Line #30 UsefulNotes/RussianRelaxing


1	What people in UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} do for fun. Besides drinking vodka.
2
3	'''Literature'''
4
5	See RussianLiterature and UsefulNotes/RussianReading.
6
7	'''Film'''
8
9	The Soviet Union had its own film industry, doing quite a few science fiction films (the original ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'' for example), a lot of films on the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Great Patriotic War]] and other glorious historic moments for Russia, a whole genre which is essentially the Russian version of TheWestern (other states in the UsefulNotes/WarsawPact would do it as well) plus quite a lot of stuff that could really be called propaganda (mainly melodramas and love stories that initially were painfully "industrial romance", but later took on a surprisingly earnest and touching tone). However, the genre that seems most popular in Russia itself is the Soviet comedy as exemplified by the works of Leonid Gaidai, Eldar Ryazanov and Creator/GeorgiDanelia. Most of these comedies have elements of drama, tragedy and stealth satire, while much of their humour is extremely culture-specific, being based to a large extent on the daily experiences of ordinary Soviet citizens. Because of this they are largely unheard of outside the former USSR. Additionally, the Soviet film industry was not driven by box-office, but rather by cultural and educational value of films (and their implicit total accordance to ideological dogmas). Yeah, it was official, and surprisingly, it somewhat worked. Between the Scylla and Charybdis of dissent and ass-licking (the latter was discouraged too, by natural means of ass-licking pieces being shitty and unpopular), a lot could be done. That is not to say the Soviet censorship didn't drive many creators to despair, cut short careers of many a genius or force them to emigrate, make the plot choices awfully small and much of the work bland and uniform. But still.
10
11	Some of the more notable Soviet films are:
12	* ''Film/BattleshipPotemkin''. The source of the "OdessaSteps" sequence.
13	* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October:_Ten_Days_That_Shook_the_World October: Ten Days That Shook the World]]''. A reasonably accurate re-creation of UsefulNotes/RedOctober.
14	* ''Film/AlexanderNevsky''. Teutonic Knights, PuttingOnTheReich, invade Russia and are beaten by the eponymous hero.
15	** This film is notable for "Battle of the Ice", which directly inspired quite a few later battle scenes.
16	* ''Film/IvanTheTerrible''
17	(all four of these were directed by Creator/SergeiEisenstein)
18	* Andrei Tarkovsky's ''Literature/Solaris1972'' and ''Film/Stalker1979'' (very little relationship to the video game ''VideoGame/{{Stalker}}''), both of which take SciFi stories about man's reaction to the unknown and turn them into explorations of man's relationship with the unknown and his fellows.
19	* ''Film/WhiteSunOfTheDesert'': one of the best, if not the best of the USSR Ostern tradition - taking traditional Western themes and adapting them to post civil war Russia.
20	* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Home_Among_Strangers At Home Among the Strangers]]'': Another Ostern, the one that launched Creator/NikitaMikhalkov's career and may be the best thing he's ever done.
21	* ''Film/KinDzaDza'', a cult sci-fi comedy movie
22	* ''Literature/WarAndPeace'', Creator/SergeiBondarchuk's epic four-part adaptation that is considered the most expensive film in history. It was the first Soviet film to win an Academy Award, to be followed by...
23	* ''Film/DersuUzala''. Directed by Creator/AkiraKurosawa, this film is an adaptation of the memoirs of the Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, chronicling his exploration of the Russian Far East and his friendship with his native guide Dersu, a real life NobleSavage.
24	* ''Film/TheIronyOfFate'' (full Russian title: ''Ironiya Sudby, ili S Lyogkim Parom!''; see the "Taking Steam" section below), a 1975 comedy-drama by Eldar Ryazanov. Starting out as a satire of the unimaginative uniformity of Brezhnev era architecture and a screwball comedy about a man getting stranded on New Year's Eve (and having to explain himself to his fiancée, as well as to the fiancé of the woman whose apartment he unwittingly broke into), the film evolves into a melodramatic love story with a somewhat BittersweetEnding. Similar to ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' and ''Film/AChristmasStory'' in the US, ''The Irony of Fate'' is a Russian winter holidays' staple with at least one of the federal channels airing it on New Year's Eve every year.
