May 31

1961 – In Moscow City Court, the Rokotov–Faibishenko show trial begins, despite the Khrushchev Thaw to reverse Stalinist elements in Soviet society.

The Rokotov–Faibishenko case, tried in the Soviet Union in 1961, helped demonstrate that despite the Khrushchev Thaw, Stalinist tendencies were still present in the Soviet judicial system. It also marked the start of a three-year campaign against large-scale economic crimes, accompanied by show trials.

Ever since the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscow in 1957, dealing in foreign currency had begun to take place on a fairly large scale despite being illegal. Soviets (generally of a young age) would buy foreign currency from tourists and other visitors, selling it for a profit; this was for purely personal gain and not a political phenomenon.

In 1961, the authorities broke one such speculation ring, composed of nine people, which had acquired around 20 million rubles in a year. During the search, they found 344,000 rubles, 1,524 gold coins, about $19,000, almost £500, 3,345 new and 133,000 old French francs¹, 1,500 German marks, 8,500 Belgian francs, other currency, icons and other contraband. It was the KGB that conducted the investigation because contact with foreigners was involved.

May 30

Andrei Vyacheslavovich Loktionov (Russian: Андре́й Вячесла́вович Локтио́нов; born May 30, 1990 in Voskresensk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian professional ice hockey player currently playing for theNew Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Product of the HC Khimik hockey school in Voskresensk, Loktionov then skated for HC Spartak Moscow's system before signing with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. He is also a longtime member of the 1990-born Team Russia. He was drafted 123rd overall in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings.

During the 2010–11 season, he scored his first NHL goal with the Kings on October 19, 2010 against Justin Peters of the Carolina Hurricanes.

On February 6, 2013, Loktionov was acquired by the New Jersey Devils in exchange for a 5th round draft pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Loktionov was assigned to the Devils' AHL affiliate, the Albany Devils.

Серге́й Влади́мирович Нюха́лов

Серге́й Влади́мирович Нюха́лов (30 мая 1986, Москва, СССР) —российский футболист, защитник.

Карьера

Воспитанник СДЮШОР «Спартак-2» (Москва). Профессиональную карьеру игрока начал в 2004 году. Выступал в различных командах Первого иВторого дивизионов чемпионата России по футболу. В 2007 году в составе «Спортакадемклуба» выиграл первенство Второго дивизиона чемпионата России в зоне «Запад». В 2008 году в составе сборной зоны «Запад» выступал в турнире ПФЛ «Надежда». В 2010 году играл в чемпионате Казахстана за «Акжайык». В 2011 году являлся игроком «Истры».

May 29

Vasily Perov

Vasily Grigorevich Perov (21 December 1833 – 29 May 1882) was a Russian painter and one of the founding members of Peredvizhniki, a group of Russian realist painters.

In 1856 he was awarded with a minor silver medal for his sketch of a boy's head, presented to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Later the Academy gave him many other awards: in 1857 a major silver medal for Commissary of Rural Police Investigating, a minor golden medal for the Scene on a Grave and the Son of a Dyak Promoted to First Rank, and in 1861 a major golden medal for Sermon in a Village.

After receiving the right to a state-paid trip abroad together with a golden medal, in 1862 Perov went to Western Europe, visiting several German cities, and then Paris. During this time he created paintings depicting scenes from European street life, such as the Vendor of statuettes, the Savoyard, the Organ-Grinder in Paris, the Musicians and the Bystanders, and the Paris Ragpickers.

Returning to Moscow early, from 1865 to 1871 Perov created his masterpieces The Queue at The Fountain, A Meal in the Monastery, Last Journey, Troika, the Lent Monday, Arrival of a New Governess in a Merchant House, the Drawing Teacher, A Scene at the Railroad, the Last Tavern at Town Gate, the Birdcatcher, theFisherman, and the Hunters at Rest.

In 1866 he received the title of an academician, and in 1871 the position of a Professor at Moscow School of Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. It was around this period that he joined the Peredvizhniki.

Perov died on 10 June (29 May Old Style), 1882 in the village Kuzminki (now part of Moscow) from tuberculosis. His body was interred at the Donskoe Cemetery.

