June 30, 2026

Пухосос ~ Word of the Month


Пухосос ~ Word of the Month
Pukh getting ready to fall. Budda

This is our language column that each month focuses on a word or phrase trending in Russian culture and society.


In early June, poplar fluff is everywhere in Moscow. There’s so much of it that people with allergies leave the city. Teenagers try to set it on fire, and young children love it almost as much as they love snow in winter. This year there was an especially large deposit of fluff from the city's poplar trees; it stuck to shoes and got tangled in hair – and a video appeared online about robots that clean up the fluff: the пухохосы, “fluff-suckers.” The word is a combination of пух “fluff” and сос – the root of the verb “to suck”; by analogy with the word пылесос “vacuum cleaner,” which sucks up пыль, “dust”.

<div data-object="image" data-objecticonclass="mi-image" data-async="false" data-instanceid="B651DD27-E174-4431-A7814C143B7C4CC9" class="mura-async-object mura-object mura-active mura-object-select" data-objectid="3381A907-D3E7-4180-998A879EFA578B58" data-render="client" data-src="/sites/default/assets/Image/online/2026/pukheverywhere.jpg" data-stylesupport="{&quot;objectminheightuom&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;objectmarginuom&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;objectpaddinguom&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;objectbackgroundimageurl&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;objectBackgroundPositionY&quot;:&quot;top&quot;,&quot;objectBackgroundPositionX&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;metamarginuom&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;metapaddinguom&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;metabackgroundimageurl&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;metaBackgroundPositionY&quot;:&quot;top&quot;,&quot;metaBackgroundPositionX&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;contentmarginuom&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;contentpaddinguom&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;contentbackgroundimageurl&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;contentBackgroundPositionY&quot;:&quot;top&quot;,&quot;contentBackgroundPositionX&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;css&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;objectstyles&quot;:{&quot;minHeight&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginTop&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginLeft&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginRight&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginBottom&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingTop&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingLeft&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingRight&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingBottom&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;color&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundColor&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundImage&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundSize&quot;:&quot;auto&quot;,&quot;backgroundRepeat&quot;:&quot;no-repeat&quot;,&quot;backgroundAttachment&quot;:&quot;scroll&quot;,&quot;backgroundPositionY&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundPositionX&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;zIndex&quot;:&quot;&quot;},&quot;metastyles&quot;:{&quot;float&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginTop&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginLeft&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginRight&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginBottom&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingTop&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingLeft&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingRight&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingBottom&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;color&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundColor&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundImage&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundSize&quot;:&quot;auto&quot;,&quot;backgroundRepeat&quot;:&quot;no-repeat&quot;,&quot;backgroundAttachment&quot;:&quot;scroll&quot;,&quot;backgroundPositionY&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundPositionX&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;zIndex&quot;:&quot;&quot;},&quot;contentstyles&quot;:{&quot;textAlign&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginTop&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginLeft&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginRight&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;marginBottom&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingTop&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingLeft&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingRight&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;paddingBottom&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;color&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundColor&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundImage&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundSize&quot;:&quot;auto&quot;,&quot;backgroundRepeat&quot;:&quot;no-repeat&quot;,&quot;backgroundAttachment&quot;:&quot;scroll&quot;,&quot;backgroundPositionY&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;backgroundPositionX&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;zIndex&quot;:&quot;&quot;}}" style="width: calc(100% - 14.484375px);"></div>

Moscow is a hyper-technological city where delivery robots have already become commonplace, so users readily believed the news about the arrival of the “пухососы” The video went viral, and people from all over Russia actively commented on it, demanding that local city governments purchase such machines. 

A fun Instagram reel about puzhosos.
A fun linguistic lesson on Pukhososi

However, it all turned out to be a hoax – the video was created by employees of a content agency. Nevertheless, the news continued to go viral, and people began discussing not only the problems of down and urban infrastructure, but also, of course, the frightening realism of the artificial image. The пухососы took on a life of their own, spawning new memes about similar robots that would be useful in other cities – for example, лужеловы “puddle catchers” in rainy St. Petersburg and эчпочмаковозы “echpochmak (a Tatar pastry) carriers” in Kazan. Various media outlets wrote about the пухососы; the popular website on linguistic rules, “gramota.ru,” conducted an analysis of the term; and experts began calculating how much the technology would cost if it were brought to life. 

Yandex, Russia’s search engine, even launched a game for its users. When you searched for пухососы or “poplar fluff,” a distinctive blue rover would appear that you could control to suck up the fluff which had scattered across the screen.

By mid-June, however, the hype surrounding the pukhososi had died down – not because the fluff season had ended, but rather due to another modern technological development. On June 18, real – not fake – videos emerged showing Ukrainian drones flying to the capital, and Muscovites had other things on their minds than пухососы (and two days ago Ukrainian drones hit a major refinery in Moscow, engulfing a large section of the city in black smoke)

Thus, those innocent little blue machines became not only a symbol of people’s defenselessness against the “neuroslop,” but also, it seemed, the last vivid episode of the capital’s rich and carefree life, which goes on as if there were no war in sight.

Pukhosos meme
The Yandex Pukhosos animation

 

You Might Also Like

  • December 23, 2025

"Careful What You Say At School"

How mothers raise children under censorship and propaganda -- and what it does to the minds of parents and kids.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Murder and the Muse
December 12, 2016

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

The Little Humpbacked Horse
November 03, 2014

The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

Fearful Majesty
July 01, 2014

Fearful Majesty

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.

Jews in Service to the Tsar
October 09, 2011

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.

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.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

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...

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

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.

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.

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices
May 01, 2013

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, 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