Yep… it’s winter before winter in Russia again! It’s ten more days before the official faceoff, but Ol’ Baba Winter is goin’ on strong in the Rodina, as this picture from Piter shows. That’s the Winter Palace… today, the restored palace forms part of the complex of buildings housing the State Hermitage Museum (the official website of the museum complex is here). By the way, nothing in Washington comes even close to the Ermitazh in scope or grandeur… so, all American claims of “exceptionalism”, “indispensability”, and “unique goodness” are nothing but vacuous bullshit. The Ermitazh is the real deal (it was around BEFORE the USA even existed… fancy that)…
BMD
Comments Off on 11 December 2016. Our Great Russian Motherland… The Winter Palace in Piter… Yes… That’s a RECENT Pic
The Petropavlovsk Fortress (Петропа́вская кре́пость: Petropavlovskaya Krepost) is the original citadel of St Petersburg, founded by Tsar Pyotr I Alekseyevich Veliki on 16/27 May 1703, and built to the designs of Domenico Trezzini from 1706-40. In the early 20th century, the tsarist government still used it as a prison. During the February Revolution, on 27 February/12 March, rebel troops stormed it and freed the prisoners, replacing them with arrested tsarist officials. During the opening of the October Revolution, on 25 October/7 November, the cruiser Avrora fired on the island, but only registered two hits. Nevertheless, the fort quickly surrendered to the Bolsheviks. in 1924, it became part of the State Museum of St Petersburg History. Most graves of Russian rulers from Pyotr I Alekseyevich Veliki to Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich (except for Pyotr II Alekseyevich and Ivan VI Antonovich) are in the Petropavlovsk Cathedral, within the fortress battlements. In 1998, the bodies of the family and entourage of Tsar St Nikolai II Aleksandrovich were laid to rest in one of the cathedral’s chapels.
BMD
Comments Off on 8 May 2016. Our Great Russian Motherland: Petropavlovsk Fortress (Zayachy Island. Federal City of St Petersburg. Northwestern Federal DIstrict)
In the centre of the city, Petersburg residents found a parked van with a young lioness trapped inside. For at least two days, a chain secured the animal to the rear seat, and it had to endure the heat in the closed vehicle.
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Tonna the Lioness belonged to a travelling circus troupe from Penza. The owner explained that their hotel didn’t allow animals on the premises, so, he kept her in the van.
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When the cops showed up, the owners weren’t able to show any ownership documents.
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A veterinarian from the Leningrad Zoo Park, along with animal rights activists, examined the lioness, and they noted that she had rickets. Furthermore, obviously, the lioness wasn’t being fed properly.
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Animal rights activists intend to take this matter up with the Prokuratura. On Saturday, 23 July, the lioness was temporarily placed at the Mariinsky hospital.
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On Sunday, 24 July, Tonna was taken to an animal shelter on Bolshoi Smolensk Prospekt in Nevsky Raion of Saint Petersburg. She’ll stay there for a month… if her owners can’t provide ownership documents before that date.
Mighty Kvass… THE millennial Russian thirst-quencher… would I steer you wrong? Cross my heart and hope to die! Of course, this is a satirical takeoff on Viktor Vasnetsov‘s The Three Bogatyri (a famous Russian painting of the Silver Age).
Here’s a mug of kvass along with a glass of kefir (cultured milk), a cup of chilled borshch, with kapusta (sauerkraut), a kotlet (meat patty), and a pickle on the plate (I’d put some horseradish cream on the kotlet to spice it up)… looks like “Good Eats” for the summertime, no?
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“Just what the bloody hell is kvass?” Thanks for asking… it’s one of God’s best little miracles in the food n’ drink department. For more than a millennium, kvass has been THE Russian national tipple. The town of Zvenigorod, west of Moscow, is known for its authentic preservative-free kvass, which is brewed in the basement of the local Orthodox monastery. It can be either sweet or picquant, flavoured with berries, fruit, or honey. Kvass is produced by fermentation, using an infusion of bread, sugar, water, yeast, and malt. Mostly, kvass is served unfiltered, with the yeast still in it, which contributes to its unique flavour, as well as giving it a high vitamin B content. It has a pleasant refreshing taste, pumps up your metabolism, and it has beneficial effects for your cardiovascular system. Kvass tastes great (could 140 million Russkies be WRONG?); besides that, it’s a great thirst quencher thanks to its lactic and acetic acid content (which also makes it the IDEAL “morning after” cure after a “big night”, right up there with pickle juice). If you drink kvass, you won’t have to worry about vitamin deficiency; it’ll give you plenty of pep, too (I won’t make any claims concerning your love life… you’re on your own in that department, dear). On top of it all, it’s an excellent antioxidant; in the old days, they gave it to patients in military hospitals, for kvass aids digestion due to its carbon dioxide content. Kvass is also a foundation for a series of chilled Russian soups for the summertime (such as Okroshka, a chilled beet soup). It’s mildly alcoholic… but the alcohol content isn’t over 1.2 percent (the usual content is from 0.5 to 1.0 percent)… hey, kids can drink that!
Due to recent immigration, kvass is available in many American and Canadian urban areas at stores specialising in Eastern European food products… pick up some kabanosa, smoked fish, marinated mushrooms, black bread, pickles, and horseradish whilst you’re there… now, THAT’S a picnic!
Квасьте на здоровье! Drink kvass… pump up your health (amongst other things)!
WARNING:
We Russians LOVE kvass and can’t get enough of it in the summer… but for many Westerners, it’s an “acquired taste”… don’t know why that’s so, but that’s what’s what, I’m afraid, ergo, the word of advice. Once you do acquire the taste, though, you can’t get enough of it in the hot weather…
Voices From Russia, Too 
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