Daily Life – Generation P: Edward Crabtree's blog.

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY….

A Moral Panic has set in in Russia and other post-Soviet states over the internet-lead youth craze of Quadrobics.

When the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met up with his Armenian counterpart last October, he opened the discussion with a mention of what he called `one of the most important news items`. The bespectacled man-of-substance was not referencing the demographic ruination of his own country nor the imminence of an exchange with the West in which atomic weapons could be in use. He was lamenting the rise of quadrobics among Russia’s youth and asking whether Armenia was suffering the same disgrace.

Mad or fad?

Quadrobics – or Kvadrobika – consists of a portmanteau word fusing `Quad` (four) with aerobics and is a New Age unofficial sports subculture. This has been promulgated online, via Tik-Tok in particular. The game constitutes a player running and jumping on all fours. A mask of a fox, cat, dog or wolf may be worn and animal behaviours imitated.

Its origins can be traced to one Kenchi Iko, otherwise known as `Tokyo’s Monkey Man`. This cleaner turned athlete made it into The Guinness Book of Records for achieving the fastest 100 metre run – on all fours (The Independent, 12/11/15).

This innovation, supplemented now with a bit of animal cosplay, found adherents in America and Germany. Following that, a key source called Introduction to Quadrobics was posted online by Iridescent in 2015 before going viral five years later.

The demographic for this craze is made up of 7 to 14-year-olds. For reasons we can but only speculate on, quadrobics has taken particular root in Russia, Ukraine and the CIS countries as of last spring.

Russian companies have been quick to capitalise on the craze by supplying the paraphenalia [uzum.vz]

A Subject of Scandal and Concern.

The catalyst for the backlash arrived last summer. It did not come at first from Duma deputies and Church dignitaries but from a pop starlet.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mia Boyka was playing at an open-air concert in Nadym, north-east of Moscow, when an 8-year-old girl, being lost, came onstage to locate her parents. Boyka, seeing that the girl was donned in quadrobic gear, used the occasion to lambast the child for her hobby. This brusque behavior became a cause celebre with other pop singers, like Egor Creed, coming to her defence (even wearing a cat mask as he did so). Other celebrities, like Ksenia Sobchak also chimed in in support of the girl and her past-time. The battle lines had been drawn.

Quadrobics has some very young followers [Youtube]

Some of the ensuing quadrophobia issued from those who – either with sincerity or to score a point – joined the dots between this new fad and other wilder subcultures. Therians, for example, are those who believe themselves possessed of an `animal soul`. Furries, on the other hand, like to take on the roles of anthropomorphised animal characters. Neither of these trends have an inherent link to quadrobics and nor, for that matter, does the LGBTQ+ community.

Apocryphal tales have also helped to ramp up the panic. It is said that in Odessa a pack of quadrobers attacked an elderly lady and in Omsk a woman walked about with her child on a leash. Meanwhile, in Serpukhov, a town in the Moscow oblast, a mother took her 12-year-old to the vet to be vaccinated (these stories came to me – unsourced – from the blogger Setarko, 20/10/24).

Among the politicians to lambast this youth craze was none other than the Ombudsman of Children’s Rights in Tartastan, Irina Volynets. As someone who argued for the decriminalization of domestic violence, her objection to the `removal of boundaries` in this sport comes as no great shock. Deputy of the 8^th State Duma Tatiana Butskaya went further in characterizing quadrobics as `satanism` last July.

The Russian Orthodox Church seems to concur. One berobed eminence suggested that young quadrobers should be deprived of the use of toilet paper, as `what use does a cat have of toilet paper? ` (Belsat: East European Review (Vlog), 29/10/24).

Another prominent nay-sayer is Nikita Mikhailkov the grandfatherly Slav Nationalist head of the Russian Cinematographers Union who is a familiar talking head on the Rossiya 24 T.V channel. His take on is predictable: it is a Western LGBTQ+ plot.

This stance, however, is not unanimous. Ekaterina Mizulina who heads the League for a Safe Internet opposes banning it (Gazeta.Ru, 3/10/24). Even the arch-conservative Vitaly Milonov, a State Duma Deputy, has also said the same (Life.Ru, 27/04/24).

It remains to be seen whether the Kremlin will take action against this craze. However, kindergartens and schools are already holding cautionary pep talks with their charges about it.

The kids are all right.