May 28

Boris Kustodiev 

Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev (March 7,1878 – May 28, 1927) was a Russian painter and stagede signer.

The Russian Revolution of 1905, which shook the foundations of society, evoked a vivid response in the artist's soul. He contributed to the satirical journals Zhupel (Bugbear) and Adskaya Pochta (Hell’s Mail). At that time, he first met the artists of Mir Iskusstva (World of Art), a group of innovative Russian artists. He joined their association in 1910 and subsequently took part in all their exhibitions.

In 1905, Kustodiev first turned to book illustrating, a genre in which he worked throughout his entire life. He illustrated many works of classical Russian literature, including Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, The Carriage, and The Overcoat; Mikhail Lermontov's The Lay of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, His Young Oprichnik and the Stouthearted Merchant Kalashnikov; and Leo Tolstoy's How the Devil Stole the Peasants Hunk of Bread and The Candle.

In 1909, he was elected into Imperial Academy of Arts. He continued to work intensively, but a grave illness—tuberculosis of the spine—required urgent attention. On the advice of his doctors he went to Switzerland, where he spent a year undergoing treatment in a private clinic. He pined for his distant homeland, and Russian themes continued to provide the basic material for the works he painted during that year. In 1918, he painted The Merchant's Wife, which became the most famous of his paintings.

In the first years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 the artist worked with great inspiration in various fields. Contemporary themes became the basis for his work, being embodied in drawings for calendars and book covers, and in illustrations and sketches of street decorations, as well as some portraits (Portrait of Countess Grabowska). His covers for the journals The Red Cornfield and Red Panorama attracted attention because of their vividness and the sharpness of their subject matter. Kustodiev also worked in lithography, illustrating works by Nekrasov. His illustrations for Leskov's stories The Darner and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District were landmarks in the history of Russian book designing, so well did they correspond to the literary images.In 1916, he became paraplegic. "Now my whole world is my room", he wrote. His ability to remain joyful and lively despite his paralysis amazed others. His colourful paintings and joyful genre pieces do not reveal his physical suffering, and on the contrary give the impression of a carefree and cheerful life. His Pancake Tuesday/Maslenitsa (1916) and Fontanka (1916) are all painted from his memories. He meticulously restores his own childhood in the busy city on the Volga banks.

May 27

Ivan Kramskoi

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (May 27,1837, Ostrogozhsk – March 24,1887,Saint Petersburg) was a Russian painter and art critic. He was an intellectual leader of the Russian democratic art movement in 1860-1880.

Influenced by the ideas of the Russian revolutionary democrats, Kramskoi asserted the high public duty of the artist, principles of realism, and the moral substance and nationality of art. He became one of the main founders and ideologists of the Company of Itinerant Art Exhibitions (or Peredvizhniki). In 1863–1868 he taught at the drawing school of a society for the promotion of applied arts. He created a gallery of portraits of important Russian writers, scientists, artists and public figures (Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, 1873, Ivan Shishkin, 1873, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov, 1876, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, 1879, Sergei Botkin, 1880) in which expressive simplicity of composition and clarity of depiction emphasize profound psychological elements of character. Kramskoi's democratic ideals found their brightest expression in his portraits of peasants, which portrayed a wealth of character-details in representatives of the common people.

In one of Kramskoi’s most well known paintings, Christ in the Desert (1872, Tretyakov gallery), he continued Alexander Ivanov's humanistic tradition by treating a religious subject in moral–philosophical terms. He imbued his image of Christ with dramatic experiences in a deeply psychological and vital interpretation, evoking the idea of his heroic self-sacrifice.

Aspiring to expand the ideological expressiveness of his images, Kramskoi created art that existed on the cusp of portraiture and genre-painting ("Nekrasov during the period of 'Last songs,'" 1877–78; "Unknown Woman," 1883; "Inconsolable grief," 1884; all in Tretyakov gallery).

25 May

Day philologist

This date is near and dear to all those who in one way or another connected with philology - graduates and faculty of philology faculty, teachers of Russian language and literature, librarians, translators and connoisseurs of the native language and literature.

