Russia Blog Roundup, 17 June

by Andy on June 17, 2009

It’s been a quiet week this week – I wonder if everyone was out getting drunk on Russia Day?  Anyway, on with the best of this week’s posts:

Finally, courtesy of the Russian President, Gorbachev sings:

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Tunguska Documentary

by Andy on June 16, 2009

100 years after the event, no-one is quite sure what caused the massive Tunguska explosion.  Consensus is that the explosion, which was so powerful it smashed windows hundreds of miles away, was caused by a large metor or comet breaking up a few miles above.  But there are plenty of other theories out there – some sensible, some utterly bonkers – that have refused to die over the past century.

In an attempt to find out what really happened, film-makers George Carey and Teresa Cherfas packed up their cameras and headed out to Siberia.

close-encounters-in-siberia

On their journey they talk to everyone with a theory, from mystics and reindeer herders, to amateur sleuths and serious scientists.  Every one has a theory, ranging from the mundane and probably true (metorite explosion) to the wacky and probably not true (alien spacecraft and anti-matter explosions).

Close Encounters in Siberia, the resulting documentary, will be aired for the first time on UK channel More 4 tonight, and I assume it will make it to more far-flung parts of the world not long after.

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Russia Blog Roundup – 10 June

by Andy on June 10, 2009

Every week I think, oh, it’s been a quiet week, there won’t be all that much to include in the weekly blog roundup.   I’ll rattle through this in 10 minutes, and go out for a drink.

Then you lot all keep writing lots of interesting posts, like these, and my drinking plans go out the window…

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About the Author: CJ Chambers is editor of Russian Watch Guide, the leading consumer guide to Russian-made watches.

tu144

The N1 rocket. The Arktika nuclear-powered icebreaker. The Energia space launcher. The Ekranoplan KM ground effect vehicle. The TU-144 supersonic passenger plane.

These are just a few examples of significant Soviet military or scientific achievements that have become the inspiration for modern Russian wristwatches.

The company behind these history-inspired watches is Vostok-Europe. Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Vostok-Europe has been making watches for the international market since 2004 using self-winding, mechanical movements supplied by the Vostok factory in Chistopl, Russia.

“Every one of our watches has a link to an industrial or scientific breakthrough during the Soviet era which made a significant influence to human history,” explained Igor Zubovskij, the company’s Managing Director. “This is in accordance with our philosophy and slogan ‘Soviet Techno Design’”.

And these modern watches don’t just use historic achievements as a crass marketing gimmick. They genuinely attempt to incorporate the spirit of the achievement in the watch’s design and function.

Take for example the newest watch in Vostok-Europe’s catalog, the Ekranoplan KM, also known as the “Caspian Sea Monster”. The Ekranoplan KM holds the distinction of being the largest ground effect vehicle ever built.

ekranoplan

If you’ve never heard of a ground effect vehicle before, think of it as a cross between a hovercraft and an airplane. It flies near the surface of the Earth on a cushion of high-pressure air. This cushion of air is the so-called “ground effect”.

Ekranoplans were originally developed by the Soviet Union as high-speed military transports, and were based mostly on the shores of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The massive Ekranoplan KM measured 100 meters long, weighed 544 tons and was powered by ten Dobrynin VD-7 turbojet engines.

ekranoplan-watchLike its namesake, the Ekranoplan KM watch is huge with a 47 mm case — much bigger than your average men’s wristwatch.

One interesting design element of the watch, the trigalight microtubes on the dial and hands provided for night time visibility, posed an unexpected hurdle to American export sales. Because the microtubes produce illumination from tritium gas and yield a minute amount of radiation, the watches must be laboratory tested, certified, packed and shipped according to special US regulations before being allowed into the country.

tu144-watchAnother watch in the Vostok-Europe collection is the TU-144, named after the world’s first supersonic passenger plane. The plane’s maiden flight took place on December 31, 1968. The fleet remained in service until 1978. The TU-144 is still part of NASA’s high speed research program.

