Krokodil was a satirical magazine founded in 1922. Having its homebase in the USSR meant targeting “safe” subjects such as the alcoholism of Soviet workers and the overall ridiculousness of capitalist countries. The name Krokodil led to other Soviet magazines with a “sting” such the Azerbaijani Hedgehog. I found this periodical name game to be a sweet form of animism, a subtle alternative to the almost obligatory atheism that comes with being a Communist…Until a rather rocknroll friend of mine brought to my attention:—contemporaneously in Russia, the word Krokodil refers to a masochistic drug, whereby a cheap form of heroin is made by cutting so many corners that the result is often a gangrenous falling away of flesh. The results are gruesomely graphic, and make me feel like we are at war with ourselves. (via cannibalism, consumerism, and crocodile tears | THE STATE)