May 24

Saints Cyril and Methodius Day

The Canonization process was much more relaxed in the decades following Cyril's death than today. Cyril was regarded by his disciples as a saint soon after his death. His following spread among the nations he evangelized and subsequently to the wider Christian Church, resulting in the renown of his holiness, along with that of his brother Methodius. There were calls for Cyril's canonization by the crowds lining the Roman streets during his funeral procession. Their first appearance in a papal document is Grande Munus by Leo XIII in 1880. The brothers are known as the "Apostles of the Slavs" and are still highly regarded by both Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Sts Cyril and Methodius' feast day is currently celebrated on 14 February in the Roman Catholic Church (to coincide with the date of St Cyril's death); on 11 May in the Eastern Orthodox Church (though note that for Eastern Orthodox Churches still on the Julian Calendar or 'old calendar' this is 24 May according to the Gregorian calendar); and on 7 July according to the old sanctoral calendar that existed before the revisions of the Second Vatican Council. The celebration also commemorates the introduction of literacy and the preaching of the gospels in the Slavonic language by the brothers. The brothers were declared "Patrons of Europe" in 1980.

May 23

Ilia Alexandrovich Kulik

  Ilia Alexandrovich Kulik (Russian: Илья Александрович Кулик​; born May 23, 1977) is a Russian figure skater. He is the 1998 Olympic Champion, the 1995 European Champion, the 1997–1998 Grand Prix Final champion, and the 1995 World Junior champion.

Kulik began skating at the age of five. In November 1994, he won the 1995 World Junior title and then, a few months later, the 1995 European title, at the age of 17. He was ninth at his first senior World Championships. The next season, he won silver at the 1996 World Championships. During the 1997-98 season, Kulik won gold at the 1997 NHK Trophy and silver at the 1997 Skate Canada International to qualify for the Champion Series Final (now known as the Grand Prix Final) where he won the gold medal. He also won the Russian national title but missed the 1998 European Championships as a result of back problems. At the 1998 Olympics, Kulik placed first in both the short and long programs and won the Olympic title at the age of 20.

Kulik withdrew from the 1998 World Championships due to his recurring back injury. He retired from competitive skating and has focused on performing in shows. Kulik has skated with the Stars on Ice tour, shows in Russia, the 2009 Ice All Stars, the 2010 Festa On Ice. In 1999, he skated a duet with his wife, Ekaterina Gordeeva.

Kulik also ventured briefly into acting, playing the role of Sergei, a Russian dancer, in the 2000 ballet-themed movie Center Stage.

In 2012, Kulik and Gordeeva opened a skating rink in Lake Forest, California.

May 22

Vladimir Granat

Vladimir Granat is a Russian football player. He was born on May 22, 1987 in Ulan-Ude. Regarded a promising football player, Vladimir started his career as a center back in Lokomotiv Ulan-Ude youth academy.

In 2004 Vladimir featured five times for Zvezda Irkutsk. In 2005 the center back switched to Dynamo Moscow. In 2006 Vladimir embarked on a loan spell at Sibir Novosibirsk. In March 2007 Vladimir made his debut in the Premier League. He represented his country playing for Russia-2 national football team. In the season 2011/2012 Granat was named one of the best championship players. On May 11, 2012 he was called up to the Russian national team for the UEFA Euro 2012.

21 May

Day of the Pacific Naval Fleet of Russia

Commander of the Order of the Naval Fleet of the Russian Federation № 235 of April 15, 1999 date of formation of the Pacific Fleetestablished on May 21 1731.

20 May

World Metrology Day

Every year on May 20 the world celebrates World Metrology Day (World Metrology Day).World Metrology Day began to celebrate in 2001 by UNESCO. In Russia, it came a little later - in 2004. According to tradition, on the eve of World Metrology Day message published in the press of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for the metrological community. 

May 19

                                            Today, May 19th, is the Soviet Pioneer Day.