I have spoken with a number of teenage ethnic Russians and Kazakhs about quadrobics. The subject elicits a little embarrassment. Most deny personal involvement in it but know those who partake. There have been quadrobic events held in the central park in Karaganda, Kazakhstan (where I am based). The motive for the sport is boredom and a desire to stand out, they have told me, but it is in decline, possibly due to ridicule. The one middle-aged mother who I have asked about this refers to it as a `perversion`, citing its Japanese origins as evidence of this, yet without much strength of feeling.

My own feelings are ones of relief that some members of Generation Alpha have torn themselves away from their chatbots, got offline, are meeting each other in person and are `touching grass`. The videos it has birthed are sometimes works of acrobatic art. Besides internet crazes are nothing new: we have had bitch slapping, geolocation treasure hunting, the `ice bucket challenge` and many other such fads come and go before without the sky falling down.

The moral panic in Russia about quadrobics just seems to be another facet of the cancel culture which has befallen Russia since 2022 in particular. The pulling of Empire V from the cinemas, the slamming of `propaganda for childlessness`, the reported banning of Halloween celebrations from some schools and the recent curtailing of a tour by the rock-band Kis-Kis (for which I had tickets) are all similar examples.

However, the game Dungeons and Dragons is still with us after all these years (for better or worse) and there were those in the West who tried to outlaw that when it first began.

Lead image: Pinterest.com

THE WINDS OF PEACE.

More and more leaders and commentators are seeking a diplomatic endgame to the tragic Russo-Ukrainian war. Can this still be achieved?

The Slav versus Slav civil war known as the Russo-Ukraine conflict is reaching its third year. To gauge the toll of life so far is not so easy. Wikipedia puts it at 50, 000 people (which does not include those injured). For the Russians the figure already exceeds those lost in Afghanistan or Chechnya.

Meanwhile some 30% of Ukraine, including its protected areas, have been contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance.

Should you step back and take a long view of the whole debacle, Phaedrus’s phrase `two bald men fighting over a comb` springs to mind.

The prospect of Russia conquering the whole of Ukraine seems like a pipe dream. Even were it achieved it would require Russia to then govern a nation full of saboteurs and endless threat of NATO incursions, as well as increased dependence on China.

On Ukraine’s side, they will never be accepted as a member of NATO while they are at war with such a large power. Nor is Ukraine considered by the European Union to be at the right stage of political development to be welcomed into the fold.

Yet still the prevailing mantra of most commentary in Western Europe is that we must provide Ukraine with military backing for `as long as it takes` (whatever that even means).

Jens Stoltenberg – NATO Secretary General and a sort of Norwegian Tony Blair -thinks he knows. He has advised us that Europe `must be prepared for a decade of war` (BBC, 8^th July 2024).

How prepared are we though?

War sceptics.

Malevich’s Black Square – which is used as a meme by anti-war Russians [fruitnice.ru]

A recent poll conducted by the European Commission of Foreign Relations in twelve European countries in January of this year found that only 10% of people believed that Ukraine will be the victor. This figure may have changed a bit since the incursions into Kursk (of which later) but a more significant finding is that 37% of respondents take the view that the war can only end through diplomatic negotiations. Meanwhile in Ukraine – as reported by the Kyiv Independent this July 15^th– 44% of the public think the time is right for such negotiations.

Some commentators make comparisons with the Finland Winter war of 1939 to 1940 where Finland won lasting autonomy by conceding 9% of its territory to the Soviets. Even a seasoned diplomat like Henry Kissinger recommended Ukraine to consider a similar option.

Green shoots of sanity.

In the infamous interview with Tucker Carlson of February 11^th February this year, Putin stated that Putin would recognize an independent Ukraine if only it were not hostile to Russia. We are, he said, ready for negotiations. This claim would later be reinforced by a statement by Dmitry Peskov on August 1^st (RIA Novosti, August 4^th, 2024).

At around the same time the Eurasian Daily informed us that Andrei Yermak, Head of the Office of Zelensky said:

`We need to end this conflict` and went on to propose that peace talks `could take place in the countries of the global south` (August 2^nd, 2024).

The much-loved Russian vlogger Konstantin Samailov of Inside Russia recently broadcast a session titled `Peace is coming`. In this address he made a number of observations about the economic bind that Russia now finds itself in. He also suggested that Russian society is ditching its `war marketing` and that the pro-war messaging from the mass media has begun to mellow in favour of a `new narrative conditioning`.

Opinion formers step up.

In Britain, signs have also appeared indicating a sea change among the intelligentsia.