25	** A sequel, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irony_of_Fate_2 The Irony of Fate 2]]'', was filmed in 2007 by Creator/TimurBekmambetov, more famous as the director of ''Film/NightWatch'' and ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' and the co-producer of Shane Acker's ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}''. The sequel puts the children of the lead characters of the first film in the exact same situation in [[UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia the modern day]]. Since Soviet nostalgia is SeriousBusiness in Russia, public opinion of the film is [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks highly divided]] (the JustForFun/{{egregious}} amounts of ProductPlacement do not help).
26	* ''Film/OfficeRomance'' (full Russian title: ''Sluzhebnyy roman''), another lyrical comedy by Eldar Ryazanov about a developing [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin office romance]] between rather clumsy single father in his middle 30s and his [[DefrostingIceQueen strict female boss]]. HilarityEnsues.
27	* ''Film/GentlemenOfFortune'', a dramedy about a kindergarten teacher who uses the fact he looks [[CriminalDoppelganger extremely similar to a hardened criminal]] to infiltrate his counterpart's gang in order to find the helmet of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat they stole earlier, all the while trying to fix what went wrong with his subordinates' lives and push them into law-abiding normalcy.
28	* ''Film/IvanVasilievichChangesProfession'', a goofy comedy about an [[MadScientist eccentric engineer]] who invented a time-machine and got Ivan the Terrible into the modern world while two other 20th century guys (an [[ObstructiveBureaucrat apartmant house attendant]] who looked much like Ivan the Terrible, and a LovableRogue) stuck in medieval Russia.
29	* ''Film/NinthCompany'' (''9 Rota''), a 2005 Russian/Finnish film about an intense battle during [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan war in Afghanistan]] involving the titular paratrooper unit. Directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk, son of Creator/SergeiBondarchuk.
30	* ''Film/MoscowDoesNotBelieveInTears'', a 1980 film by Creator/VladimirMenshov about provincial girls who come to Moscow hoping to find happiness. One of only four Russian-language films to win the Foreign Film Oscar, alongside ''Film/{{War and Peace\|1966}}'', ''Film/DersuUzala'', and ''Film/BurntByTheSun''.
31	* ''Series/GuestFromTheFuture'', a 1984 PavelArsenov MiniSeries based on one of the ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'' books by Creator/KirBulychev.
32	* ''Film/BurntByTheSun'', a 1994 Creator/NikitaMikhalkov drama set in the time of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin.
33	* ''Zhmurki'' or ''Blind Man's Bluff'', a 2005 criminal (very) black comedy about early 1990s.
34
35	'''Animation'''
36
37	[[EasternEuropeanAnimation The Soviets had quite an animated film industry]]; most famously, there was Creator/{{Soyuzmultfilm}}, a truly world-class animation studio. They produced something like 1500 animated films over their long history.
38
39	'''Taking Steam'''
40
41	Russian tradition of public baths (banya) dates back to pre-Christian times. It includes being in an overheated, moist room and getting beaten by tree branches. Once that's gotten old you jump into a freezing cold pool, and/or drop a bucket of aforementioned cold water on your head. Then repeat. Somehow, it is supposed to be relaxing, and remains popular even today. And well, it is relaxing once you get used to it. Additionally, it softens the outer skin layer, allowing it to be removed, letting you wash very clean. Traditionally a person who has just taken a bath is greeted or complimented with the phrase ''S lyogkim parom!'' (the "g" is pronounced like an "h"), which literally means "with light steam!" and can be roughly translated as "congratulations on your bath!" or "I hope the steam was good!"
42
43	'''Drinking'''
44
45	For much of Russia/the USSR's history, taxation of vodka formed a major part of state income. Also, one of the main reasons(according to the legend) that Vladimir I of Kiev converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, so making Russia an Orthodox nation, was the fact that they were pretty tolerant when it came to alcohol consumption; he feared, for example, that if he made his kingdom Muslim, which would prohibit alcohol and the consumption of pork, that his subjects would revolt against him. Also, his envoys were impressed by the great beauty and ceremony they saw in the Greek Orthodox churches(also according to the legend). Much later, one of the major problems the Soviet Union faced was the high incidence of [[VodkaDrunkenski alcoholism]]. Another funny example: when the Soviets developed and deployed one of their first ballistic missiles, a V-2 knockoff, there were some problems with the fact that the R-1, the knockoff, used alcohol as the fuel. The generals were a little cagey about that, needless to say.
