Archive by Author
Part II: «Казань – ленинская» [Lenin’s Kazan’] Posted by josefina on May 10, 2010
«Казанский государственный университет» [Kazan’ State University] is since 1925 and still today «имени Владимира Ильича Ульянова–Ленина» [named after Vladimir Il’ich Ul’yanov-Lenin]. And in front of the university’s main building we have a very young «Володя Ульянов» [Volodya Ul’yanov] – aged seventeen and not yet aware of his imminent expulsion from the university… In August 1887…
Part I: « Казань – историческая» [The Historical Kazan’] Posted by josefina on May 9, 2010
This post is about the city of Kazan’, the capital of Tatarstan, which is a republic of the Russian Federation.
Russian Grammar – «по-русски!» [in Russian!] Posted by josefina on May 2, 2010
You don’t have to know a single word in Russian – or know the first thing about Russian grammar for that matter – to find this picture rather scary… I found it on an old circus wagon that had been left to its own fate in a far corner of a public park here in…
«Осторожно, русский язык!» [Careful, Russian language!] Posted by josefina on Apr 28, 2010
If only this wasn’t a joke «объявление» [advertisement, announcement; declaration, proclamation; notification] made by some «хитрые филологи» [here: clever philologists], but «правда» [truth, verity, fact] instead! «Перевожу с руского на русский» [(I) translate from Rusian to Russian]. Because sometimes that’s just exactly what we all need, right? Today one foreign student here in Yekaterinburg…
On the Border: на границе Европы-Азии! Posted by josefina on Apr 25, 2010
«Монумент на границе Европы–Азии» [the (new) monument on the border between Europe and Asia] «на московском тракте» [on the highway to Moscow (from Siberia)]. Have you ever dreamed of being in two places at one and the same time? «На Урале» [in the Ural Mountains] all your dreams can come true – including this one!…
Love Me Russian! or a little something about the diminutive [Part I: Introduction] Posted by josefina on Apr 22, 2010
In English language the grammatical term ‘diminutive’ translates as a diminutive word or suffix word indicating small size (such as “booklet”, etc.), a shortened form of a name or a name indicating fondness and that it can also be used to describe a very small person or a very small thing. In Russian language this…
A Russian Post-modern Classic: Венедикт Ерофеев’s «Москва-Петушки» Posted by josefina on Apr 16, 2010
The post-modern pseudo-autobiographical classic «”Москва–Петушки” Венедикта Ерофеева» [“Moscow-Petushki” by Venedikt Yerofeev] has been translated into English as “Moscow to the End of the Line”, “Moscow Stations” and “Moscow Circles” (all of the above are very correct titles). But it should of course be read «в подлиннике» [in the original] – as should all other «произведения…