by Elliott Erwitt

Moscow, 1968

Russia, Norilsk by Christophe Jacrot

#aparrently a forensics lab disposed a bag of hands improperly which like. how. how do you do that

don’t worry about it

Wooden architecture of Vologda, Russia

Yusupov Palace, St Petersburg.

Russian soldiers witness the awakening of an elder god.

Why does this stuff always happen in Russia? What are they doing?

Reality decided that’s the only place where it can cut lose, considering they don’t seem to give a fuck about anything. 

“According to some of the YouTube comments, the fire was caused by burning zinc, and the screaming came from the underground pipes that had somewhat of a ‘flute’ effect when the air passed through the tubes.“ 

cool

http://en.zockme.com/screaming-fire-eerily-burns-out-of-the-ground-in-russia/

me: okay that’s a fire what’s so weird about it *unmutes* ………..okay…….

‘Learning Russian has given me a whole new life’ Mary Hobson: It took me about two years [to read War and Peace]. I read it like a poem, a sentence at a time. English writer and translator Mary Hobson decided to learn Russian at the age of 56, graduating in her sixties and completing a PhD aged 74. Now fluent in Russian, Hobson has translated “Eugene Onegin” and other poems by Pushkin, “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, and has won the Griboyedov Prize and Pushkin Medal for her work. RBTH visited Hobson at home in London to ask about her inspiring experience. 

RBTH: Learning Russian is difficult at any age, and you were 56. How did the idea first come to your mind? 

 Mary Hobson: I was having a foot operation, and I had to stay in bed for two weeks in hospital. My daughter Emma brought me a big fat translation of War and Peace. “Mum, you’ll never get a better chance to read it”, she said. I’d never read Russian literature before. I got absolutely hooked on it, I just got so absorbed! I read like a starving man eats. The paperback didn’t have maps of the battle of Borodino, I was making maps trying to understand what was happening. This was the best novel ever written. Tolstoy creates the whole world, and while you read it, you believe in it. I woke up in the hospital three days after I finished reading and suddenly realized: “I haven’t read it at all. I’ve read a translation. I would have to learn Russian.” 

RBTH: Did you read War and Peace in the original language eventually? 

M.H.: Yes, it was the first thing I read in Russian. I bought a fat Russian dictionary and off I went. It took me about two years. I read it like a poem, a sentence at a time. I learned such a lot, I still remember where I first found some words. “Between,” for instance. About a third of the way down the page. 

RBTH: Do you remember your first steps in learning Russian? 

 M.H.: I had a plan to study the Russian language in evening classes, but my Russian friend said: “Don’t do that, I’ll teach you.” We sat in the garden and she helped me to remember the Cyrillic script. I was 56 at this time, and I found it very tiring reading in Cyrillic. I couldn’t do it in the evening because I simply wouldn’t be able to sleep. And Russian grammar is fascinating. 

RBTH: You became an undergraduate for the first time in your sixties. How did you feel about studying with young students? 

M.H.: I need to explain first why I didn’t have any career before my fifties. My husband had a very serious illness, a cerebral abscess, and he became so disabled. I was just looking after him. And we had four children. After 28 years I could not do it any longer, I had break downs, depressions. I finally realized I would have to leave. Otherwise I would just go down with him. There was a life out there I hadn’t lived. It was time to go out and to live it. I left him. I’ve been on my own for three years in a limbo of quilt and depression. Then I picked up a phone and rang the number my friend had long since given me, that of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London University. “Do you accept mature students?” I asked. “Of sixty-two?” They did. When the first day of term arrived, I was absolutely terrified. I went twice around Russel square before daring to go in. The only thing that persuaded me to do it was that I got offered the place and if I didn’t do it, the children would be so ashamed of me. My group mates looked a little bit surprised at first but then we were very quickly writing the same essays, reading the same stuff, having to do the same translations. 

RBTH: You spent 10 months in Moscow as part of your course. How did you feel in Russia? 

 M.H.: I hardly dared open my mouth, because I thought I got it wrong. It lasted about a week like this, hardly daring to speak. Then I thought – I’m here only for 10 months. I shall die if I don’t communicate. I just have to risk it. Then I started bumbling stuff. I said things I didn’t at all mean. I just said anything. The most dangerous thing was to make jokes. People looked at me as I was mad. I hate to say it, but in 1991 the Russian ruble absolutely collapsed and for the first and last time in my life I was a wealthy woman. I bought over 200 books in Russian, 10 “Complete Collected Works” of my favorite 19th-century authors. Then it was a problem how to get them home. Seventy-five of them were brought to London by a visiting group of schoolchildren. They took three books each. 

RBTH: You’re celebrating your 90th birthday in July. What’s the secret of your longevity? 

M.H.: If I had not gone to university, if I had given up and stopped learning Russian, I don’t think I’d have lived this long. It keeps your mind active, it keeps you physically active. It affects everything. Learning Russian has given me a whole new life. A whole circle of friends, a whole new way of living. For me it was the most enormous opening out to a new life.

HOW TO HELP TORTURED GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA

We can’t allow this to continue. A petition has also been launched by change.org and signed by tens of thousands of people.

It demands a full investigation of all the facts and unlawful repression in Chechnya of the LGBT population and calls for punishment for the ‘guilty parties’ and the end to the practice of extra-judicial violence.

You can sign that here.

Instagram.com/WeTheUrban

Can y'all share this please???

by Neger (Roman)

River Sherna, Russia

why do russians end their sentences with) while texting. ??

Yeah I was wondering the same thing! Can anyone explain?

ooh i’m glad to explain this! see this smiling face :) ? well! in Russia we somehow ended up not using the eye part. so if someone texts you with lots of “))“s in the end of their message, they are just trying to be friendly and smile! same with (, if a russian person ends their message like that((, it means they are sad. hope that helped!)

#russians dont have eyes

When we say NEVER AGAIN we mean NEVER AGAIN. 

If you have queer friends in Russia, do not try to contact them to ask if they’re ok.

Russia has an insidious history of monitoring online communications of its citizens, especially political dissidents, and even though Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook/etc. are owned by American companies, they have to travel through Russian servers to get to your friend, which could get them in a lot of trouble.

If you want to help, I recommend donating to RUSA LGBT, a nonprofit that works to provide sanctuary to queer folks in Russia and Central Asia.

Thank you @tessacrowley for this important information.

Holy shit

Some have asked me to make a post regarding gay men being rounded up in Chechnya. Now, let me just clarify that details are very slim because the government is denying this (obviously) and there are a lot of posts on tumblr with misinformation. So I’ll do as best I can here:

source. source. source. souce. source. and here’s the original Novaya Gazeta article. It is in Russian but it may be of interest to you if you can read it or your computer translates. 

Concentration camps are opening in Russia.

Do not let us die again, we where left once before because of a part of ourselves we can’t control.

Don’t let is die, don’t ignore our cries.

LGBT concentration camps are Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov solution to the “gay problem”. This is real. This is happening right now

Here

Statement from the Russian LGBT Network:

the highlighting was mine- don’t dm people asking if they’re ok and if they know about this. even if you think your messaging system is secure. encryption is a two way street, and if their end is NOT secured it doesn’t really matter what your end has. especially since those arrested have had their phones confiscated, you do not want to give the authorities any more evidence. however, if you are in a position to do so, posting about it publicly will increase the odds that those who need this information see it. 

St. Petersburg: Champ de Mars, the Savior on Spilled Blood

Saint Petersburg