Emma Ashford works as a Senior Fellow for the Re-imaging U.S Grand Strategy in Washington. In a piece for The Guardian (22^nd April 2024) called `Did Boris Johnson Really Sabotage Peace Between Russia and Ukraine? ` she looks at the spring talks in Istanbul that occurred in 2022. She concludes that while there was no deal in existence to be signed Russia was ready for compromise. She concludes:

`If Western policy makers can step in and persuade Ukrainian leaders to fight on in 2022, they can offer advice about entering into negotiations in 2024 and beyond`.

On similar lines, the long-standing journalist Simon Jenkins, writing for the same paper, wrote an opinion pieced called `Farage’s Ukraine Comments Were Not Offensive`. This began with a reference to the loquacious leader of the conservative Reform Party in the U.K who disconcerted some by daring to suggest that Russia and Ukraine should sit down and (quoting his hero) `Jaw-jaw rather than war-war` (Churchill).

Jenkins, whose political orientation is very different from Farage’s agrees with him on this issue:

`The West’s urgent task must be to get Putin off his self-impaled meat hook and stop the bombing and killing` (The Guardian, 24^th June 2024).

A bit earlier a joint letter had appeared in The Financial Times. This was signed by Lord Sidelsky and eight other prominent academics and journalists. Headed `Seize the Peace Before it’s Too Late` it insisted that:

`Washington should start talks with Moscow and a new security pact which could safeguard the legitimate security interests of Ukraine and Russia…. this would immediately be followed by a time limited ceasefire in Ukraine [which] would enable Russian and Ukrainian leaders to negotiate in a realistic, constructive manner`. (July 10^th, 2024).

Diplomatic offers.

As early as March 2022 Turkiye and Israel put themselves forward as mediators between Ukraine and Russia. Their framework consisted of Ukraine remaining neutral but with multilateral security guarantees and a fifteen-year consultation period on the status of Crimea (quincyist.org).

China too, despite its close economic ties with Russia, has made repeated calls for `harmony` between the warring nations. Their first 12-point peace plan was praised by Segei Lavrov as `the most reasonable one so far` (Reuters, April 4^th 2024).

However, they followed this up with a 6-point peace plan produced in tandem with Brazil which they claimed had the support of more than 110 countries (Pravda Eng, 3^rd August 2024).

Also, this year, Hungarian President Viktor Oban, in his role as the rotating leader of the European Union, toured many countries touting his own peace solution. This called for a ceasefire linked to a deadline that would allow for peace talks (BBC, 12^th July 2024).

Last April Recep Erdogan, the President of Turkiye unveiled his own peace plan. The proposed measures involved a ban on interference in other countries affairs, a complete prisoner exchange, freezing the war on existing terms, a foreign policy referendum in the Ukraine by 2040 and Ukraine joining the European Union but not NATO (N.V. Nation, April 11^th, 2024).

So many peace proposals have been put on the table, but the question is: Can Russia and the West ever work together?

Co-operation is possible.

Americans and Russians do remain capable of joint activities in certain areas. Astronauts and cosmonauts carry out missions with one another on the International Space Station and are projected to keep on doing so until at least 2025 (Moscow Times, December 28^th 2023).

Then we had the prisoner exchange at the start of this August organized between Washington and Moscow. Twenty-six people were exchanged in these negotiations making it the largest such swop since Cold War times (C.N.N. 1^st August 2024).

Moreover, the most significant international deal (as well as the first one) was brokered on July 22^nd 2020. In the Black Sea Grain Agreement, Turkiye, the United Nations, Ukraine and Russia co-signed a pact in Istanbul which ensured the safe passage of grain exports.

What about Kursk?

All that said, there may be many who are in agreement with the foregoing but feel that Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russian territory has ended any hope of further talks and diplomacy and indeed has led to a ratcheting up of the situation.

As much as Western military pundits have hyped up this bold action, there does remain something symbolic at work here.

At the time of writing the Ukrainian military have seized land that is in rough terms about the size of ten per cent of the Greater London region in the UK. Lives have been taken, of course, but the Ukrainians have taken many more Russian conscripts as prisoners and have otherwise given the Kremlin the time and space to plan mass evacuations of thousands of people from the affected regions. For their part, the Russians have not taken any drastic inhumane measures such as carpet bombing the area and the much-feared prospect of reprisals with nuclear warheads has not materialised.

Military experts seem to concur that the Ukrainian army is not that likely to be able to continue to advance that much further into Russian soil. The Ukrainians themselves have stated that they do not intend to keep this land forever. So, what is really going on here?

Putin himself may have hinted at the deeper motive behind this gesture. In an emergency meeting with officials he said of it:

`It appears that the enemy is aiming to improve its negotiating position in the future` (Channel 4, 13^th August, 2024).

