What makes the FSU so interesting?

[mendeleyev]

Tim Tebow in Russia?

From this edition of the Mendeleyev Journal:

They met near Moscow's famous Victory Park in February, ready for a bus ride to take on the team in Minsk, capital of Belarus. With snow and ice everywhere, Russian football players, American style football, boarded the bus for the long ride to Minsk, capital of Belarus known as one of the last standing Communist dictatorships in Europe.




As the bus rolled along one coach held a map to assist the bus driver with directions while another coach wearing a USC Trojans sweatshirt drew plays on a small whiteboard, discussing them with other coaches for additional input.


This coach, wearing a USC Trojans sweatshirt, drew up plays.

The bus arrived in Minsk in the very early morning hours, greeted by a lit city sign that read: Мiнск (Minsk) along with the Cyrillic lettering for "hero city" the designation of honour given to cities that survived extraordinary battles in the Great Patriotic War (WWII). Using a press facility for a locker room the team prepared for the game.

Like baseball, American styled football has been exported to Russia although the growth of football has been slower. Russia's main sports are hockey and soccer football, and soccer fans like to tease American football players about the slower pace of the game and the breaks taken after each down is played. Soccer is a faster paced game with few chances to rest as play is continuous and players must be competent at quickly adjusting from offense to defense.


(Storm football. Photo: MrBy/Roman Redkobaykin)

Those things being said, you might be surprised that American styled football has been in Russia since the later Soviet years and as explained in a recent story in Russia Beyond the Headlines, seems to have caught the fancy of a few sports fans. Some would argue however that most fans are the football players themselves and the few in attendance to watch the games are primarily family and close friends.


(photo: Black Storm versus the Russian Jets team)

According to the story in RBTH, the Russian American Football Championships have been held annually since 2002, though the story of American football’s development in Russia began back in the perestroika years. The first team, the Federaly (Federals), was founded in the town of Ozersk (Chelyabinsk Oblast), where a local hockey coach, Alexander Kovrigin, trained the first Soviet football players in the American version of the game. In those days, no suitable equipment was available in the Soviet Union, so they used hockey gear and motorcycle helmets. In 1987, the Federaly won the first American Football Championships in the Soviet Union.

So here we are in September 2013 and one Russian Football team, the Moscow Black Storm, says that they're interested in talking with Tim Tebow after his recent release to free agent status. In America Tebow has the ability to draw fans, but would he represent enough drawing power to make an attendance impact in Russia?


(Photo: Denver Broncos media)

Will Tebow play for the Russian Black Storm?

While some NFL games are shown on Russian sport channels, the largest average attendance at a Russian American styled football game is around 500 fans. Small numbers in a country where games are often played in soccer stadiums designed to seat thousands.

Except in larger cities, most games are played without goal posts and officials watch carefully to see if the kicker has cleared the field's lower and more narrow soccer goal for the kicking game.



This Moscow soccer field has a regulation goal post for American football.Some Russian teams are on the verge of shutting down for lack of revenue and the lack of a fan base is an obvious economic factor. Even so, some businessmen are banking on the sport eventually growing. But when and how fast?


(Moscow Black Storm visit Nizhny Novgorod.)

Even the bigger and better funded teams play an amateur style at best. A player like Tebow would stand out immediately but he wouldn't have the same caliber of supporting cast on the team. The season runs from January with championships played in May.

Tebow might enjoy the challenge just to play the Russian Бронкос (Broncos) and exact a little revenge.


Linemen and pizza must be an international thing.

Team sizes are smaller in Russia and most players must play offense and defense. Substitutions are crucial as subs are expected to learn more than one position. The pay is low and travel is long--mostly long distance by bus. Because of the distances many teams schedule back to back games, playing a game on Saturday and then again on Sunday against the same team.

Some games are played inside indoor soccer facilities such as this game between the Moscow Black Storm and the Saint Petersburg Griffins.





In Soviet days when American football was just beginning in Russia, the average player salary ranged from 500-to-1,000 rubles a month, two-to-three times more than the average worker's salary in the Soviet Union. Today most teams refuse to discuss salaries and it is rumoured that a few of the smaller teams haven't paid players for months.

Who needs a salary when the teams has cheerleaders? Known in Russian as a "support group" cheerleaders are so important that the Black Storm website explains it this way: they captivate the audience in a wave of positive emotions and good mood!

One can only imagine.


