''Happy Birthday, Mr. Putin!'' is an English title of the erotic calendar, released by the Russian publishing house "Fakultet" for the 58th birthday of
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
on 7 October 2010. The calendar features twelve semi-nude female students of the Faculty of Journalism at
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
(MSU), each for every month, with a short message. The print run consisted of 50,000 copies.
The calendar caused a stir in the international media. In less than one day, the images from the calendar have been reposted from its original web source by several thousands Russian users of
LiveJournal
LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary.
American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, a ...
. MSU journalism student Yelena Sadikova (unrelated to calendar) died of
acute myeloid leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may inclu ...
after refusing to accept the money from calendar's sales, needed for her treatment. A day after the calendar's release, six other students of the same university made an Internet version, critical of Putin, which received an online support. The calendar was followed by a
lampoon
Lampoon may refer to:
*Parody
*Amphol Lampoon (born 1963), Thai actor and singer
*''The Harvard Lampoon'', a noted humor magazine
** ''National Lampoon'' (magazine), a defunct offshoot of ''Harvard Lampoon''
***National Lampoon, Incorporated, a 20 ...
version with the heads of Russian politicians imposed on original female bodies. Other versions include that dedicated to the end of
's gubernatorial tenure. A calendar, inspired by the original version, was also made for the Mayor of Omsk.
Original calendar
The student girls for the calendar were selected via
social network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...
by one of the producers. The shootings lasted for three days and from over 10,000 shots thirteen were chosen. The girls are dressed in lacy lingerie and each page contains a speech balloon with the girl's name. The images were originally published on the LiveJournal page of Kristina Potupchik, a press-secretary of Russian youth movement '' Nashi''. The movement, however, denied any connection with the calendar. According to calendar's producer Vladimir Tabak, the publishing house, which released the calendar, was established by the MSU students, who have never been the members of political youth organisations.
Each speech bubble text begins with "Vladimir Vladimirovich..." The messages are the following, starting from January: "Everyone would like a man like you", "How about a third go?" (referring to Putin's anticipated third presidential term), "The forest fires have been put out, but I'm still burning!" (referring to the
2010 Russian wildfires
The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia, primarily in the west in summer 2010. They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010. The fires were associated with record-high t ...
), "You are the best!", "I love you!", "Give me a ride on a
Kalina
Kalina may refer to:
People
* Kalina people, or Caribs, an indigenous people of the northern coastal areas of South America
* Kalina language, or Carib, the language of the Kalina people
* Kalina (given name)
* Kalina (surname)
* Noah Kalina, ...
!", "Would you take me as a co-pilot?", "Who else if not you?", "You only get better with the years", "You are my Premier", "I don't need a rynda. I need you" (referring to Putin's reply to an Internet user's request, known as Putin's rynda) and "I want to congratulate you personally. Call 8-925-159-17-28".
The revenue from calendar's sales was planned to go for charity.
Alternative version
The alternative oppositional version features female students dressed in black and with taped mouths in protest. The pages accommodate two months and bear critical questions. According to one of the students, Margarita Zhuravlyova, they "didn't have to think long to come up with questions; people ask these questions in their daily lives, at home, at work, in the streets and on public transportation". The alternative version was advertised through LiveJournal and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. The alternative version features the following questions: "When will Khodorkovsky be released?", "OK with fools, but what about roads?" (referring to the Russian saying "There are two troubles in Russia: the fools and the roads"), "How will
inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...
affect the bribes?", "
Freedom of assembly
Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
always and everywhere?", "Who killed
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
?" and "When will the next
terrorist incident
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
occur"?
Reactions
The Moscow State University campus became divided into those supporting the alternative version and the other supporting the original calendar. The head of the MSU Faculty of Journalism Yelena Vartanova commented: "I think the calendar is quite frivolous but I don't see anything criminal in it. ..It's a matter for their own conscience."
Putin's attitude was reportedly "indifferent"; according to Putin's spokesperson
Dmitry Peskov
Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov ( rus, Дмитрий Сергеевич Песков, p=pʲɪˈskof; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat and the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin.l these questions have a right to exist and people have a right to ask them". Peskov also noted that " is situation tells us about natural pluralism of opinions in our society and that it is important to have an active position in life, and such things should be encouraged unless they interfere with studies".