As you might expect, the TU-144 watch has classic aviator styling with a dual time function and rotating bezel with a 24 hour scale. Here’s a video about the TU-144 by the Watch Komrade.

energia-watchMore than twenty years ago the USSR built the most powerful space launcher in history. The Energia, built between 1976 and 1987, had a payload capacity of 100 tons. The Energia watch takes its design cues from the space launcher. It’s a big, powerful watch with asymmetrical positioning of the dial and subdial reminiscent of the space launcher and its side boosters.

Other noteworthy Vostok-Europe watches include the Gaz-14, a luxury-style watch named after a luxury government limousine; the Arktika, which was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole back in August 1977; and the Maxim Gorky, which was the biggest airplane in the world in the 1930’s.

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Do you remember, back in April, I introduced you to the upcoming Stalin vs Martians video game?

It was being hyped as one of the oddest RTS (Real Time Strategy) games ever, and came with a ludicrous orange video of Stalin throwing some moves on the dancefloor at the same time as beating the cr*p out of Martian baddies.

Well, it was finally released a couple of weeks ago to some pretty impressive reviews. Impressive in the sense that it was universally acclaimed as the worst RTS game in history. I think Gamespot UK said it best:

Don’t be offended by Stalin vs. Martians’ subject matter. The genocidal communist leader may figure heavily in this budget-priced real-time strategy game, but it’s hard to be outraged when he’s gyrating his hips to the beat of Russian dance pop, or signing off his written missives with “xxooxx.” No, be offended because Stalin vs. Martians is an abysmal game that represents the dregs of game design. It isn’t strategic, it isn’t fun, and as hard as it tries, it isn’t even remotely funny. This is perhaps the worst RTS game ever created, worth neither the 1s and 0s that were used to program it nor the mental exertions expended on this creatively bankrupt waste of hard-drive space.

Stalin vs Martians. Available at today all gamestores without quality control.

Oh well. To cheer you all up a bit, here’s that video of Stalin dancing again.

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Russia Blog Roundup – 3 June

June 3, 2009

A roundup of the last week’s best posts from around the Russia blogs.

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Russian men find out first hand why sex with porcupines is illegal in Florida

June 2, 2009

What happens when two inquisitive Russian men find out about a Florida law banning sex with porcupines?

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New Russia Blog: Vaviblog

May 30, 2009

Nikolai Vavilov was a globe-trotting Soviet botanist and geneticist. And now, thanks to the work of biologist Jeremy Cherfas, Vavilov’s journal is being gradually republished on the innovative and beautifully designed Vaviblog.

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Russia Blog Roundup – 27 May

May 27, 2009

A roundup of the week’s best posts from around the Russia blogs.

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Has Alina Kabaeva given birth to Putin’s son?

May 26, 2009

Now here’s an interesting rumour circulating around the Russian language blogs – 26 year old Russian Olympic gymnast turned Duma Deputy Alina Kabaeva has just given birth to Vladimir Putin’s son.

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Russia Blog roundup – 21 May (the Eurovision special)

May 21, 2009

A roundup of the past week’s Russia blog posts, with a special emphasis on the week’s big event – Eurovision.

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Anna Skladmann: Russian ‘Little Adults’ pictures

May 19, 2009

Photographer Anna Skladman explores what it feels like to be a privileged child in Russia today in this beautiful set of photographs.

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Moscow Tory: New Russia Blog

May 15, 2009

Moscow Tory is a new blog by Carl Thomson, a Scot who has worked in both British politics (he was a Parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party in the last British General Election) and has lived and worked in Russia.

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Russia Blog Roundup – 13 May

May 13, 2009

A roundup of the best posts from around the Russia blogs.

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Every Russian Eurovision video – ever

May 10, 2009

A video compilation of every single Russian Eurovision entry. The good, the bad, the ugly. And t.A.T.u.

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