(photo credits: Roman Redkobaykin, Konstantin Konstantinov and Yulia Ivanova. Moscow Black Storm website: http://www.moscowblackstorm.ru)

[mendeleyev]

Let's see, we can lead with the fact that Ufa city has a street named after me, Mendeleyev; or perhaps we can lead with the fact that this video contains young ladies in miniskirts. Hmm, what could be more interesting that an street? Probably little so now it is time to join Sergei and Sergei of "Real Russia" TV for a birthday party in Ufa!

Did we forget to mention that the birthday party takes place at an address on Mendeleyev Street with young ladies in miniskirts?

[mendeleyev]

Is racing popular in places other than the USA? Yes, however I don't know if Sergei # 2 was more interested in filming legs, wait, I do know. He was. Sergei # 1 does a good job of providing commentary so let's go to the Russian drag races!

[mendeleyev]

Congratulations to Sergei and Sergei of Real Russia Television on your first anniversary! I've enjoyed watching your success every step of the way and look forward to even larger success in the next 12 months. You started from nothing, two local guys in a town far away from the national spotlight and with a personal camera and a $ 5 microphone you've made something with content that is always new and interesting. As we say in Russia, "many years!"
 
 

[mendeleyev]

From the Mendeleyev Journal:

Everything about Marina Tsvetaeva, one of Russia's most celebrated poets, is complicated; even the day she was born in 1892, on 26 September Old Calendar corresponding to 08 October New Calendar, is confusing. Her life, her loves, her family and her writing reflected the confusing times in which she lived.

A first-hand witness to the Bolshevik revolution, she was no Communist and hated the deceit and confusion spawned by the Soviet system. Her young husband, Sergei Efron, fought on the side of the White Army during the civil war that followed.


Artist: Aida Lisenkova-Hanemaayer/Marina Tsvetaeva Museum/Yeltsin Foundation Cultural Fund

As to her deep connection to her writing, Tsvetaeva expressed that “every verse was a child of love” and it showed.

Every verse is a child of love, A destitute bastard slip,
 A firstling - the winds above - Left by the road asleep.
 Heart has a gulf, and a bridge, Heart has a bless, and a grief.
 Who is his father? A liege?
 Maybe a liege, or a thief.

Not widely known outside Russia is that the Bolshevik revolution ushered in a long five year famine in Russia and one of her daughters, Irina, died of starvation in 1919. She fled to Europe for several years and received her formal education at the Sorbonne (University of Paris) and the Charles University in Prague. She was the mother of three children; Irina, Ariadna, and Georgy.

Her father, Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, was the founder of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and her allegiance to Russia was strong but she hated Communism with an even stronger passion.

O, tears that in eyes freeze!
 The cry of love and pain!
 My Chekhia's in tears!
 In blood is all my Spain!

O, mountain of black,
 You shaded all the world!
 It's time to return back
 My ticket to God.

Yes, I refuse to be
 In Bedlam of non-men.
 Yes, I refuse to see
 How wolves of squares do slain.

Yes, I refuse to wail
 With field sharks of all ranks.
 Yes, I refuse to sail
 Down the stream of backs.

My ears I need more not,
 My eyes I needn't to use,
 To all your crazy world
 One answer - 'I refuse.'

After returning to Russia her husband Sergei and daughter Ariadna were arrested in 1941 and Efron was executed on charges of espionage although unbeknownst to Marina he had been recruited by the NKVD. Marina Tsvetaeva committed suicide later that same year.

In Moscow visit her home, the Marina Tsvetaeva Museum and Cultural Centre at 6, Borisoglebsky Lane. For hours, telephone the museum at 495-695-35-43 or 495-697-53-69.



Museum of Marina Tsvetaeva. Moscow, Borisoglebsky Lane, 6. Русский: Дом-музей Марины Цветаевой. Москва, Борисоглебский переулок, 6 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Museum website: www.dommuseum.ru

Click this link for our highly recommended site to learn more about the life and writings of Marina Tsvetaeva.

[jone]

Great story, Mendy!  I shall look up the museum before my next trip to Moscow and pay it a visit.  Reading the short verses, I could relate to her pain.

[mendeleyev]

Thanks, Jone. I know that you will enjoy it. Her former apartments in Korolev (outside Moscow) and Yelabuga (Tatarstan) have been made into memorial museums too.

[Anotherkiwi]

Thanks, Jone. I know that you will enjoy it. Her former apartments in Korolev (outside Moscow) and Yelabuga (Tatarstan) have been made into memorial museums too.

