Vladimir Mayakovsky was one of the towering literary figures of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia, speaking as much to the working man (he often employed the rough talk of the streets and revolutionary rhetoric in his poetry) as to other poets (his creative fascination with sound and form, linguistic metamorphosis and variation made him a sort of 'poet's poet', the doyen, if not the envy, of his contemporaries, Pasternak among them). His poetry, influenced by Whitman and Verhaeren and strangely akin to modern rock poetry in its erotic thrust, bluesy complaints and cries of pain, not to mention its sardonic humour, is at once aggressive, mocking and tender, and often fantastic or grotesque. Pro Eto - That's What is a long love poem detailing the pain and suffering inflicted on the poet by his lover and her final rejection of him. But as well as being an agonising parable of separation and betrayal, it is also a political work, highly critical of Lenin's reforms of Soviet Socialism. The publication of That's What is something of a landmark for not only is this the first time that this seminal work has appeared in its entirety in translation, but it is illustrated with the 11 inspired photomontages that Alexander Rodchenko designed to interleave and illuminate the text, illustrations which inaugurate a world of new possibilities in combining verbal and visual forms of expression and which are reproduced in colour (as originally conceived) for the first time.

Cases are the backbone of the Russian sentence structure. However, for many Russian language learners, cases remain a stumbling stone. This is because nouns, pronouns, and adjectives conjugate in Russian (change their endings) which makes these words look different within a text. The good news is: you can actually learn the conjugation rules and understand the context for using each case. Everything else you learn in Russian will group around cases, just like the walls of a house are built on its foundation. This e-book will help you understand the Russian case system. What is included: ✓ Each chapter dedicated to a specific case describes the exact situations when each case is used ✓ Easy-to-use color-coded conjugation tables (tables with endings along with 500 examples) ✓ Exercises for each case ✓ Keys to all exercises at the end of the book ✓ Bonus: a text in Russian where each noun is "decoded" to illustrate the use of cases within phrases. This way you can go back to the book chapters and review the usage. This 2nd edition is significantly improved based on readers' feedback: tables are enlarged, more examples are given. A special focus is put on immediate practice: short exercises at the end of each chapter along with the keys. This will help you put the newly acquired knowledge into action and check if you understood everything correctly. Complementary chapters give an overview of the gender system of Russian nouns and their plural forms. "Russian Cases: Conjugate Russian Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives Like a Pro" is probably the most comprehensive resource on Russian cases you may come across. Keep it nearby and refer to it when necessary. Happy learning!

The lives of animals in Russia are intrinsically linked to cultural, political and psychological transformations of the imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet eras. Other Animals examines the interaction of animals and humans in Russian literature, art, and life from the eighteenth century until the present. The chapters explore the unique nature of the Russian experience in a range of human-animal relationships through tales of cruelty, interspecies communion and compassion, and efforts to either overcome or establish the human-animal divide. Four themes run through the volume: the prevalence of animals in utopian visions; the ways in which Russians have incorporated and sometimes challenged Western sensibilities and practices, such as the humane treatment of animals and the inclusion of animals in urban domestic life; the quest to identify and at times exploit the physiological basis of human and animal behavior and the ideological implications of these practices; and the breakdown of traditional human-animal hierarchies and categories during times of revolutionary upheaval, social transformation, or disintegration.From failed Soviet attempts to transplant the seminomadic Sami and their reindeer herds onto collective farms, to performance artist Oleg Kulik's scandalous portrayal of Pavlov's dogs as a parody of the Soviet "new man," to novelist Tatyana Tolstaya's post-cataclysmic future world of hybrid animal species and their disaffection from the past, Other Animals presents a completely new perspective on Russian and Soviet history. It also offers a fascinating look into the Russian psyche as seen through human interactions with animals.