The meaning of Russian roulette

In Russian roulette, dueling is usually between two participants. Prior to this nervous gambling for example, the magazine of a revolver is loaded with one cartridge. The cylinder is spun after loading, after which the players do not know in which Chamber of the cylinder the bullet is located.

Then it is up to the first player to place the revolver against the head and pull the trigger. So there is a chance that the bullet will be fired, in which case the player will basically commit suicide. It is also possible that the room was empty; then one hears a 'click'. In that case, the opponent in this deadly duel is at the bNZDt. This should perform the same actions; the weapon is put against the head and the trigger is pulled by the player. Even now, both players do not know if this results in death.

The players repeat this repeatedly, until the bullet is actually fired after which the game logically ends because a fatality has fallen. The tension during this nerve-wracking game is, of course, enormous, given the risk of players taking their own lives.

Variants of this deadly gambling game

There are two versions of this dangerous game. In the first variant, the cylinder is spun only at the beginning of the game. Often, cylinders of revolvers have six chambers, one of which is then filled with a cartridge, and five remain empty. So there are six possibilities that there is actually a bullet in the room when a shot is made. However, there are only six chances that this is the case; within six shots fired, one of the participants took his own life anyway. Thus, if no bullet was fired the first five times, the sixth shot is always fatal.

In the other variant of Russian roulette, it is not certain that a victim falls within six shots. The magazine, like the above variant, is loaded with one cartridge, but each time after the weapon has been fired by a participant, the cylinder is spun again. That means after discharging the weapon six times, not necessarily a victim has fallen. There is a chance that the cylinder will end up with an empty chamber after the spin. With this variant, it can therefore take much longer for someone to lose and shoot themselves.

How Russian is Russian roulette?

As the name suggests, there are rumors that this extreme gambling game has a Russian origin. It is claimed that prisoners of the Russian army were forced to play this game in the nineteenth century. The soldiers would do this for their own entertainment and also bet money on it. According to other claims, Russian soldiers were supposed to play this game among themselves in order to impress and awe each other. However, there is no evidence of this Russian origin, and these remain rumors.

The term "Russian roulette" was first used in 1937 by the Swiss writer Georges Surdez in an article that appeared in the American Magazine Collier's. since then, the phenomenon has appeared in some well-known films and series such as The Deer Hunter from 1987 and the more recent series Death by Magic from 2018. Also, today there are still people who want to play the insane gambling game themselves, in which accidents and deaths also occur.