October 10, 2019

To and From Russia with Love


To and From Russia with Love
Winter may be coming, but at least cultural exchange makes our hearts warm. Yakutiya 24 | Youtube
 
Quote of the Week
“May you also have a child, and not be afraid to call her the name of this great country.”
– Immigrants to Russia from Azerbaijan that named their daughter “Russia”

 

Climate Change, Dragonglass, Craft Beer: Which One is Fake News?

1. Greta Thunberg is a worldwide phenomenon, but this week she is especially a Russian one. Putin is the latest world leader to criticize the activist, and Thunberg (like most Russians, according to a recent survey) take criticism in stride. When Putin called her a “kind” girl who doesn’t understand the world’s complexities, she mockingly changed her Twitter bio to “a kind but poorly informed teenager.” However, her warnings about our impending climate doom may find a home in the Duma; the parliament’s vice-secretary of environmental issues invited her to speak. 

2. The Night’s Watch can now watch over George R. R. Martin, from a shelf. Jewelers and bone carvers from Yakutiya presented the Game of Thrones creator with a three-kilogram statue of John Snow. The figurine holds a “dragonglass” (as explained in the books, actually obsidian) sword with a traditional Yakut amulet design, and is inscribed with the words “To George Martin, from Yakutiya with love.” In a video that was played on local Yakutiya TV, the writer expressed his gratitude and emphasized the ability of art, and fantasy in particular, to cross-cultural boundaries.

3. For the second week in a row, beer makes headlines in Russia. This time, authorities are alleging that craft beer does not exist. It doesn’t officially exist now, but it especially won’t exist starting in 2021, when new regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union about alcohol safety will take effect. From that point, only drinks with specific ingredients in certain proportions can legally be called “beer.” But cheer up: you can still say cheers clinking mugs of fancy “beer drinks,” as craft beers will now be called. 

 

In Odder News

  • Soviet sailors strike again: a Russian message in a bottle was found on a Brazillian beach. 
Russian message in a bottle that washed up in Brazil
Intergenerational, cross-cultural communication, from one group of partygoers to another. Paula Souza | Gouchazh
  • A 16-year-old from Tula who was stiffed on compensation for fixing an elevator decided to steal some of its parts – so that he could build his own elevator from scratch.
Stolen elevator parts
Rarely are stories about theft so oddly uplifting. / Tula City Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs | Lenta
  • An elderly man was caught on video giving his happy cat a ride on a playground carousel. 

Confirmed: there is at least one way to spin a cat. / Slito Corp | Youtube


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Some of Our Books

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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.
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.
Fearful Majesty

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This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
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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.
Chekhov Bilingual

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Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
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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.
Jews in Service to the Tsar
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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.

Bears in the Caviar
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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.

Moscow and Muscovites
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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. 

White Magic
June 01, 2021

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.

A Taste of Russia
November 01, 2012

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.

Little Golden Calf
February 01, 2010

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.

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

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.

Fish
February 01, 2010

Fish

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

Murder at the Dacha
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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.

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