The history of Russian Roulette

Christopher Walker did it in The deer hunter; Bugs Bunny did it in the 1950 cartoon Bugs Bunny; and Johnny Depp did it in Arizona dream. The common thread is that all these characters toyed around with Russian roulette.

No-one is entirely sure about the history behind Russian roulette; the only thing we know for sure is that it is a dangerous game that involves at least 2 players. Georges Surdez wrote a short story for Collier’s in 1937 and one of the protagonists discusses Russian roulette with one of the other characters. This was the first time anyone put a name to the ‘game’.

It is possible that the game’s name originates from Russian soldiers who may have been feeling a tad suicidal in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They supposedly played around with this game as a show of bravery. The word roulette in the name refers to the element of risk or gambling that is involved. The problem is that no-one can find any evidence of whether dispirited Russian soldiers really played the game. The other theory is that the Russian army was so ill-equipped they didn’t have enough bullets to fully load their gun chambers. So they loaded their guns with single bullets. Neither they nor their enemies knew when a real bullet would emerge out of the gun.

Russian roulette consists of a minimum of two players and there can be as many as eight players in some instances. They place a single bullet in a revolver, spin the cylinder, and pull the trigger while the muzzle is against their head. This is a lethal game of chance and it is one that has seen at least 24 deaths in the state of Kentucky alone over 10 years, starting in 1993.

The typical player is someone who is addicted to the high they experience from high-risk sports such as bungee jumping, scuba diving, and parachuting. This person could also have suicidal tendencies, though this isn’t always true. But it is true that there are often records of abuse, low self-esteem, other high-risk behaviours, and drugs.

Author bio:

Piggs Peak wrote this article about the history of Russian roulette.