What future negotiations did Putin have in mind exactly?

The diplomatic offensive.

The winds of peace are blowing and to know which direction they are blowing in we must ignore the siren voices of superficial rhetoric. One fond rhetorical illusion is the one which tries to frame this war as a repeat of the Second World War. The Western press likes to paint Ukraine as another Poland in 1939. Similarly, Kremlin propaganda seeks to portray the `special military operation` as an extension of The Great Patriotic War`.

However, just as the Ukraine is not just teeming with neo-Nazis, so too nor is Putin a contemporary Hitler. I know of no serious evidence, for example, that he or his regime holds any designs on the Baltic states, still less Sweden. Citizens of the `democratic West` must, with right and left united, lead the charge of the diplomatic offensive. They must make their anti-war views known through all channels from demonstrations to petitions and demand that the leaders of the world pull the plug out of the meat grinder.

Monument to peace in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan.

Main image: gas-kvas.com

OF RETIRED GENERALS,VOX POP CHANNELS, ARMISTICE AND….LINE BREW.

MY NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE AND HOPE FOR A POLITICAL SETTLEMENT FOR THE RUSSIO-UKRAINIAN WAR IN THE `YEAR OF THE RABBIT`.

…..`So why is there a war at all? ` asks Tjaden.

Kat shrugs. `There must be some people who find the war worthwhile.’

`Well, I’m not one of them`, grins Tjaden.

`No, and nor is anybody else here`….

`And I bet there are other people behind it all who are making a profit out of the war’ grumbles Detering.

`I think it’s more a kind of fever’, says Albert. `Nobody really wants it, but all of a sudden, there it is. We didn’t want the war; they say the same thing on the other side – and in spite of that, half the world is at it hammer and tongs`

`They tell more lies on the other side than our lot though,’ I put in. `What about those leaflets the POWs had on them, where they said that we eat Belgian babies? People who write things like that ought to be strung up. They’re the real villains`.

From All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Wilke (1929).

The news death of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev at the end of August last year in a hospital in Moscow came loaded with a dreadful symbolism.

Here was a prominent figure, who in spite of some quite obvious weaknesses, had dedicated much of the latter part of his life to internationalism, peaceful co-operation between East and West and disarmament. His official send off in his own country seemed paltry and almost begrudging – with the President himself too tied up in matters of war – to even put in an appearance.

Salivating generals.

This is a great time to be a retired military man in the West. You will be much in demand as a hired talking head wheeled onto an endless raft of online radio channels and YouTube stations with your every word hung on like never before. Your task is to foresee the imminent implosion and `break up` of the Russian Federation – something that NATO, as one of the sponsors of this awful conflict – has long set in its’ sights.

Since the Western public’s appetite for this costly drawn out war of attrition is not that great, the narrative also has to be spiced up with claims that the Russian troops are leaving behind booby trapped toys for Ukrainian children to stumble upon and have been setting up torture chambers for children too. These lurid claims, circulated with little concrete corroboration, are as about as convincing as the propaganda to the effect that the Huns were gobbling up Belgian babies in the First World War.

For this last year I have contemplating getting down in writing my fervent desire for a diplomatic political settlement to this war, for an armistice at least – yet I have always hesitated before adding my voice to the mix. I feel as if I am somehow not yet equal to the task. It appears, after all, that I am just a simple guy who likes novels, films and rock/pop.

Still, for those with eyes to see there are already fresh takes, with a bit more perspective, to be found on what is happening in the Ukraine. Jeffrey Sachs, Kate Hudson, John Pilger, Russell Brand, or even – if you can stomach his brand of `Red Fascism` – George Galloway…to name a few.

It is harder to feel any optimism about assistance coming from Russia itself: The Brain Drain afflicting that country was an issue long before the war but, of late (and particularly since the mobilization of last September) this exodus of the intelligent youth has been exacerbated in an exponential way.

And yet…and yet rock bands who have taken an antiwar stance continue to tour (the band LOUNA came to Almaty this week – alas I could not attend this time for health reasons) promising and original films (albeit conceived before 24^th February last year) continue to be produced and distributed in Russia and beyond (see above).

Another promising sign is the ongoing phenomena of Russian You Tube Vox Pop channels. One example is the indefatigable 1420 but there are others. In these shows there are a significant number of Russians on the streets of cities and towns who are not afraid of expressing sentiments critical of Putin’s war.