46
47	The standard drink for relaxing is, of course, vodka. Vodka isn't something exclusive to Russia, it's a general Eastern European product, with local varieties existing in Poland (wodka, pronounced "voodka") and Ukraine (horilka). However, it's Russia that invented the modern vodka standard, because all those other countries were provinces of the Russian Empire at the time anyway.
48
49	The original vodka was, by all modern standards, [[HillbillyMoonshiner moonshine]] made of wheat and rye. And its most basic, cheapest form wasn't even called vodka, it was called "bread wine" (khlebnoye vino); the word "vodka" was reserved for finer, artisanal varieties of the stuff, purified by multiple distillations and often flavored by infusing herbs on it (this tradition is still in use, especially in Ukraine, where the most famous sorts of horilka are flavored with pepper or honey). There was even an aged, whisky-like form of rye vodka, called ''starka'' (the old one), invented in Poland and later adopted by Russians. All those early versions of vodka were very strong by modern standards, clocking around 120-140 proof. Production of fine vodkas was legally restricted to nobility, who often created unique family recipes; bread wine, made by commoners for commoners, was a badder, stinkier and cheaper stuff that was sold in ''buckets'', for god's sake.
50
51	Modern vodka was created in the late XIX century. Common distillation was replaced by rectification (a complex industrial form of distillation, which produces very pure alcohol). This innovation was a mixed bag: it's true that it helped to drastically reduce the amount of fusel alcohols in vodka, but it also killed any flavors of grain that were present in early vodka and made it the "neutral", mixable spirit we know today, and made any fermentable stuff - potatoes, chemically-treated wood, you name it - usable for making vodka. The proof of vodka was legally set as 80 (40% by volume). During that period, vodka started to be sold in bottles rather in buckets; the old-style vodka bottle was called a chetvert' (quarter of a bucket) and contained [[GiganticGulp three liters]] of vodka. Modern vodka bottles only contain 500 ml of the stuff.
52
53	'''Music'''
54
55	Russia is famous for not only its music, but the style of music. The ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' theme tune, "Korobeiniki", actually has lyrics.
56
57	Tchaikovsky is by far the most famous Russian composer. You'll have heard of ''Theatre/SwanLake'' and ''Theatre/TheNutcracker''. ''Music/NightOnBaldMountain'' is by Modest Mussorgsky.
58
59	There is a lot of folk music. The Mary Hopkin song ''Those Were the Days'' is based on an old Russian folk tune.
60
61	In the good old days of the Soviet Union, the tendency amongst the intellectuals was that true art should stick it to the man - The Man being the party establishment and bureaucracy. Given that the only way to do that without an exciting free trip to TheGulag (or just being stripped of all benefits due to a performing artist in less strict times) was to get sneaky, intellectuals grew adept at figuring out just how [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory everyone is Stalin in the Mausoleum]]. Interestingly enough, intelligensia actually called the smuggled crap an «{{Aesop}} language», making ''them'' TropeNamers. A band could also gather acclaim by using the PowerOfRock to kick against tame mainstream music establishment. All this gave rise to a unique genre, called "authors' song", better known as ''bard music''.
62
63	Bard music appeared in 1960s Soviet Union and became immensely popular. It is [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth very simple in terms of musical techniques, but lyrics-heavy]], played on a common acoustic guitar and little or nothing else. The most well-known Soviet bard was Music/VladimirVysotsky; other performers of note were Bulat Okudzhava and the noted musical dissident Alexander Galich.
64
65	The late 1970s and early 1980s were the time when native Russian rock appeared, growing from bardic tradition but adding more complex rock music techniques to the genre. The most famous founding fathers of Russian rock are BorisGrebenschikov and Music/ViktorTsoi.
66
67	Another, little-known offshoot of bard music is the so-called "minstrel music", which is fantasy-themed bard music, like HeavyMithril except not heavy at all. It appeared in the Russian LARP community and Tolkien fandom during the 1990s.
68
69	Modern Russia still produces notable music of its own. You'll have probably heard of Music/{{tATu}}, who played the schoolgirl lesbians image for a while despite being neither lesbians nor schoolgirls.
