Archive for February, 2008
A recent past remaining in the present: a journey to the former GULAG camp “Perm-36” Posted by josefina on Feb 28, 2008
After one hour on the bus from Perm, located on the European side of the Urals, there is only snow and dark green pine trees outside my window as far as the eye can see. With at least one more hour to go before arriving at the museum “Perm-36”, those small villages that one passes…
How I Survive Communism’s Consequences and Even Laugh Posted by josefina on Feb 27, 2008
[inspired by the nonfiction book “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed” by Slavenka Draculic] With as many inhabitants and as huge a territory as Russia’s, it is a country bound to exist in different versions for each and every person who has ever lived in it. To me it seems that among much of…
What does здравствуйте & спасибо actually mean in Russian? Posted by josefina on Feb 11, 2008
The two of the most frequently used words in the Russian language, the two words without which it is simply impossible to get around in Russia, even when one isn’t trying to be the least polite, are actually more than just two words. I believe that anyone studying any language at all sooner or later…