Whilst we must appreciate those Vloggers who have set up shop in nearby countries the better to continue to get news and views out without fear of molestation –Inside Russia and NFKRZ – come to mind, a special call out needs to made for those oppositional vloggers who have made a point of staying put, such as a young woman going by the name of Agent Nesty.

Observation post in KZ.

This issue is close to the bone for me as I am one of those who – after a lot of prevarication -took the nearest exit. I had a life in Moscow but the kind of freedoms I felt I needed both as a blogger and private citizen were more and more in question there.

I am now basking in the polite hospitality of the good people of Kazakhstan, where there a range of delicious types of Lagman to try, a decent local beer (Line Brew) and some affordable ballet.

Better still, even if the Kazakhstan leadership seems as corrupt as they come, their foreign policy does contain much to admire. Kazakhstan is one of the few nations to have volunteered to rid itself of nuclear weapons. The nation now pursues a `multisector` approach to international relations. This has allowed them to be neutral-cum-critical in their stance on Russia’s invasion. Anti-war protests have been given the green light in the cities of Kazakhstan and not only that but Almaty staged a concert featuring many Kazakh artists called Voice For Peace on July 31^st last year. Furthermore, Tokyaev has told Putin to his face that he will not recognize the legitimacy of territories seized by Russia in their land grabs.

So, it seems that I am safe here to continue as before. Now however there is a slight new twist to what I am about. Russia has become one of the most despised – and isolated – nations in the developed world and my job is to now pull from the fire some of the most hopeful cultural embers that come out of that nation and put them on show.

I will do so to build bridges. The stark fact is that, sooner, or later, this hellish civil war will just have to grind to a halt. When it does so the West will need to resume relations with Russia again and, on the way, will need some stepping stones to help them cross. We need to avoid repeating the history of what happened to Germany following the end of the First World War and its subsequent spiral into Nazism, which led to further wars.

And, who knows, I may start to incorporate some of the colonized Central Asian cultures of the post- Soviet period into my remit as well – such as those of the Kazakhs.

The `Year of the Tiger` may not have been the End of Days that it seemed Something good may yet emerge on the Eastern front – and you will read about it here.

WISHING YOU INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION FOR 2023!

Artwork representing a world cultural mix – on show at the stae Museum of Art in Kazakhstan.

Lead imge(of the International Space Station – the last outpost of Russian-Western co-operation) – is from Wkimedia Commons.

DESIGN FOR LOUNGING.

FOR SOME THE KRUZHKA BARS ARE SPORTS BARS – OTHERS ARE JUST HERE FOR THE BEER.

Below street level we find a septic alcove with orange walls and chunky polished dark wood tables lit by a creamy lamp glow. A posse of twenty-somethings lounges on leather armchairs as if set for the night.Between them lies a four litre beer dispenser from which they pump autumn leaf coloured ales into heavy glass tumblers….
Welcome to a standard Kruzhka bar.
Kruzhka – meaning `mug` or`tumbler` -represents Moscow’s premier sports bar and beer restaurant chain. Its affordable wares and relaxed ethos ensure that it remains a stopping off port for many a student and expat.

Part of the cityscape.
The first of these opened its doors in March seventeen years back in the Profsouyuznaya area in the south-east of the city. Since then – from Proletarskaya to Prospekt Vernaskovo, Taganskaya to Chertonovskaya – Krushka emporiums with their signature illuminated orange-knife-and fork-with-beer tankard-between have been sprouting up near metro stations throughout the metropolis. They come and go. For example, a pleasant one in a wooded part of Voikovskaya has just vanished as has a long-standing one on Gazetny Pereleuok but there are always new ones to replace them.

A Moscow initiative,the network has been bleeding into locations as distant as Khanti-Mansisk and Tumen (both in West Siberia) and there can even be found on in Minsk, the Belorussian capital.
The product.
The owners of the Kruzhka empire maintain a low public profile. Enter a Kruzhka bar and you will be served by young men from Tajikistan or Azerbaijan who, whilst not quite the all smiles and help of a jolly inkeeper, seem attentive and hard-working enough.
Despite some pretension to being a craft beer specialist, the main beverages on offer are Zhiguli and their own house beers, all going for an average of 190 roubles for 0.5 litres. Their plain Krushka beer is pleasant but real hangover material.
Not so the Kruzhka Pshenichnoye – their Wheat beer-which is a velvety quaffable delight and counts as one of my favourite beers.