Leonid Vladimirovich Kharitonov (Russian: Леонид Владимирович Харитонов) (19 May,1930–1987) was a Soviet actor whose stage name was Leonid Kharitonov. He was notable for his part in the films Private Ivan, Ivan Brovkin na tseline and Ulitsa polna neozhidannostey. He was awarded Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1972).He graduated from the Nemirovich-Danchenko studio school at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1954. This was the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. After graduating from the studio school he continued working as an actor at the same theatre. He was an actor with the Academic Art Theatre in the name of M.Gorky, or Gorky Theatre, from 1954 to 1962, but then he left this theatre and in 1962-1963 he performed with the Theatre of Lenin Komsomol and with thePushkin Theatre. But in 1963 he returned to the Gorky Art Academic Theatre. He was a film actor from 1954: his first role was Boris Gorikov in the movie School of Courage, while he was still an acting student.
In 1955 Kharitonov became a public idol after Soldier Ivan Brovkin was screened throughout the country. He was the object of much fan mail, and appeared privately to many local audiences in clubs, schools, factories and stadia. "His fame was such that the actor could not walk down the street." Kharitonov was a multi-dimensional performer who created a new type of Russian cinematic character: the charming bad egg, which he developed in his characterisations of Brovkin, the policeman Vasya Shaneshkin and his later heroic characters. "It was skill, hard work, professionalism and above all perception which allowed this sophisticated actor to play so convincingly this simple country boy, Brovkin." Much of this was the effect of his training with the psychological acting school of MAT. Soldier Ivan Brovkin was followed in 1958 by Ivan Brovkin Na Tseline (see critical commentary below). With age, Kharitonov appeared in fewer films; he did not relish playing older men. However sometimes he does appear in later movies grey and stout. For this reason of gradual absence from movies, in the 1980s Leonid Kharitonov was almost forgotten as a film actor although he continued performing at his native Moscow Art Theatre, as was the case during almost all his acting life.

18 May

International Museum Day

May 18 museum professionals around the world celebrate their professional holiday. In 1977, International Museum Day has appeared in the calendar. This year, at the next meeting of the ICOM (International Council of Museums - International Council of Museums) adopted a proposal on the establishment of a Russian organization celebration of International Museum Day.

May 17

Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya was born on May 17, 1950, Baranavichy, Belorussian SSR, USSR) is a liberal Russian politician, Soviet dissident, the founder and the chairwoman of the "Democratic Union" party, and a member of the editorial board of The New Times. Many of her remarks have provoked controversy.

Career

Soviet Union

Novodvorskaya has been active in the Soviet dissident movement since her youth, and first imprisoned by the Soviet authorities in 1969 for distributing leaflets that criticized the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring). The leaflets included her poetry: "Thank you, the Communist Party for our bitterness and despair, for our shameful silence, thank you the Party!". Novodvorskaya was only 19 at this time. She was arrested and imprisoned at Soviet psychiatric hospital with diagnosis of sluggishly progressing schizophrenia, just like many other Soviet dissidents. In the early 1990s, psychiatrists of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia proved that the claim of mental illness was bogus. She described her experience in psikhushka in her book "Beyond Despair".

Russia

Political career

Novodvorskaya stood as a candidate for the radical liberal party Democratic Union in the 1993 Russian legislative election in a single-mandate district as part of the Russia's Choice bloc, and she also contested the 1995 Russian legislative election on the list of the Party of Economic Freedom. She was not elected in either election, and hasn't yet held public office.

Political activism

Novodvorskaya self-identifies as democratic and liberal politician. She also sometimes calls herself and her allies successors to the Russian White movement tradition. She is openly critical of Russian government policies, including Chechen Wars, domestic policies of Vladimir Putin, and the alleged rebirth of Soviet propaganda in Russia.

In an interview with Echo Moskvy, in which she was discussing the 2008 South Ossetia War, Novodvorskaya said that Shamil Basayev was a democrat, given his support of Boris Yeltsin during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and his participation in the government of Aslan Maskhadov in 1997, who had appointed Basayev Deputy Premier of the Ichkerian government. According to her, it was Russian governmental policies in Chechnya that turned Basayev into a terrorist. In response, Alexey Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the radio station, pulled the recording and transcripts of the program from the Echo Moskvy website. She later accused Venediktov of censorship and slander and suggested that the decision to remove the interview may have been due to Gazprom, a state-owned company, being a controlling shareholder in Echo Moskvy. Venediktov asserted this to be his own decision and confirmed that Novodvorskaya was banned from the station until the end of 2008.

In March 2010 she signed the online anti-Putin manifesto of the Russian opposition "Putin must go".

