Russian Roulette

The Russian Roulette is actually neither a gambling game nor roulette. The Russian Roulette is death roulette. 

The Rules of the Russian Roulette 

One bullet (analogue to a roulette ball) is put in the drum of a revolver (analogue to roulette itself), the rest six chambers remain empty.  

The player spins the drum and stops it when he (less likely – she) wishes (analogue to roulette’s stopping).  

The player puts the gun to his temple and pools the trigger (absolutely no analogue in roulette).  

If the player is still alive he or she passes the gun to the next player (probably likely to a big loss in roulette). 

Each player has a 6 to 1 chance (86 percent) to stay alive (playing roulette is less risky business). 

Each player decides for himself/herself whether to play (the same is true for gambling). 

No bets are accepted but the player's life (absolutely no analogue in roulette). 

It is possible to sat that the Russian Roulette game emerged from two things: a Smith&Wesson revolver adopted by the Russian Imperial Army in 1870 and… extreme boredom, which tortured Russian officers during the Russian-Turkish wars in the late 19th century. The philosophy behind the Russian Roulette is hard to explain. The Russian roulette game is all about making a sudden unpredictable choice – life or death. Russian Army Officers (only they could officially carry revolvers) shot themselves in packs by way of Russian Roulette. From one to seven suicides were recorded monthly. Soon the game became so widespread that even noblemen from the regiments stationed in the capital were drawn to it. 

Military authorities had become concerned and prohibited the Russian Roulette. And if an officer did not lose his life playing Russian Roulette, he lost his straps. Military tribunals were ordered to severely punish anyone who would risk their life so recklessly. Dozens of soldiers and officers caught playing Russian Roulette were discharged from service. Hundreds of others were deported to remote garrisons. 

Even the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 was powerless against the Russian Roulette. The officers of the White Army gambled because they had nothing to lose. The Red Army – mostly ex-sergeants and ex-soldiers in the tsarist army – were also eager to try Russian Roulette. The Russian Roulette came to an end in 1930, when old revolvers had been replaced with TT model guns throughout the Red Army, what made Russian Roulette technically impossible. 

A little later, the four Soviet polar researchers of 1930s who were desperately struggling with boredom in a North Pole Station were reported to have invented another kind of Russian Roulette – shooting each other at random from opposite sides of an ice-floe followed by cuckoo signals.  

Gradually Russian Roulette had spread to other countries. Risking one’s life by way of Russian Roulette became an internationally recognized craze for tough guys. There is a piece of documentary evidence by Michael Chiminos Dear Hunter, a shot taken in 1978.