As a Brit, the process of drinking and eating are worlds apart, so I have little personal knowledge of their food. Between midday and 5 pm (or later, if they are in the mood) a scorched burger can be yours as can pork and chicken sausages, borsch with smetana and pelmeni in broth: standard Russian fare for which you can expect to pay no more than 300 roubles.
In refreshing contrast to all the craft beer joints with their Deep Purple and Green Day standards, the soundtrack to Kruzhka bars are youthful and townie friendly Russian lounge hip-hop.
On every wall is fixed a TV screen which, when not nagging you about some dismal soccer match, is either switched on to Bridge T.V. giving us up-to-the-minute European pop or showing promotional slides of people Having a Good Time in Krushka bars.
It is no surprise to discover their brand template -the menus, the colour scheme, the funky orange rugby shirts that the staff wear, the butch furniture and glasses – is to be found among all their bars .But there is still room for variety.
The Chistye Prudy Kruzhka resembles a sanitised German bierkeller whereas the one in Prospekt Mira a chilled living room, with a hookah lounge next door. In terms of buildings, the Partisanskaya Krushka, on Izmailovskaya Shosse, resembles a Japanese temple plonked without ceremony right in front of the Alfia hotel.

Sports intrusion.
That Kruzhka is a sports bar is something that I like to forget. Many an evening there has been besmirched by the goggleboxes showing green pitches with screaming commentary and by non-regular punters jumping up and down bawling `Davai! Davai!`
If, as the old saying has it, `Golf is a good walk ruined` – then… football is sure as hell a good drink ruined!
But,when without the sound and fury of penalty shoot outs, a Kruzhka bar can feel like an unpretentious haven. The interiors are well-maintained and never either too chilly or sweltering. You can get mellow there with no questions asked.
As my companion for many years, the places have their own snapshots of memories.
That time a friend of mine wanted to order a non-bloody beef burger. We spent some time looking up the Russian phrase that would get this idea across and said it to a waiter who, lo and behold, returned…with a chicken burger!
That chubby lawyer who accosted me once as he downed expensive champagne in his two piece suit, to drown that bad time a woman at work had given him…
The group of old dears who came in for an impromptu vodka party and, without asking, had the rap music switched to Soviet period ballads in their honour….
That false summer last June when a hired band was playing on the patio in front of the Prospekt Mira Kruzhka. They were cranking out a decent version of `Sunshine Reggae` and a random beaming young woman from the audience joined in on the tambourine….
The Kruzhkka bars, amenable to all and somehow very Russian, form a vital part of post-Soviet Moscow daily life.

Featured image: reutov.biglion.ru

Krushka site: www.kruzhka.ru

Vot Eta Da!

SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018:

The exhibition of Modernism without Manifestoes, Chapter 2: Leningrad at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. A reclaiming of the experimentation that was bubbling under during the Stalinist and post-Stalinist periods.
The doppelgänger thriller Selfie by Nikolay Khomerki from last February. A Russian film noir with a fine wintry ambience. Trailer (English subtitles) here. My review here.
Lena Katina (ex tATu) live at Mummytroll in March (reviewed below in tATu retrospective) in which she showcased her single `Silent Hills` in which she takes a promising new `Adult Oriented pop` direction.
The release of Rusalka: Lake of the Dead last July. This confirmed that Svyatoslav Podgaevsky – after Queen of Spades and The Bride is becoming the new standard-bearer of Russian Horror cinema – and is revitalising old Slavic folk myths to do so. (I intend to review this director’s films in unison soon). Trailer dubbed into English here.
The announcement that Dmitry Gudkov is to join forces with Ksenia Sobchak to form a new political party – The Party of Changes. (Although it remains to be seen what their full platform is going to be).
The introduction of the dark writings of Leonid Andreyev to the Anglophone world via the Publication of The Abyss and Other Stories (Translated by Hugh Alpin) by Alma Classics. The Silver Age of Russian Literature can now be appreciated anew.

Some things to come:

It looks set to be a good year for Russian cinema. In science fiction we have Coma and the Gemini Project and Attraction 2 to look forward to. In horror there is The Stray, Dawn, a sequel to Queen of Spades and Svyatoslav Podgaevsky’s latest Yaga: Nightmare in the Forest. The cable car disaster movie Breakaway looks very promising too.
A review of the Rayonnist Mikhail Larionov at the New Tretyakov.
And the fabulous Swan Lake at the…NAH!

GENERATION P: THE ONE STOP SPACE FOR ALL THINGS INTERESTING FROM CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA.

WISHING ALL MY READERS PEACE AND INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING FOR 2O19!

