Wink /
10:35 am Wed, Apr 6, 2016
See sample pages from this book at Wink.
Fuel Publishing, based in London, has carved a niche in the book world by creating books that document the small dark corners of Soviet history. You may be familiar with the series of books, Russian Criminal Tattoos, that revealed the language of body ink and the hierarchies of gulags. CCCP Cook Book uses the same obsessive attention to detail to great effect.
When your country is wholly dependent on what the obshchina (collective farm) produces, what you eat is a political act. CCCP Cook Book delves deep into the history of dishes beloved by generations of Russians evolved from both the ideal of equal for all and the realities of planned food production in a country of nearly 170 million.
Visually, CCCP Cook Book adheres to Fuel’s high-minded design aesthetic. The full-page photos that illustrate the recipes are faithfully reproduced in the faded colors and garish contrasts that plagued cookbooks (regardless of origin) throughout the mid-century period.
Knowing that “Soviet” in Russian means "assembly" helps understand that Soviet cuisine isn’t necessarily Russian food. Central planners developed recipes based on projected harvests and preserved foods. Fresh herring wasn’t available in Taskent, but tinned (preserved) fish could be distributed throughout the country. Workers were fed meals at their workplaces that helped standardize recipes, as commissary cooks were required to follow the famed manual, “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food.”
That guide purposefully adapted regional dishes into new, improved Soviet recipes. Vorschmack has its roots in Jewish cuisine, but is easily recognized today as our own deviled eggs. Read the rest
Kolejka ("Queue") is a popular satirical Polish board game that lampoons life under Stalinist rule; the Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has banned publisher IPN, the Polish "Institute of National Remembrance," from distributing its Russian version of the game unless they remove "anti-Russian" elements that are "excessively critical" of the USSR.
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Russian law provides for a national censorwall that entertainment companies can populate with the URLs of websites they dislike, without much oversight or review (it's similar the system used in the UK in that regard).
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Russian soldiers who screw up are made to carry gigantic wooden props that illustrate their sins: for example, if you're caught looking at your phone, you have to run around with a massive fake wooden cellphone strapped to your back until you've learned your lesson.
Other punishments include carrying massive guns made out of logs (showing up without your weapon), carrying huge logs painted to look like cigarettes (caught smoking on duty), and carrying massive log-swords (forgetting your bayonet).
Russian Army Punishments [Semper Annoying]
(via Super Punch)
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A European-Russian spacecraft headed out from our humble little planet to space today, in search for life on Mars.
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Vladimir Putin says Russian troops will begin withdrawing from Syria starting Tuesday, the day which marks 5 years since the start of Syria's bloody civil war. Putin's pledge is a move to help advance U.N.-brokered peace talks that resumed today.
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The spawn of Russia's 0.0001% are alive and well, enjoying police escorts, helicopters, ski resorts, private jets, gold-plated Bentleys, megayachts, luxury wristwatches, pet lion cubs, photo opps with Vladimir Putin, and their own Instagram account.
