#Fyodor Chistyakov

[russianreader]

Made in the USSR (May Day 2023)

A man sporting a “Made in the USSR” tattoo, Liteiny Prospect, Petersburg, May 1, 2023. Photo by Vadim F. Lurie, reproduced here with his kind permission Victory Day is a memorable holiday for every citizen of St. Petersburg! During the celebration of the Great Victory, each of us remembers the heroic deeds of our grandfathers. In keeping with a long-established tradition, many musicians dedicate…

[byneddiedingo]

Valéry Inkijinoff in Storm Over Asia (Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1928)

Cast: Valéry Inkijinoff, I. Didintseff, Aleksandr Chistyakov, Victor Tsoppi, Fyodor Ivanov, V. Pro, Boris Barnet, Karl Gurniak, I. Inkizhinov, V. Belinskaya, Anel Sudakevich. Screenplay: Osip Brik, Ivan Novokshenov. Cinematography: Anatoli Golovnya. Art direction: M. Aronson, Sergei Kozlovsky.

The great silent Russian propaganda films depended heavily on two things the nascent Soviet Union had in abundance: faces and landscapes. This reliance on closeups and sweeping views of fields and plains sometimes resulted in a loss of narrative coherence, but put the emphasis on the people and resources that the Bolsheviks needed to exercise control over. Storm Over Asia is no exception, beginning with the windswept land and Asiatic faces of the Mongol peoples of eastern Russia, which at the time depicted in the film was still a vast battleground for the Bolsheviks and European forces. After establishing the location, the film focuses on Bair (Valéry Inkijinoff), a young hunter whose father sends him off to the bazaar to sell a silver fox pelt. In the vividly filmed bazaar, Bair is cheated by an unscrupulous European fur trader (Viktor Tsoppi), who might as well be wearing a label: bourgeois capitalist. Beaten by the henchmen for the trader, Bair escapes and joins a group of Soviet partisans fighting the occupiers. The occupation forces seem to be British, who were never a significant presence in this part of the Soviet Union, but the film is vague about such details. They manage to capture Bair, who is sent out with a soldier to be shot, but when they examine Bair's belongings they discover an ancient document indicating that he's a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. (The original title of the film, in Russian, was The Heir to Genghis Khan.) They find the wounded Bair, restore him to health, and set him up as the puppet ruler of a Mongolian state. In the end, Bair turns against the imperialists and the film concludes with a literal storm sweeping them away. It's a film full of great set-pieces, including a montage mockng the imperialists and their wives as they put on their finery and then are driven on a muddy road to meet the new Grand Lama. After an elaborate ceremony (actually filmed at a Tibetan Buddhist celebration) the lama turns out to be a small boy, not at all impressed with his visitors.   

[ultimatemoonshadow]

Theme songs for your muse!

Main:  Chosen One by Mona Lisa Overdrive

Silly: People are strange by Fyodor Chistyakov

Determination: Duality by Set it Off

Battle: Ready to Die by Andrew W.K.

Sad: When it Rains by Eli Young Band

Relaxed: Summer Vibe by Walk of the Earth

Happy: Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond {With guns} (Replace Caroline with Maria XD)

Hard Work/Motivational: Granted by Josh Groban

Love Theme: Come what may by Alfie Boe and Kerry Ellis  

Heartbreak: Faded by Bars and Melody

Failure/Defeat: All I Need by Within Temptation

Final Battle: Triumph of Defeat by Epica

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Tagged by: @tellescope​

Tagging: @infinitebehindthemask​ @electricbluehedgehog and @the-worlds-the-limit (for Spike specifically)

[russianreader]

Down the Streets the Trams Were Rolling

Down the Streets the Trams Were Rolling

Ivan Burkov, “Saint Petersburg: Ligovsky Prospekt from the Cab of a Tram,” August 27, 2016

Nol, “Down the Streets the Trams Were Rolling”

Early in the month of May one spring Rumbling, screeching, dusty godsends Down the streets the trams were rolling They were going off to die Down the streets the trams were rolling They were going…

[russianreader]

Fyodor Chistyakov: Why I Am Leaving Russia

Fyodor Chistyakov: Why I Am Leaving Russia

Fyodor Chistyakov: Russia Is the Freest Country—You Can Adopt a Constitution and Then Throw It Out Musician Fyodor Chistyakov has left Russia because of his religious beliefs, but promises to come back. True, only on tours. The newly minted New Yorker told Fontanka.Office what happened. Nikolai Nelyubin Fontanka.ru July 31, 2017

Fyodor Chistyakov

Have you really emigrated to the US? It’s not quite…