Yelabuga is where she died and is buried.  I only wish that I had known of her before I visited that city.  I spent a few hours there during my trip to Naberezhnye Chelny (it's about 30 minutes away by bus).  We went to the Ivan Shishkin Museum (the great painter's former home) and the small but wonderful City Museum just about next door, with its amazing collection of traditional costumes from all around western Russia.  The War Memorial Park, with a commemorative wall, is well worth visiting, and we had a fabulous cafe lunch which cost about $5 for the two of us.

[mendeleyev]

Mendeleyev Journal:

Barbie is 55 years old. She is still younger than some of us at the Mendeleyev Journal but 55 is a recognition of the staying power of the world's most famous doll from generation to generation of little girls. Very impressive!






Six Russian designers have come up with new Russian style fashions for Barbie; Kira Plastinina, Alena Ahmadullina, Alexander Arutyunov, Anastasia Romantsova , Oleg Ovsiev and Natasha Goldenberg.

Several of the Russian Barbie dolls were outfitted with the famous Orenburg shawls accompanied with fur headbands, pearl earrings and shoes with silk laces.

According to Russia Beyond the Headlines, the new doll collection will be available for sale during the International Charity Bazaar, with money raised from the sale of Barbie dolls in Russian designer outfits benefiting Russian charities.

Popular Russian singer Alla Pugacheva has agreed to model for a new series of Barbie dolls.


(photo: woman.ru)

Our Russian speaking subscribers can read more at woman.ru

[mendeleyev]

Ford has always had a strong presence in Russia given it's factories there since the times of Joseph Stalin. I like the new Ford Kuga, called the Escape in some areas of the world. Pickup trucks never caught on in the FSU, mainly as to how they are taxed as commercial vehicles but it will be interesting to see how SUVs continue to make inroads.

[mendeleyev]

Two leading stars of Ukraine's X-Factor at first went out of the way to belittle this young lady, but eventually their conversion to accepting her talent is well, nothing short of a miracle.

Fans, especially young kids looking for position role models, have embraced her and she is climbing in the charts and CD and concert sales are booming for this budding pop star.

Meet Aida Nikolaichuk (Аида Николайчук). Hmm I like that first name, same as my wife, but no relation.

Here she gives a brief television interview in the city of Херсон (Kherson) Ukraine and as you can see she has become a popular role model for kids. With an endorsement from Ukrainian star Ani Lorak and the recent signing of a recording contract with Sony Records, obviously someone other than the kids recognizes her talents.




Her singing...

[mendeleyev]

There is a thread that runs through each of Andrei Kovalev's songs.

The thread? A beautiful woman.

The beautiful lady in this first song is actress Elena Korikova.

At 41 years Elena is very lovely; almost (but not quite) as beautiful as the lovely and talented Mrs. Mendeleyeva. But I digress. In this song, "My Woman" Andrei sings and Elena gets the staring video role. She is easy on the eyes.




Many of his songs are serious and about love but some of his music pokes fun at life, like this video with Katya Lel, "Men and Women" portraying how each prepares for a date. Pay close attention to what happens at the very end of the song. Funny, just like Andrei:




Common themes in his songs are either getting the girl or losing the girl. Hmm, maybe he is just like the rest of us, after all. If you find it necessary to chase down a girl to keep her, at least do it in a nice sports car...like this one:




Perhaps a little early for October but one of our favourite Kovalev songs is this holiday song about snow. In the video, Kovalev picks up a drunk Grandfather Frost on New Years' Eve and takes him home to show his wife and daughter. Very cute.

[mendeleyev]

Fashion Week in Moscow, followed by the Miss Universe pageant. Dang, it has been 3 weeks of eye candy for guys in Moscow.
Mendeleyev Journal coverage: http://wp.me/peVMt-2Z0

This last week was Fashion Week in Moscow, sponsored by Mercedes Benz and admittedly it was a good week to be in Moscow with beautiful ladies seemingly everywhere.






Fashion week is an annual event in Moscow and this year took place a week earlier than normal in order to coordinate with this week's Miss Universe festivities. The Miss Universe contestants celebrated Fashion week along with Moscow residents.




Miss Honduras,Diana Schoutsen Mendoza enjoyed Fashion week festivities at the Crocus City Mall in Moscow.

The Miss Universe contest is currently underway at Crocus City Hall in Moscow. The reigning Miss Universe, Olivia Culpo, is from Rhode Island, USA. Miss Culpo is a professional musician who plays with the Boston Accompanietta.


.

Miss Universe 2012, Olivia Culpo, Rhonde Island, USA. (Photo by Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com)

Miss Culpo was one of the judges for the Miss Russia pageant and of course you're wondering how did she like Russia and Moscow, right?





