"’This is why Americans can’t understand what a Russian is,’ boomed Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky" after jumping into 35 degree water in a river as the air temperature was well below freezing.
One swimmer "quoted a line from a famous poem by Fyodor Tyutchev: ‘You can’t understand Russia with your brain.’"
Well, as one participant said, “it’s warmer in the water than it is in the air”! Of course, they didn’t have to be standing around in the air in a Speedo and nothing else. But they were!
This was, don’t you know, a religious festival, “cleansing the soul”, with participants repeatedly crossing themselves before, during, and after the experience.