Roaring Boy: the personal and political in Arslan Khasavov’s `Sense`.

Did a Central Asian immigrant write a Catcher in the Rye for the Moscow millenial generation?

I hate cheesy boys and pert, pretty girls who smell of expensive perfumes and drive around in large cars with tainted windows. With wads of money in their designer label bags to satisfy every whim, they have all they need: money, girls, shooters, nice gear…In their world everything matters except your heart.

I once had the acquaintance of a precocious fifteen year old student (now studying Literature at Moscow State University) who had some literary aspirations. He would tell me of the Golden and Silver Ages of Russian writing but never about anything current, until one day I said to him: `You need to get into something a bit more up to the minute, something with people like you in`.

I urged him to read Sense by Arslan Khasavov, a representative tirade from which is given above (pages 44 to 43).

Sense is the first novel (and a calling card) by Arslan Khasavov who is now just reaching thirty. When he authored this mini-masterpiece he was just twenty and, in it, he set down the Moscow of `here-and-now`, at least as it was in 2008. Whilst Khasavov is a Kumyk by birth –an ethnic group found for the most part in Dagestan-he resides in, and has undertaken his studies in the capital of Russia.

Dream come true.

Sense was shortlisted from one of the 50,000 works sent in to the Debut Prize (which gives annual awards to new Russian writers). Arch Tait PEN literature awarded translator (best known for making Anna Politkovskaya’s journalism available in English), took note of the novel and translated it into English. As he is also the UK editor of the Glas new Writing series, this lead to Sense being published by Glas in 2012. Thus it took its place alongside the other 170 authors who have been published by Glas since 1991.

True to life.

Sense is not so much a story as a slice-of-life as seen through the eyes of Artur Kara, a club-footed twenty-year old student who is the first in his family to study at a university. A self-described `day-dreaming slob` he belongs to the post-Soviet Muscovite tribe. Disdainful of the banal lives of his factory working father and mother, he derives inspiration from literature, information from the internet and TV, and his student life allows him the time to mull over it all.

He feels himself to be ranged against those born in the 60’s and 70’s who have presided over the `death of idealism` (p-151). To vault himself above the kind of people he thinks are `unaware that a stupid life has no value` (p-20) he goes in search of greatness. To this end he turns up to meetings, and gets to know the supporters and, in particular the writers, of the youth movements of his time. So we get a journalistic roll call of many of the (real life) hopeful reformers, would-be revolutionaries and militant Islamists who were around in 2008. Kara, however, finds that none of these outfits answer to his need for romance. Then, prompted by some feverish visions that come to him, he creates his own movement which forms the title of the novel – Sense.

Even when cruel reality intervenes in the form of the death of his father, he is only put off his stride for a short while before teetering on the brink of madness….

Intimate.

To read the novel – and I did so in one sitting – is a bit like being collared by a voluble twenty-year old who insists on pouring his heart out to you. This effect gets achieved through intense and sometimes florid prose which is, nevertheless, conversational. Some passages are didactic, but Khasavov has enough distance from his anti-hero to be able to present him in a satirical way (rather as Thomas Mann does with Felix Krull in Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man).

So we are treated to an edgy, but not too hard edged confessional: and it is refreshing to find that it does not concern the Second World War, rural life, or Soviet dissidents and the tone is upbeat. The events all occur in the radius of the Tverskaya area.

In the Moscow of 2008 the economy was still doing quite well and there were more political opposition activities than there are now. Even so, Artur cannot see how he can improve his position within society. His place is at the opposite end of the spectrum as that depicted in Minaev’s bestseller Soulless (2006). Well he knows this too:

I was handsome, strong and talented, and nobody wanted to know. Nobody cared. Was it my fault I wasn’t born into a wealthy family but instead was the son of an ordinary mechanic? Did I stand condemned for that? (P-127).

Critical reader.

My millennial friend came back having read the novel. He shrugged his shoulders.

`I got the bit about him rowing with his parents and all, but it’s not original, is it? And, anyway, it’s written by an immigrant`.

That was his verdict. Perhaps, I wondered to myself that, being still in his teens he was a little too young to really relate to it. What about you though?

If you are in your twenties then I can guarantee that this will contain some words that will speak to you, even if not for you. For those of you who are older it will remind you of what it felt like to be that age.

Sense (translated by Arch Tait) is published by Glas Publishers, Moscow, 2012.

My interview with Khasavov for Moskvaer.

Featured image from Fenbook.ml (Cover picture courtesy Sever Publishing House).

New article on UFOs over Moscow.