May 16

Yuri Yulianovich Shevchuk was born this day. He is a Soviet and Russian singer/songwriter who leads the rock band DDT, which he founded with Vladimir Sigachev in 1980. Shevchuk was born in Yagodnoye in Magadan Oblast and raised in Ufa,Bashkir ASSR, though he now resides in St. Petersburg, Russia. Shevchuk was an art teacher before founding DDT. He is best known for his distinctive gravelly voice. His lyrics detail aspects of Russian life with a wry, humanistic sense of humor. He is also very famous for openly opposing pop music. He is often accredited with being the greatest song-writer in present-day Russia.
Shevchuk is highly critical of the undemocratic society that has developed in Vladimir Putin's Russia. On 3 March 2008 he participated in aDissenters March in Saint Petersburg against the president elections where no real opposition candidates were allowed to run.
On 24 and 26 September 2008 he organized two peace concerts in Moscow and Saint Petersburg as a protest to the Russian-Georgian war. The name of the concert "Don't Shoot" was taken from his song "Ne Strelyai" that he had written in 1980 as a response to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Together with his band DDT he performed with both Ossetian and Georgian musicians as well as the Ukrainian band Bratya Karamazovy that he called peacekeepers. Parts of the profits from the concerts were given to those who had suffered from the war, both Ossetians and Georgians.
In 2008 Shevchuk released a solo album called "L’Echoppe" which includes the controversial song "Kogda zakonchitsya neft" with the lyrics "When the oil runs dry, our president will die".
On 25 August 2010 Shevchuk performed the Bob Dylan song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" together with U2 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, the band's first ever concert in Russia.
On 4 January 2011, Shevchuk was featured on the U.S. NPR Morning Edition radio program.

May 15, 2013

Events

1935 – The Moscow Metro is opened to public.

1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.

1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.

1988 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan

.

Births

1848 – Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian painter

Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov was a Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He is considered the co-founder of Russian folklorist and romantic modernist painting and a key figure in the revivalist movement.

May 14

Sergey Lemokh is a leader of a Russian pop band Car-Man. Lemokh was born in city of Serpukhov, Soviet Union on May 14, 1965. He graduated from Moscow Cooperative Institute in 1988. In 1990 Lemokh co-founded Car-Man with Bogdan Titomir. After Titomir left in 1991, Lemokh continued as a solo leader of the band. Lemokh wrote and recorded 5 major and a number of secondary albums with Car-Man. In 1997 he released a solo instrumental album Polaris.

Nikolay Nikolayevich Gusakov (May 14, 1934 – 1993) was a former Soviet nordic combined skier who won a bronze in the individual event at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. He also won the Nordic combined event at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 1961. Gusakov trained at the Armed Forces sports society in Moscow and later in Leningrad. He was the first Soviet athlete to win an Olympic medal in the Nordic combined and the first one to win the Nordic combined event at the Holmenkollen ski festival.

May 13

On this day, Russian composer Dmitri Sjostakovitch married Nina Varsar in 1932.

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich Russian:  Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet Russian composer and pianist and a prominent figure of 20th century music.

Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the USSR (from 1962 until death).

After a period influenced by Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, Shostakovich developed a hybrid style, as exemplified by Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1934). This single work juxtaposed a wide variety of trends, including the neo-classical style (showing the influence of Stravinsky) and post-Romanticism (after Gustav Mahler). Sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque characterize much of his music.

May 12

Alina Maratovna Kabaeva ( born May 12, 1983) is a Russian Honored Master of Sports, retired rhythmic gymnast, and politician. Since 2007, she has been a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party.
Kabaeva is Russia's second most successful rhythmic gymnast after Yevgeniya Kanayeva, and is also one of the most decorated gymnasts in the history of rhythmic gymnastics with two Olympic medals, 14 world championship medals and 25 European championship medals.

May 11

Konstantin Shotayevich Meladze was born 11 May 1963 in Batumi), is a composer and producer of Georgian descent. He is the older brother of singer Valery Meladze and co-founder and co-producer of the Russian/Ukrainian girl group Nu Virgos (Russian: ВИА Гра).Konstantin has composed and produced songs for artists such as Valery Meladze, Nu Virgos, Yin-Yang, Vera Brezhneva, Albina Dzhanabaeva, and Polina Gagarina. He has also composed songs for a number of films, including Lilya 4-ever and a Russian 2012 version of Cinderella.

