds and pears? The best Christmas gift is a girl in a pine tree. 
  • No time like New Year’s to give yourself a present. One out of ten Russians is planning to treat themselves this holiday season. 
  • A 97-year-old World War II veteran Alevtina Gruzdkova became a poetry-reciting and war-stories-telling Instagram star after she was robbed. She used her popularity to let Putin know she was robbed of justice after the crime. 
Elderly woman World War II Russian veteran
Who says Instagram is only for the youth? / Rambler

 

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

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.
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.
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.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
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.
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.

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