The 1st of May is International Workers’ Day.
Let’s watch how Russia celebrates it. The official video from Russian state 1st Channel will show us 120 thousands of people who marched and celebrated on the streets of Moscow, Russian President and Prime Minister of Russia among of them.
Russian Video from Russia.
A group of crooning village pensioners has got Russians singing along and is set to have a shot at greater stardom at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
“Any granny has to be able to sing, dance, smile and have fun,” Galina Koneva, a singer from Buranovskie Babushki, told RT. “We’re no stars, we’re just ordinary grannies.”
“Buranovskie Babushki”, or “Buranovo Grannies”, have put their village in the Central Russian Republic of Udmurtia on the map, winning hearts with tunes in their native Udmurt language and English.
The newly-minted celebrities, whose combined age is over 600 years old, sport traditional costumes and birch bark shoes. That is exactly what their fans like, claiming this unmistakably ethnic feel represents the real Russia. Indeed, in this country, folk songs and dances, with their colourful costumes, fiery moves and heartfelt lyrics, have never fallen out of fashion.
“These songs come from our ancestors. They’ve always been a huge part of village life, of our roots,” Zhanna Rusakova, artistic director of Slavyane Folk Band, told RT. “That’s how people expressed themselves. It’s all about our traditions that represent something for every generation. Russia is not Russia without its folk songs.”
In Soviet times, folk tunes were even specially promoted as “the people’s music” and received important state support, with the aim of rivaling Western pop culture.
Today, scores of performers have made folk songs and dances their speciality, like the Moscow-based band “Slavyane”, or the “Slavic Singers”. Another award-winning song-and-dance company revives and promotes the traditional culture of the Cossacks of southern European Russia.
“The Cossacks have songs for both wartime and peace, songs about battles and about festivities,” Andrey Tolstyakov, artistic director of the “Volnaya Stanitsa Cossack Ensemble”, told RT. “It’s important to get the details right. We’ve got the uniforms that were standard in 1914 – the blouses, the boots and special hats called papakha. A Cossack always kept all his documents in it, so if he ever lost it, it was only together with his head.”
After a string of young Russian pop stars, it is now time for more mature folk to aim for Eurovision glory. The singing grannies from Buranovo get their shot at the big time in late May in Azerbaijan.
Russian Video From Russia!
Hello,
today we are watching an old Russian movie. This movie tells us about the most famous Nenets painter and author Tyko Vylka, notable for his Arctic landscapes. He was also active in politics and has been elected the chairman of the Novaya Zemlya Island Soviet. Tyko Vylka has been a member of polar expeditions.
Movie director: Alexander Kordon.
(no subtitles…)
Russian Video from Russia.
We’ve seen Kung Fu Panda – now, a real Russian bear has become an internet hit, amazing visitors to a Siberian zoo with his perfect mastery of the martial art. (Almost he is practicing as you will see!)
An amateur video shows the animal throwing a wooden club around his neck, passing it from paw to paw and twisting it in front of him.
The Royev Ruchey Zoo in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk says Pamir the bear has played with the club since he was a cub. The seven-year-old also likes to play with cans, boards, baseball bats and cold water from a hose.
Nicknamed Pamir after the mountains in Central Asia, the bear is a rare white-claw featured in the Red List of Threatened Species.
Unlike their Russian relatives, these sporty bears from the Central Asian Himalayan forests do not hibernate.
Russian Video From Russia!
Crazy Russians often make crazy Americans look like beginners. I find this video to be fairly true…
In Russia you never know what you will see as you drive or walk around the country. People are free to do as they please with very little interference in their lives. I have said before, To Russians there are no rules and when there are rules they are to be broken…
Gotta Love Russia!
Kyle
Russian Videos from Russia!
I just love this video. When I was younger I use to try to dance like this. I just loved Russian dancing. I guess I have been crazy about Russia since I was little tyke…
They make it look so easy and then there is me who can hardly walk any more… 🙂
I get wore out just watching this video…
Russian Video From Russia!
Ever wonder where Jack Frost might live? Join RT on a tour of Moscow’s icy kingdom.
Already known as a realm of ice and snow, Moscow now has a city within a city – and it too is frozen. It appeared in one of the capital’s parks almost overnight, turning it into a true winter wonderland.
Called Moroz (“Frost”) City, it is located in Sokolniki Park, north-east of the city center. Exhibitions of ice sculptures are a regular seasonal fixture in the Russian capital, but Moroz City is something the likes of which the city has never seen before. More than a display of frozen statues, this Frost City is very much alive – you can walk its streets and enter its buildings.
It is all the result of a competition inviting young architects from Russia and neighboring countries like Ukraine and Belarus to show off their talent. Those whose blueprints were selected had five days to complete their buildings, starting on January 5.
More than a thousand specially-made cubes of artificial snow and 500 chunks of ice, brought from outside Moscow, were used. A key condition for participation that houses must have a straightforward design – and be easy to construct. But the contestants did not settle for simple – and the result is more than impressive. Moroz City has a hotel, a cinema, a lighthouse and even a prison.
All in all, 20 different teams have created 16 different buildings – and that despite the unusually warm weather at the beginning of January. For a price of 250 rubles for adults and 150 for kids, you can see and enter them all.
The city is set to remain open for visitors until early March, and will play host to a number of festivals, concerts and exhibitions to give visitors a taste of a real winter fairytale.
Russian Video From Russia!
Patriarch Kirill Speech (7th January 2012)
A wonderful Russian song about the Christmas tree:
Christmas songs – “born in the forest a Tree”
The forest was born a Christmas Tree,
In the forest it grew,
Winter and summer slender, green it was.
Winter and summer slender, green it was.
The blizzard then sang her song:
“Sleep, Christmas Tree, bye-bye!”
Frosty snow soon wrapped:
“Look, it does not freeze!”
Frosty snow swathing it:
“Look, it does not freeze!”
Coward the gray rabbit hid
Under the Christmas tree did dance.
He ran to hide, Sometimes as a wolf, would cross.
He ran to hide, Sometimes a wolf, would cross.
Hark! Sound through the Snow in the woods a frequent
creaking runners of a sled;
Horse trotted in a hurry, running.
Horse trotted in a hurry, running.
Lucky horse to pull the sled,
And the woodsman was peasant,
He cut down our Christmas tree at the base.
He cut down our Christmas tree at the base.
And here she is, all dressed up,
On the New Year came to us,
And brought many, many kids much joy.
And brought many, many kids much joy.
Kyle and Sveta
Merry New Year!