 

May 10

Natalya Sergeyevna Bondarchuk (Russian: Наталья Сергеевна Бондарчук) (born May 10, 1950) is a Soviet and Russian actress and film director, best known for her appearance in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris as "Hari". She is the daughter of the Ukrainian actor Sergei Bondarchuk and the Russian actress Inna Makarova. Her brother is the film director and actor Fedor Bondarchuk; her half-sister is the actress Yelena Bondarchuk. Natalya Bondarchuk was born in Moscow to Ukrainian actor Sergei Bondarchuk and the Russian actress Inna Makarova. In 1971 she graduated from the acting school of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography and in 1975 from the directing school there. She made her film debut in 1969 in U ozera (By the Lake), followed by the 1971 productions Ty i ya (You and Me) and Prishyol soldat s fronta (A Soldier Returns From the Front). She became famous for her role as "Hari" in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris in 1972. It was her favorite role.She was also Tarkovsky's favorite of the film, as he wrote in his diary that "Natalya B. has outshone everybody".

May 9

До сих пор не совсем понимаю,
Как же я, и худа, и мала,
Сквозь пожары к победному Маю
В кирзачах стопудовых дошла.

И откуда взялось столько силы
Даже в самых слабейших из нас?..
Что гадать!-- Был и есть у России
Вечной прочности вечный запас.
(Ю.Друнина)

                                                          Victory Day

    The 9th of May is a special day for all Russian people. This is Victory Day. This is the day when the Great Patriotic War finished.

     For the Soviet Union, the war started on the 22nd of June 1941. A day before, on the 21st of June, in all schools of the country there was a party - the last school ball. Girls and boys had just finished school. They were dancing, dreaming of the future and did not know that the following day, they would go to war and never come home again.

For the Soviet Union the war lasted for 4 years. It was a very hard time for everyone. In many cities and villages there was starvation. Millions of Soviet soldiers died in this war. But they won and became heroes to every Russian person.

Since then 68 years have passed. But Russian people do not forget their heroes. In every city concerts are held in honour of the Great Patriotic War. In Moscow in the Red Square you can see a big parade. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren thank veterans for freedom.

May 8

Yuri Mamin (born 8 May 1946) is a celebrated Soviet and Russian film director, stage director, screenwriter, composer, author and television host, Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation. His highly popular film "Window to Paris" (1993) may be truly called a people's film. His Buddhist-themed film "Don't Think About White Monkeys" (2008) is popular among the Russian noncomformist youth, including punks and rockers.
Yuri Mamin is the only person in Russia to have won the Chaplin's Golden Cane award. The award was presented by Charlie Chaplin's widow, Oona Chaplin, at the festival marking 100 years since the birth of the great comedian. The festival was held in the Swiss city of Vevey, where Chaplin was buried.
One special thing about Mamin's career - or, more accurately, about its almost non-existence in the totalitarian USSR, as well as in the corporate oligarchy - is the fact that he embodies in his art a vivid portrait of an inspired citizen in the fight for social justice.
Yuri Mamin began his directing career under the communist regime. He was never a communist and was always opposed to the oppressive power of the Communist Party. Because of this, he could not create his films until the beginning of Perestroika in 1985 and Mikhail Gorbachev's arrival to power.
The Gorbachev period ended in 1991 and Yuri Mamin again became a persona non grata for the criminal tycoons who almost immediately took over all the leading positions in Russian cinema and mass media.
From the early 1990s, a group of official Russian film critics, controlled by the regime, began a period of notorious denigration of the film director and his art. Against this background, Mamin's films won the love of audiences throughout the nation. Almost all of his films received numerous grand prizes and other awards.
The official state-supported Russian Encyclopedia of National Cinema, edited by L. Arkus, contains offensive critical reviews of Mamin's films, while acknowledging his talent and important place in the history of Russian cinematography.

May 7

Boris Slutsky was born this day. He was a Soviet poet of Russian language.

