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Updates from August, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Russian 9:40 am on August 9, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Aleuts, chukchi ( 3 ), customs ( 4 ), Enets, Eskimos, Evens, koryaks ( 2 ), Nganasans, Nivkhs, traditions ( 5 ), Votes   

  Bald Brides, Wives for Rent, and Dates with the Dead: The Strangest Traditions of Russia’s Peoples 

  

  Today, Russia is home to 47 indigenous peoples, classified as “autochthonous” or small-numbered. These groups live on the ancestral lands of their forebears, preserving traditional lifestyles, crafts, and customs.

  Below are some of the most fascinating and unusual traditions from these communities. Learn why Ingrian brides shaved their heads, why the Nganasans left their deceased tribespeople in the tundra, how Enets shamans “brought a drum to life,” and why some northern peoples practiced sexual hospitality. Chukchi and Koryaks – Ancient Customs Around Death Among the Chukchi, according to travelers’ accounts, dying a natural death was long considered “dishonorable” and “befitting only women.” It was believed that those who ended their own lives would enjoy a more blissful afterlife. Elderly people who no longer wished to live and young people with incurable illnesses could even ask relatives to help them pass away. If refused, they might pay someone else to do…

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• Russian 9:10 pm on August 6, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: believes, customs ( 4 ), rituals, traditions ( 5 ), villagers   

  6 Strangest Rituals of the Russian People 

  

  Long before modern medicine and science reached rural corners of Russia, people relied on deeply rooted folk customs to explain the unexplainable. Some of these age-old rituals may seem shocking, surreal, or even macabre today—but they were once taken seriously as essential parts of village life. Here are six of the strangest ancient rituals that were once practiced in Old Russia. 1. Salting and “Re-Baking” Infants In old Russian villages, infant mortality was tragically high. Without antibiotics or modern healthcare, desperate parents resorted to folk rituals to protect their babies.

  If a child was born prematurely or seemed sickly, they would cover the baby in dough, place them on a bread peel, and slide them into a preheated oven—briefly. This bizarre ritual, called “perepekanie” (literally “re-baking”), was believed to help the child “finish cooking,” just like in the womb. The practice lasted in some regions well into the 20th century…

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• Russian 1:24 pm on August 6, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: chukchi ( 3 ), indigenous peoples, karelians, khanty, love ( 2 ), traditions ( 5 )   

  Unusual Love and Sex Traditions Among the Indigenous Peoples of Northern Russia 

  

  Many of these customs can only be found in ethnographers’ academic research — and some may come as a shock. Much of this stems from the remnants of ancient magical cults that survived among some of Russia’s small ethnic groups well into the 20th century. Wife Swapping Among the Chukchi The Chukchi had a tradition called “nevtumgyt”, which ethnologists translated as “wife partnership.” Men formed a friendship pact where each had the right to sleep with the other’s wife. These unions could include more than ten couples. A man could take his friend’s wife for a few months, then return her. Sometimes, however, the guest wife stayed permanently. Children from such unions were considered shared, and the men were viewed as brothers.

  This practice was strictly forbidden between actual relatives, even third cousins. According to a 1924 report in the newspaper Polar Star, women reportedly welcomed the practice. One local…

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• Russian 4:24 pm on August 2, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cars ( 5 ), electric vehicles, Soviet cars, VAZ   

  Electric Vehicles in the USSR 

  

  The history of Soviet experiments with electric vehicles includes a wide range of passenger cars, trucks, and buses. Particularly notable progress occurred in the 1970s, thanks to advancements in electrical engineering, electronics, and chemical power sources. Institutions such as the Research Institute of Motor Transport (NIIAT), the All-Union Research Institute of Electromechanics (VNIIEM), the All-Union Research Institute of Electric Transport (VNIET), as well as automobile manufacturers like VAZ, ErAZ, RAF, and UAZ, were involved in creating prototypes and experimental models—some of which even earned international recognition and awards. Let’s take a closer look at some of them. NAMI-750 and NAMI-751: Early Post-War Electric Vans Shortly after World War II, the NAMI institute began developing electric postal vans: the NAMI-750 with a payload capacity of 500 kg, and the NAMI-751 with 1500 kg. Although identical in appearance and construction, the two models were equipped with different electric motors. The NAMI-750 had…

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