Alleged UFO shot over the Zhubelino district of Moscow, 2016
[Picture: proofalien.com]

The good people at Unexplained-Mysteries.com have published an article of mine on the (not often covered) topic of contemporary UFO sightings in and around Moscow:

Moscow’s mysterious lights.

The phenomenon of UFOs does exist, and it must be treated seriously

Mikhail Gorbachev.

What do you think? Let me know in Comments below.

Kamchatka beer bar, Moscow.

The locale of many a lost weekend.

Should you get that craving for sweet relief from the harpy-screech of the Metro ringing in your skull, from the pompous 4-by 4 drivers honking at pedestrians and the lonely crowded thoroughfares – from Moscow in short –then there is a cubby-hole you can head for. This appears in an unlikely setting.

Fancy meeting you here.

Along the upmarket shopping street of Kuznetsky Most you will meet the red neon sign of Kamchatka Pivbar. Named in tribute to Russia’s wild and volcanic peninsula, and part of a chain that also takes in St Petersburg, Kamchatka bar resembles (with apologies to John Osborne) a real, if decayed tooth in a mouthful of gold filings. The café-bar is nestled between Vogue café on the one side and an Asian restaurant known as Mr Lee on the other: both salubrious joints of which I can tell you nothing. Not only that, but the place is bang opposite an entrance to the lordly State Department Store, GUM. Thus may a cat look at a king and seedy hipsters be the neighbours of the tweed-and pearl set.

Cosy dive.

Opening from a pedestrianised street, Kamchatka boasts two floors, one of them a basement. As we enter we encounter an orange brown interior lit by industrial globe shaped lamps. The seats have desks with inverted Heinz ketchup dispensers on them and these are surrounded by a motley assortment of bric-a-brac and retro cool. Above the exposed brickwork big old-looking signs hang from the ceilings promoting outdated looking wares. On the walls, and on the beer mats you can appreciate the saucy kitsch commercial art of Valeriy Baroikin. His idyllic vignettes illustrate `Beer For Cultural Relaxation` on behalf of Zhiguli brewers.

Zhiguli promotional by Valeriy Baroikin.
[Illustrators.ru]

Totter down to the basement hall and you pass a bicycle fixed to the stair railings. Down there parties of people lounge about on small armchairs and halved oil drums with cushions in. You will be needing the spacious male and female toilets there too.

`Better a light beer, than a Bright Future`.

The main attractions are the Zhiguli beers, the cheapest of which – their Barnoye – will relieve you of just 150 Roubles. Served to you by hyperactive student waitresses, this soapy ale delivers the right kind of chillaxing buzz without making you go cross-eyed and singing Rule Britannia. The beer though is gassy – gassier than a gas explosion in a gas factory in Gazigazgorod. So you might have to resign yourself to being a Viz Comic character for the next day.

With a dash of Slavic irony the establishment also offer two FREE bottles of champagne to any customers between 3 and 5 in the morning. This seems rather generous of them until you think it over.

Foodwise there are a number of unmedicinal stomach fillers on offer. Hardy boys at a furnace near the entrance can hammer out a shaurma with chicken, and a number of burgers (which I am told are edible). Soviet style soohariki (dark dried bread) is sold in paper cones at the bar.

The soundtrack constitutes an appropriate mix of technoed-up pop songs by Bratya Grim and Grigory Leps plus the worst of Retro FM. This creates the right kind of nightclub-like expectancy without forcing you to shout at the top of your lungs.

A Bunch of Sweeties.

The clientelle come and go announced by blasts of cold air at the front door. Their average age is 25 and there are two kinds: those en route to something more active and those at the end of a sentimental drinks journey, who are crawling on their lips. In spite of this, I have yet to be enlisted in a fracas here, although I have heard tell of such.

The not-so-elfin doormen are concerned for the most part that you do not bring in anything vegetable, mineral or liquid that would compete with Kamchatka’s sumptuous repasts. They are quite serious about this: I have lost vast banquets of food from the fact that, on the way out, I am too refreshed to reclaim my confiscated items or because the security staff have switched over, or some combination thereof.

Cheer and cheapful.

Kamchatka beer bar hosts an affordable drinking experience in a convivial and unpretentious environment. Even with the rise of micro-breweries, less and less venues in the capital can offer the same.

To get there, come out of Kuznetsky Metro station and…just follow the in-crowd. Or leap into a taxi and ask for `Kamchatka`(although if your drive proves to be a long one you might just be in for a spot of volcano watching).

Kamchatka beer bar on Instagram.