Cool things about Russia thread

[Elok]

Because I want to be the change I want to see, and stuff. This thread is not for political crap or bad things about Russia, only cool things. Positivity, people. My sons are reading a book about Ivan the Terrible, and it contains this neat part where Ivan is doing something, uh, terrible, I think involving massacring a village, when a "Holy Fool" challenges him to stop. Ivan is not impressed. The Fool offers him a piece of meat, which Ivan declines on the grounds that he does not eat meat during Lent. The Fool says he does much worse by eating the flesh of his fellow man. At that moment an opportune clash of thunder occurs and Ivan, ever superstitious, gets spooked, calls off the massacre, and leaves.

A tradition of clergy who pretend to be homeless lunatics, but who stand up to utterly terrifying despots when they misbehave: a cool thing about Russia.

[Elok]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXr0m7SaGvs

A scene from the Soviet propaganda film Alexander Nevsky. Propaganda or not, A.N. is artistically quite significant and technically impressive, and inspired a number of other filmmakers. If you watch the whole thing, you can see how the director of the original Conan the Barbarian (from the eighties) took cues from it; Thulsa Doom and his vile enforcers are deliberate echoes of the marauding crusaders in this film. I shamelessly copied the framing of the battle-on-the-ice scene here for a chapter in Pyrebound. It loses some of its impact from the (naturally) dated props and effects, but Profokiev's score has lost none of its power, and I think he may have been the first person to make a battle scene more awesome by adding PORTENTOUS SINGING IN LATIN. Many, many years before John Williams did it for the final duel of Return of the Jedi.

[Elok]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yhBEQlH_Y

Soviet bootleg Winnie the Pooh. They only made three shorts totaling forty minutes, but my wife adores it (I got her a book about the trilogy for Christmas one year). One of Disney's Winnie the Pooh directors met the director of the Russian trilogy and admitted to him that he thought the Russian version was better than his own. I've seen the first two, and particularly like the second, where Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's house. The creators decided to satirize middle-class visiting manners at the same time; it's quite funny. I think this is the first one, though. It can be tricky finding English-subtitled clips on YouTube.

[Broken_Erika]

I always wanted to have a Russian road trip from St.Petersburg to Vladivostok in a Lada Niva. With an obvious stop at the Kubinka Tank Museum.

[Uncle Sparky]

My ex owned a Lada in the early '80s. Any trip outside an urban area was an adventure.

[Serb]

Because I want to be the change I want to see, and stuff. This thread is not for political crap or bad things about Russia, only cool things. Positivity, people. My sons are reading a book about Ivan the Terrible, and it contains this neat part where Ivan is doing something, uh, terrible, I think involving massacring a village, when a "Holy Fool" challenges him to stop. Ivan is not impressed. The Fool offers him a piece of meat, which Ivan declines on the grounds that he does not eat meat during Lent. The Fool says he does much worse by eating the flesh of his fellow man. At that moment an opportune clash of thunder occurs and Ivan, ever superstitious, gets spooked, calls off the massacre, and leaves.

A tradition of clergy who pretend to be homeless lunatics, but who stand up to utterly terrifying despots when they misbehave: a cool thing about Russia.

Do you know that as a deeply religios person Ivan-IV have had ordered to serve a memorial service in Church for everyone whom he had sentenced to death or otherwise brought to death?

Those books, known as church synods that contains the EXACT names of his victims are well known now!
Technically now we know EVERY NAME of his "victims".
Every name and surname!!! EVERYONE!!!
And it's less than four thousand people for all his half century regin!
At the same time his Western collegues have killed 40 thousands of his citizens just at one St. Barthomews's massacre!
40 thousand in a one single night!

And you (the West) spread those lies about Ivan the Terrible for CENTURIES!!!

You are just lairs!!!

[Serb]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXr0m7SaGvs

A scene from the Soviet propaganda film Alexander Nevsky. Propaganda or not, A.N. is artistically quite significant and technically impressive, and inspired a number of other filmmakers. If you watch the whole thing, you can see how the director of the original Conan the Barbarian (from the eighties) took cues from it; Thulsa Doom and his vile enforcers are deliberate echoes of the marauding crusaders in this film. I shamelessly copied the framing of the battle-on-the-ice scene here for a chapter in Pyrebound. It loses some of its impact from the (naturally) dated props and effects, but Profokiev's score has lost none of its power, and I think he may have been the first person to make a battle scene more awesome by adding PORTENTOUS SINGING IN LATIN. Many, many years before John Williams did it for the final duel of Return of the Jedi.

Both Prokofiev and Eisenstein were genius.

[Serb]

And back to Eisenstein and Ivan the Terrible.

Here is a quote from Charlie Chaplin:

"His (M. Eisenstein film) Ivan the Terrible, which I saw after the Second World War, was the acme of all historical pictures".

[Broken_Erika]

Well, Ivan the Terrible did seem to be mentally ill, although he did turn Russia into an empire but, look what happened to his oldest son.
The next ruler died childless....
All in all, you don't build an empire unless you are not a nice person.

[Serb]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yhBEQlH_Y

Soviet bootleg Winnie the Pooh. They only made three shorts totaling forty minutes, but my wife adores it (I got her a book about the trilogy for Christmas one year). One of Disney's Winnie the Pooh directors met the director of the Russian trilogy and admitted to him that he thought the Russian version was better than his own. I've seen the first two, and particularly like the second, where Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's house. The creators decided to satirize middle-class visiting manners at the same time; it's quite funny. I think this is the first one, though. It can be tricky finding English-subtitled clips on YouTube.

Check this out, it was made in 1952, when Stalin was alive:

A motion capture you say?

We knew this technology under Stalin!

The original Soviet version of 1952 is visually much better:

Walt Disney was crying in awe back then!

[Serb]

Well, Ivan the Terrible did seem to be mentally ill, although he did turn Russia into an empire but, look what happened to his oldest son.
The next ruler died childless....
All in all, you don't build an empire unless you are not a nice person.

When you build an Empire - you always being demonized! Period!

[Egbert]

I grew up in a very remote place. No television and only three radio broadcasters could be heard where I lived.
Those three broadcasters were:
- our national government owned broadcaster, the ABC (mostly boring)
- the Voice of America (absolute drivel with dudes simply trying to tell people what to think. They did not even showcase the good things about America)
- Radio Moscow (very well spoken presenters with an exemplary command of the English language. Their propaganda sought to showcase Russian and Soviet culture and there was much that was good for them to showcase. Yes, Russia does have good things. Books, music, science, arts, music and so forth)

I listened to Radio Moscow.

[Jon Miller]

Often times the best physicists and algorithm scientists, particularly over the age of 40, are Russian. And no longer working in Russia.

JM

[PLATO]

I took a linear algebra class from a Russian that escaped from behind the iron curtain (He must have been close to 60 at the time). He was both brilliant and hilarious. One of the most fun math classes I ever had and I actually learned a lot from him.

[BeBMan]

Mussorgsky He made great music, and reportedly has been very Modest.

Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" We had it in school at some pt. Also used to great effect in season 3 of Fargo.

Peter I was leading in the global fight against Hipster culture when he banned beards

[Serb]

Mussorgsky He made great music, and reportedly has been very Modest.

Sure he was! That was his first name!

(a good one, really)

[ZEE]

Rasputin, I believe, was one of The Prophets. He was clearly favoured by the spirits, so much so that they kept him alive after several assassination attempts. I had a t-shirt custom made with his picture on it, but the idiots did not make it right and it got ruined in the wash.

I am going to make another. Rasputin is one of the few humans I admire.