During his childhood and youth he lived in Harkov. In the year 1937 he entered the law institute of

Moscow, and he also studied at the Institute of literature "Maxim Gorky" from 1939 till 1941. He joined a group of young poets such as M. Kulchitzki, Pavel Kogan, S.Narovchatov, David Samoilov and others who became acquainted in autumn 1939 at the seminary of Ilya Selvinsky at the State Literary Publishing House Goslitizdat and called themselves "the generation of the year 1940".

Between 1941-1945 he served in the Red Army (he was a politruk of an infantry platoon), his war experiences colouring much of his poetry. After ending the war as major, he worked on the radio (1948–1952).

In 1956 Ilya Ehrenburg created a sensation with an article quoting a number of hitherto unpublished poems by Slutsky, and in 1957 Slutsky's first book of poetry, Memory, containing many poems written much earlier, was published. Together with David Samoylov, Slutsky was probably the most important representative of the War generation of Russian poets and, because of the nature of his verse, a crucial figure in the post-Stalin literary revival. His poetry is deliberately coarse and jagged, prosaic and conversational. There is a dry, polemic quality about it that reflects perhaps the poet's early training as a lawyer. Slutsky's search was evidently for a language stripped of poeticisms and ornamentation; he represented the opposite tendency to that of such neo-romantic or neo-futuristic poets as Andrey Voznesensky.

As early as in 1953 - 1954, earlier than the 20th Congress of CPSU, Slutsky wrote verses condemning the Stalinist regime. These ones have circulated in "Samizdat" in the 1950s and were published in the West (in Munich) in an anthology in 1961. He did not confirm and not deny his paternity of them.

In his works Slutsky approached also Jewish themes, including from the Jewish tradition, about the antisemitism, including the antisemitic phenomena in the Soviet society, the Holocaust, etc.

He translated to Russian from the Yiddish poetry, e.g., from works of Leib Kvitko, Aaron Verghelis, Shmuel Galkin, Asher Shvartsman, Yakov Sternberg.

In 1963 an exceptional performance was the editing under his guidance of the first anthology of Israeli poetry. ("The poets of Israel")

One of his cousins was the Israeli general Meir Amit.

May 6

Vladimir Abramovich Etush (Russian: Влади́мир Абра́мович Э́туш) (born 6 May 1922) is a Soviet film and television actor and a People's Artist of the USSR (1984), an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.

Filmography

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• The Gadfly (also known as Ovod) (1955)
• Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967)
• Solaris (1968)
• Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (1973)

May 5

May the angels protect you,
may the sadness forget you,
may goodness surround you,
may Got always bless you,
Happy Easter!

Easter is a Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary as described in the New Testament.Easter is the culmination of the Passion of Christ, preceded by Lent, a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

Easter is the most important Christian festival. Christians are followers of Jesus Christ who lived about 2000 years ago in a country called Palestine. They believe that Jesus was the son of God. At Easter time Christians remember the last week of Jesus' life.

Easter Sunday is a happy day for Christians because they believe that Jesus rose from the dead on this day. They believe that Jesus' resurrection or coming alive shows that death is not the end of everything. Many go to church to thank God for Jesus' life. Church bells are rung and churches are decorated with flowers such as white lilies which are associated with Easter. The colours in the church change to white or gold which are thought to be the best colours.

There are many customs associated with Easter Day which involve eggs.It is because they are associated with new life when the chick breaks from the egg. After Jesus had risen from the dead it was easy to think of eggs as a sign of new life. So eggs have always been part of celebrations at Easter.

May 4

Nikolay Aleksandrovich Lvov (May 4, 1753 – December 21, 1803) was a Russian artist of the Age of Enlightenment. Lvov, an amateur of Rurikid lineage, was a polymath who contributed to geology, history, graphic arts and poetry, but is known primarily as an architect and ethnographer, compiler of the first significant collection of Russian folk songs (the Lvov-Prach collection).

Evgeny Aleshin (born May 4, 1979) is a former Russian swimmer who specialized in backstroke. He competed at the 2004 Olympics and the 2007 World Championships. In November 2010, Aleshin was banned for two years for violation of FINA DC Rule 2.4. He subsequently retired.

Pelageya Aleksandrovna Danilova (4 May 1918 – 30 July 2001) was a Russian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics, finishing within top 12 in all artistic gymnastics events, and winning one gold and one silver medal.