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Russian roulette is the practice of placing one round in a revolver, spinning the cylinder and closing it into the firearm without looking, aiming the revolver at one's own head in a suicidal fashion, and pulling the trigger. The number of rounds placed in the revolver can vary. As a gambling game, toy guns are often used to simulate the practice.

1 Legends

Various legends abound regarding the invention of Russian roulette. Most of these, predictably, take place in Russia, or occur among Russian soldiers.

In one legend, 19th century Russian prisoners were forced to play the game while the prison guards bet on the outcome. In another version, desperate and suicidal officers in the Russian army played the game to impress each other.

The earliest known use of the term is from "Russian Roulette", a short story by Georges Surdez in the January 30, 1937, issue of Collier's Magazine. A Russian sergeant in the French Foreign Legion asks the narrator,

"'Feldheim . . . did you ever hear of Russian Roulette?' When I said I had not, he told me all about it. When he was with the Russian army in Rumania, around 1917, and things were cracking up, so that their officers felt that they were not only losing prestige, money, family, and country, but were being also dishonored before their colleagues of the Allied armies, some officer would suddenly pull out his revolver, anywhere, at the table, in a cafe, at a gathering of friends, remove a cartridge from the cylinder, spin the cylinder, snap it back in place, put it to his head, and pull the trigger. There were five chances to one that the hammer would set off a live cartridge and blow his brains all over the place. Sometimes it happened, sometimes not."

Whether Tsarist officers actually played Russian roulette is unclear. In a text on the Tsarist officer corps, John Bushnell, a Russian history expert at Northwestern University, cited two near-contemporary memoirs by Russian army veterans, The Duel (1905) by Aleksandr Kuprin and From Double Eagle to Red Flag (1921) by Petr Krasnov. Both books tell of officers' suicidal and outrageous behaviour, but Russian roulette is not mentioned in either text.

The only reference to anything like Russian roulette in Russian literature is in a book entitled A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail LermontovAlternate meaning: Mikhail Lermontov (ship 1837 Mikail Yurevich Lermontov , ( October 15, 1814 July 27, 1841), Russian poet and novelist, often called "the poet of the Caucasus", was born in Moscow, of Scottish descent (from the Learmount family), but bel ( 18401840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). Events January 3 One of the predecessor papers to the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, The Port Phillip Herald is founded by George Cavanaugh. January 10 Uniform penny postage, translated by Vladimir NabokovThis page is about the novelist. For his father, the politician, see Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov. Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov Pronounced: vlah-DEE-meer nah-BAWK-awf ( April 10 O. April 22/ 23 N. 1899 July 2, 1977), was a Russian author, lepidopterist in 1958Events January January 1 Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented January 4 Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4 1957) January 8 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship January 18 Armed Lumbee Nat), where a similar act is performed by a SerbiaRepublika Srbija ( In detail) ( In detail) Official language Serbian1 Unofficial national motto Samo sloga Srbina spasava (Only Unity Saves the Serbs) Capital Belgrade Area Total % water88,361 km²n/a Population Total ( 1998) Density11,206,847126. 83/km² En soldier: the dare however is not named as "Russian roulette". (Russian officers did play a game called "cuckoo" with a Nagant revolverRevolver is also a rock-and-roll album by The Beatles. In the alkali industry in England in the 19th century, a revolver was a big rotating heated reaction chamber. LeMat 9-shot Revolver A revolver is a multishot firearm, usually a handgun, in which the r, whereby one officer would stand on a table or a chair in a dark room. Others would hide and yell "cuckoo" hoping not to be hit by gunfire.)

In the 1978 movie The Deer HunterThe Deer Hunter is a 1978 film which tells the story of how the Vietnam War affects the people of a small town in Pennsylvania, although it was actually filmed in Mingo Junction, Ohio. It stars Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Christopher Walken, the game is also depicted as being played in VietnamThe Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia. It borders China, Laos, Cambodia, and the Gulf of Tonkin. Cng Hoa Xa Hi Ch Nghia Vit Nam ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: Dc lp, t do, hnh phuc (Independence, Liberty, Happiness Off. However, there is no evidence that it ever was, either as a form of torture or as a gambling game. Several teen deaths following the movie's release caused police and the media to blame the film's depiction of Russian roulette, saying that it inspired the youths.

On October 5 2003, famous mind control magician Derren Brown played Russian roulette on British television Channel 4. Even though the stunt was apparently being broadcast live, it was later revealed to being broadcast on a slight delay and if anything had gone wrong the programme would have cut to a black screen. The stunt was condemned by some as being irresponsible and many British newspapers claimed that blanks were used in place of live ammunition. However, it was proved on the prerecorded segment of the programme that at point blank range blanks are often lethal. (For this reason, the use of blank rounds is done very cautiously by special effects firms.) A blank might cause a concussion to the head, or cause deafness or burns, because the escaping gases and such are basically the aftermath of a chemical explosion.

A semi-automatic pistol, unlike a revolver, will automatically load a round if it had any rounds remaining. There has been at least one Darwin Award resulting from an attempt to play Russian roulette with such a pistol.