Vanilla Cognac

Race Tracks, Fleetwood.

Description: A horse and driver and another man at Fleetwood Race Track--possibly Fleetwood, PA. 

Dated: ca. 1895

Creator: Byron Company (New York, N.Y.)

Accession number: 93.1.1.10642 

Russian — English

• Дом — house

• Комната — room

• Гараж — garage

• Лестница — stairs

• Диван — couch

• Лампа — lamp

• Телевизор — television

• Ванна — bathtub

• Душ — shower

• Раковина — sink

• Мыло — soap

• Туалет — toilet

• Чашка — cup

• Вилка — fork

• Нож — knife

• Микроволновка — microwave

• Тарелка — plate

• Холодильник — refrigerator

• Ложка — spoon

• Кровать — bed

• Одеяло — blanket

• Подушка — pillow

• Стул — chair

• Патио — patio

• Бассейн — pool

• Двор — yard

• Чердак — attic

• Подвал — basement

• Потолок — ceiling

• Стена — wall

• Дверь — door

• Пол — floor

• Крыша — roof

Four-leafed glass door made by the Catalan artisan, carpenter and stained-glass maker Frederic Vidal around the year 1900. He was a master of the cloisonné technique of stained glass.

Some more of his work, all made around 1900:

And a beautiful example of his furniture:

(By the way, Frederic Vidal was the brother of the Modernist painter Lluïsa Vidal).

Feel free to add your own reccs. I would esp love some good books for like B1 maaaaybe B2. And films that you think are good!

Learning materials:

Russische Grammatik by Dr. Elena Minakova Boblest

This one's German but really good. A complete and consize overview of all major Russian grammar topics with exercises. The same author has also published Russisch mit System for Langenscheidt which I can't attest for but I assume is good judging from this.

Short stories in Russian for beginners by Olly Richards and Alex Rawlings

These are not the best stories for sure story wise but they're definitely for beginners and interesting enough! Contain a lot of basic vocab. I started these a few months in and with the questions at the end and the vocab they were comprehensible. I'm almost done now but I don't know that I will finish cause I can now just read something good.

Russian for free case exercises

They're case exercises. I've done all of them multiple times at this point 👍 I still love this website. So much.

Anki Deck: Top 5000 - 1,395 Russian Verbs

It's verbs with example sentences and audio. English to Russian only. Occasionally the English translations aren't the best but you will notice this. Sometimes you also need to or check the Pefective imperfective pairs. But it's genuinely so extremely good for building vocab I really recommend it.

Entertainment

Podcast: Почему мы ещё живы

A medicine history podcast going over various medical topics. I recommend the one on Acne. Episodes are 45+ min. Published by libo libo which has other things that also seem interesting if you don't happen to care for medicine.

Podcast: Главный медицинский

Another medicine podcast, this one is more about here's what x illness is and what we do about it. Less interesting but still good, shorter episodes (10+ min) I liked the one about migraines.

YouTube: филолог всея Руси

I love this one! Shorts and videos around language and linguistics topics. Also occasionally books tho I haven't watched any of those. Very fun presentation, very interesting!

Video game: Stardew Valley

It's available in Russian has a load of dialogue thats written fairly naturally with a bunch of expressions. A lot of every day vocab. It's cute I like it and already know it. It's available in a bunch of languages ppl may be learning so I do think that's a great bonus. A downside for sure esp if you're starting out is that it's text only, no voice over.

Films:

note: this is a collaborative effort, and I have not personally read all of these books in their entirety; you are free to send suggestions

there will be overlap in the topics, but I've put the books into categories that may be expanded as the list grows

General theory

The Principles of Communism - Engels

What Is To Be Done? - Lenin

The Communist Manifesto - Marx & Engels

Wage-Labour and Capital - Marx

Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism - Lenin

The State and Revolution - Lenin

Dialectical and Historical Materialism - Stalin

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State - Engels

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Engels

The Elementary Concepts of Historical Materialism - Marta Harnecker

Critique of the Gotha Programme - Marx

On Authority - Engels

On the Two Lines in the Revolution - Lenin

Foundations of Leninism - Stalin

Combat Liberalism - Mao

Prison Notebooks - Gramsci

Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism Part 1: The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism

Modern political analysis and/or critique

Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media - Michael Parenti

Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? - Gabriel Rockhill

Constitutional Change in the Contemporary Socialist World - Ngoc Son Bui

If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution - Vincent Bevins

Cuba

Fidel Castro: My Life - Fidel Castro & Ignacio Ramonet

Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba - Leslie Feinberg

Che Guevara Reader

Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba - Keith Bolender

The Economic War Against Cuba: A Historical and Legal Perspective on the U.S. Blockade - Salim Lamrani

The Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union

The Stalin Era - Anna Louise Strong

Dictatorship and Democracy in the Soviet Union - Anna Louise Strong

Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend - Domenico Losurdo

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Inside North Korea: An Eye-Witness Report - Anna Louise Strong

Vietnam

A World Transformed: The Politics of Culture in Revolutionary Vietnam, 1945-1965 - Kim N.B. Ninh

East Germany

Stasi State or Socialist Paradise? - Bruni de la Motte and John Green

India

The Annihilation of Caste - B.R. Ambedkar

Capitalism: A Ghost Story - Arundhati Roy

The Cold War and 20th century

Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism - Michael Parenti

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World - Vincent Bevins

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II - William Blum

Marxist feminism and queer liberation

Social Reproduction Theory - Tithi Bhattacharya

Transgender Liberation: A movement whose time has come - Leslie Feinberg

The Social Basis of the Woman Question - Alexandra Kollontai

Women, Race and Class - Angela Davis (an intersectional analysis so it goes far beyond just feminism)

Race, colonialism and imperialism

Orientalism - Edward Said

Culture and Imperialism - Edward Said

Can the Subaltern Speak? - G.C. Spivak

Riding the Wave: Sweden's Integration Into the Imperialist World System - Torkil Lauesen

The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon

Video and audio resources