The girls have been here for three weeks and the finalists will be selected on 5 November, this coming Tuesday. Tuesday's preliminary competition will not be shown on television but will be streamed live at www.MissUniverse.com.




Miss Universe contestant Riza Santos of Canada outside the Novodevichy Convent.

A few days ago the girls, there are 86 of them from around the world, toured the Moscow Raceway where some of the girls tried their luck at driving race cars.


 


Friday night the girls attended the Atlant Moscow vs Lev Prague hockey game where they posed for photographs and handed out most valuable player awards after the game.

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Miss Universe ladies at a hockey game in Moscow.



Miss Finland, Lotta Hintsa, seemed to enjoy the action.

There are three main categories to the pageant; the bikini competition, an evening gown fashion show, and the interview segment. Interestingly the Miss Universe pageant was borni n 1951 because a Miss America contestant objected to the swimsuit category and a separate contest was formed to give ladies an alternative.






According to Miss Universe managing partner Donald Trump, the 2013 show is promised to outshine all previous shows in the pageant's 60 plus year history. Trump and NBC Television own the Miss Universe Organization. NBC will air the main pageant on 9 November at 9pm Eastern Time in the USA.

[mendeleyev]

Some of my friends may freak out if only reading that the preliminary judging will not be televised. So here is reassurance that you can watch the ladies prance around on stage:

NBC will air the main pageant on 9 November at 9pm Eastern Time in the USA.

NBC Universal sells the rights to TV networks worldwide so check your local listings.

[Ooooops]

Thick eyebrows are back in fashion, I see…   Brezhnev would be proud.   

[mendeleyev]

 

[Ooooops]

I was just watching "Office Romance" couple of days ago.  "Eyebrows have to be thin as a thread and risen in wonder."      Sweet 80s…   

[mendeleyev]

 It is time to take a short 3:41 minute journey. Through the wonder of time lapse photography you will in 3 short minutes see the small city (300K pop) of Vologda. The city was founded in the year 1147 and is filled with historical buildings, monuments and churches. Nestled along the Vologda river, northwest of Moscow and south of Saint Petersburg, it enjoys life in between Russia's two capitals.
 
 The city has its own Kremlin (fort). A beautiful and rare style of ancient Russian pillow lace is made here and Vologda is a transportation hub for the region. The Vologda river is large and carries major freight transportation. Oh, and some of the best butter in the world is produced here. This is awesome video so click on your wide screen to watch.
 
 
 

[Anotherkiwi]

It is time to take a short 3:41 minute journey. Through the wonder of time lapse photography you will in 3 short minutes see the small city (300K pop) of Vologda.
...This is awesome video so click on your wide screen to watch.

Very nice!  Mendy, I see that it was made by an oufit called "gorodvideo."  Are they a company which does this sort of thing for other cities as well?  I can't get into their website to find out anything about them.

[mendeleyev]

Kiwi, I had the same experience but found them on vk. http://vk.com/gorodvideo

It looks as if that may be their first but apparently they're planning more. I hope they do!

It also appears that they created this video as a byproduct of a music video they produced using the same footage:



The singer in the video is Oleg Skretch. He and Alexei Zorin co-produced the city video as well and are possibly the principals of the production company.

[Anotherkiwi]

Kiwi, I had the same experience but found them on vk. http://vk.com/gorodvideo

It looks as if that may be their first but apparently they're planning more. I hope they do!

It also appears that they created this video as a byproduct of a music video they produced using the same footage:

The singer in the video is Oleg Skretch. He and Alexei Zorin co-produced the city video as well and are possibly the principals of the production company.

Thanks Mendy.   
 
I would love to see what they could do in other Russian cities that I've visited, such as Kazan or Sochi - Moscow and St Petersburg already have many similar videos.

[Ooooops]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/completely-unexplainable-russian-dating-site-pictures

[mendeleyev]

Ooooops, just proof that Americans don't hold title to the only weirdos in the world. They come from every place and in every shape and size. 

[mendeleyev]

In conjunction with Ooooops dating photos, here are some funny Russian photos not of dating but just odd life. They are from a blog post titled "Meanwhile in Mother Russia."

http://thechive.com/2013/11/06/meanwhile-in-mother-russia-35-photos/




 
 

[mendeleyev]

For those readers who were sitting around asking themselves the age-old question of how Gusli are made, here you go. This video features beautiful sounds as the instrument is being made. Gusli is said to be the oldest handmade musical instrument in Russia.