70
71	'''Television'''
72
73	''In Soviet Russia, television watches you!''
74
75	Thank you, Yakov Smirnoff. Television in Russia can be roughly divided into two eras- the Soviet era and the post-Soviet era.
76
77	Notable TV shows from the USSR:
78	* ''Series/SeventeenMomentsOfSpring'', loosely based on a true story, about a Soviet agent who penetrates Nazi Germany for 20 years. Its main character, Maksim Maksimovich Isaev, is sometimes (somewhat inaccurately) called the Russian ''Film/JamesBond''. This twelve-part MiniSeries remains very popular in Russia and is the source of a lot of jokes. It has its own entry on Website/TheOtherWiki- in 7 languages, including English.
79	* ''Series/GuestFromTheFuture'', a sci-fi series about a girl from the future who comes to the 80s Soviet Union, befriends robots and fights SpacePirates.
80	%%* ''Series/TheMeetingPlaceCannotBeChanged''
81	* A Russian adaptation of ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'', ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmesAndDoctorWatson'', that got its Soviet star, an OBE- a British title.
82	* ''Pole Chudes'' ("The Field of Wonders"), a still-running Russian version of ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', it started in 1990.
83	* Vremya ("Time") - a Soviet news programme, still broadcast today in Russia.
84	* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076998/ D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers]]'': A fairly extreme case of DawsonCasting for D'Artagnan, and some very catchy song lyrics.
85
86	Russian TV series:
87	* ''Series/{{Yeralash}}'': a SketchComedy running for nearly forty years already.
88	* ''Bednaya Nastya'' ("Poor Nastya"), a Russian ''telenovela'', broadcast in the US.
89
90	'''TabletopGame/{{Chess}}'''
91
92	Russia is famous for its chess playing -- in ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', you can no longer actually play Chess in a ChessWithDeath scenario because no Russians died for about a decade. Of the top 10 current chess players in the world (FIDE rankings), 2, including the world No. 4 Vladmir Kramnik, are Russian and 4 (5 if you count the Latvian-born Alexei Shirov, who has since defected to Spain) are from the other former Soviet states. Of the World Champions between 1927 and 2007, only Max Euwe (1935-1937, Netherlands) and Bobby Fischer (1972-75, USA) were from any other countries.
93
94	'''Card Games'''
95
96	Russians like to play card games, just like everybody else. Games unique to Russia are TabletopGame/{{Preferans}}, Durak (a mostly children's game) and Ochko (a local variety of blackjack played with 36 cards). The usual Russian deck of playing cards consists of 36 cards, 6 to Ace, no jokers.
97
98	'''VideoGames'''
99
100	The Soviet Union invented ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}''.
101	The Eastern Bloc has also produced ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Turgor}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'', ''VideoGame/CargoTheQuestForGravity'', ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', ''VideoGame/SilentStorm'' (nearly ruined by Western ExecutiveMeddling), ''VideoGame/SpaceRangers'', ''VideoGame/IL2Sturmovik'', ''[[VideoGame/KingsBounty King's Bounty: The Legend]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/KingsBounty King's Bounty: Armored Princess]]'', ''VideoGame/DeathToSpies'', ''Rage of Mages'', ''VideoGame/AllodsOnline'', ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic V'', ''VideoGame/{{Disciples}} III'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'', and ''VideoGame/StarWolves''. Russians only started playing video games after the Iron Curtain fall so they've missed consoles like Atari and mostly play on PC to this day. Hardcore RTS, TBS and simulation game genres quickly became especially popular there so Russian developers often continue series that are still popular in Russia: ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'', ''VideoGame/{{Disciples}}'' and ''VideoGame/KingsBounty''. See also RussianVideoGames.
102
103	'''TabletopGames'''
104
105	The Russian tabletop game industry is still in the development phase, producing mostly boardgames. But in recent years some notable trading card games and tabletop [=RPGs=] appeared.
106	* ''TabletopGame/AgeOfAquarius'': the only (to date) commercial TabletopRPG made in Russia.
107	* ''World of the Great Dragon'': a freeware medieval fantasy RPG.
108	* ''War'': a trading card game about WWII.
109	* ''Ring of Power'': a miniatures wargame.

Context UsefulNotes / RussianRelaxing