Кто там сказал понедельник день тяжёлый?😂💸🇺🇸🍾👯 - by @alexander_dgr8 #RRK #RichRussianKids #audi #r8 #armanddebrignac #domperignon #villa #la
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Feb 15, 2016 at 12:05am PST
Баршаңызға сәлем #RRK из Майами, летим тусить😎 У кого какая погодка сейчас?😉🚁☀️🇺🇸 - by @maks_rr_ w/ @muratx01 #RichRussianKids #helicopter #miami
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Feb 20, 2016 at 8:14am PST
Московское время 120🍋₽, получше твоих паленых g шоков😂💸⌚️🔝 - by @invisible #RRK #RichRussianKids #hublot #ulyssenardin #rogerdubius #louismoinet #urwerk #greubelforsey
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Feb 20, 2016 at 3:24am PST
Чего там на #RRK нового, ищу компанию на лето😂💸🏎🇮🇹 - by @ml_max #RichRussianKids #mclaren #650s #italy
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Feb 18, 2016 at 1:12am PST
Кто там сказал понедельник день тяжёлый?😂💸🇺🇸🍾👯 - by @alexander_dgr8 #RRK #RichRussianKids #audi #r8 #armanddebrignac #domperignon #villa #la
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Feb 15, 2016 at 12:05am PST
Summer '15 #tb ☀️🛥🍺 - by @papa__doma #rrk #RichRussianKids #yacht #corona
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Dec 23, 2015 at 6:56am PST
GM Miami🇺🇸 - by @polinaaam #rrk #RichRussianKids #miami
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Dec 23, 2015 at 2:11am PST
Yacht day☀️🛥 - @anastasiyakot #rrk #RichRussianKids #yacht #mauritius #girls
A photo posted by 🇷🇺 Rich Russian Kids (@richrussiankids) on Dec 13, 2015 at 1:23am PST
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Dimitri Tsykalov, a Russian-born sculptor living in Paris, sculpted a series of gorgeous, haunting skulls out of fruits and vegetables in the mid-2000s (previously), documenting his work with photographic prints.
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It's like something out of Mad Max: a Russian biker gang-cum-militia wearing wolfy helmets, operating in the ruins of Eastern Ukraine. They are "fiercely loyal" to Vladimir Putin and to Christ, but not to families they left behind.
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Folks, don't try this with the gigantic bear you have at home.
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Ole Vlad's figured out how to troll the west: celebrate corrupt, populist strongmen who brazenly lie while fronting for the rich and powerful.
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Lyonya Shilovsky, a 3-year-old drummer from Russia, leads an orchestra of grown-ups in this cute 2014 video re-making the viral rounds.
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A Wikipedia editors has been suspended after he organized a meeting with the Russian Federal Drug Control Service (as well as Rospotrebnadzor, a consumer rights watchdog, and Roskomnadzor, a media watchdog) to set terms under which "the expert opinion of authorized government bodies" would be inserted into Wikipedia entires on “socially sensitive” topics.
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In the past few days there have been a flurry of stories about the Russian plane that crashed in the Sinai peninsula, which investigators reportedly think may have been caused by a bomb. Notably, anonymous US officials have been leaking to journalists that they believe ISIS is involved, and it’s a perfect illustration of the US government’s rank hypocrisy when it comes to the Edward Snowden disclosures.
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Over the course of 12 years, photographer Christopher Herwig traveled more than 18,000 miles around Eastern Europe to photograph the incredible, brutalist, experimental, and downright bizarre bus stops built during the Communist era. He compiled the results into a new book titled Soviet Bus Stops.
“I’d never seen such a variety of creative expression applied to a public structures before,” Herwig told Vantage. “The designers pushed the limits of their imaginations. They did not hold back and sometimes, maybe, even they went too far...These bus stops are less about the Soviet Union as a whole and more about the local regions and individual artists … people who were often creatively oppressed.”
Soviet Bus Stops (Amazon)
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Hassan Abdo Ahmed Mohammed, his wife, and four children escaped the Syrian civil war to settle in Russia. The Kurdish family landed in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport but the Russian government says the family's visas are fake. If they return to Syria, they may be killed. So they have been living in the airport for 50 days while lawyers try to sort out their status. UNICEF brings them food and, a week ago, the United Nations and an NGO convinced Russian authorities to permit them to spend their nights in a terminal hotel room. From CNN:
Mohammed thinks Russia's close ties with the embattled Syrian government are interfering with his plans to enter Russia.
"Russia has a very strong relation with the Syrian regime, and they don't want to encourage Syrians to leave the country," he said.
Mohammed's lawyer said the Syrian government checked out their passports and said they were authentic. Russian authorities are now investigating the the passports, the lawyer said, and should come to a decision soon.
"Kurdish family fleeing Syria stuck in Moscow airport for over 50 days"
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Adafruit Industries takes a fascinated look at the VIDEOBLLST_R, an arm-mounted electronic buckler that projects line-art on any night-time surface you aim it at, giving you the power to produce video graffiti on demand.
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