Archive for June, 2009
Russian Summer Reading part I: «Портрет» Н. В. Гоголя Posted by josefina on Jun 30, 2009
When opening this brand new 21st century edition of this 19th century «повесть» [story; tale; ‘novella’] «Портрет» [“The Portrait”] you find the following information on the first page: «издаётся к 200-летию со дня рождения Николая Васильевича Гоголя» [is published for the 200th year anniversary of Nikolai Vasil’evich Gogol’s birth]. What else is special about this…
Russian Food: «Слава гречке!» [Glory to Buckwheat!] Posted by josefina on Jun 26, 2009
Introducing an essential part of Russian cuisine: «гречка»! «Гречка» is actually the ‘nickname’ («уменьшительно-ласкательный вариант» – don’t you just love the Russian language for applying diminutive even to such things as grains?) whereas the real name for buckwheat is «гречиха». In the stores you can also find it in boxes marked «крупа гречневая» [buckwheat] as…
Russian Cases: «Дательный падеж» [Dative] Posted by josefina on Jun 21, 2009
And where might one find this bold statement made out of red metal on red wood pictured above? I found it in an old and forgotten «дом культуры» [‘house of culture’] in Krasnoyarsk in July 2005. What does it say, anyway? «Мир народам, власть советам» [“Peace to the peoples, power to the soviets”] written in old…
А в то же время в Екатеринбурге… [And at the same time in Yekaterinburg…] Posted by josefina on Jun 16, 2009
Usually my Russian hometown «Екатеринбург» [Yekaterinburg] looks like this: «бесконечные пробки на улицах» [endless traffic jams on the streets] and «бесконечный ремонт домов и дорог» [endless reconstruction of houses and roads]. But not anymore! Now my «родной город на Урале» [hometown in the Urals] looks like this! Pictured above is the main street of the city…
Celebrating Russia, or ‘aspects’ of the 12th of June Posted by josefina on Jun 11, 2009
The pictures are back! «Замечательно!» Now the blog will be complete again! «Как хорошо!» And what better a tribute to Russia’s uniqueness – which we are about to celebrate tomorrow on the 12th of June – than pictures taken from the last wagon on a train while traveling through Siberia? The choice made for the…
«С днём рождения, Александр Сергеевич!» [Happy Birthday, Alexander Sergeyevich!] Posted by josefina on Jun 6, 2009
Today is the 6th of June 2009 and 210 years ago today Russia’s greatest poet (some say he was the greatest writer PERIOD, too, but I’ll settle with calling him the greatest poet at this given moment in time) was born – Александр Сергеевич Пушкин [Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin]. Being a fan of Russia (or, perhaps…
Деньги, деньги, деньги! [Money, money, money!] Posted by josefina on Jun 3, 2009
There are many words in Russian which are easy to learn and remember because they are very close in both orthography and pronunciation to many words in other Indo-European languages. For example, the word «кризис» means ‘crisis’, and is spelled – even pronounced! – almost the same as the English word: just remember it begins…