Archive for 'History'
Looking for Russian Holiday to Celebrate? Posted by yelena on Nov 3, 2010
«Какой русский не любит праздновать» [What kind of a Russian doesn’t like to celebrate]! Russians celebrate with «смак» [gusto] both the well-established holidays and the newly adopted ones. Holidays that lose their «блеск» [luster] are never discarded, but instead reinvented. And even the ones that get forgotten or cast aside tend to «возрождаться» [reappear]…
Reading “Мастер и Маргарита”: Chapter 15 Posted by yelena on Oct 1, 2010
Remember Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoi (literal translation of his last name is “Shoeless”) who briefly appears in Chapter 9? In the beginning of that chapter he strikes a not-very-clear-cut deal with «коварный» [treacherous] Koroviev and at the end is led away by two nameless, but sinister «товарищи» [comrades]. And that was, seemingly, the end of…
Are There Too Many Letters in Russian Alphabet? Posted by yelena on Sep 27, 2010
What’s this, you ask? Well, this is Russian alphabet. Or rather, this was the old Russian alphabet used in times of Peter the Great. Letters in blue have been discarded by 1800. Letters in red were killed off or exiled in 1918. The remaining 33 letters form the present-day Russian alphabet. When I was little…
Russia Cannot Be Understood by the Mind Alone… or Can It? Posted by yelena on Sep 3, 2010
The infamous line “Russia cannot be understood by the mind alone” is one of those must-know Russian phrases that comes up pretty much constantly in many situations. It lends itself happily to a collection of jokes and funny images that, like the photo above, seem to confirm that Russia is indeed a land of…
A summer in Russia Posted by josefina on Jul 8, 2010
We spent two years in Russia, when I was Naval Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, 1981 to 1983. Here are some of my memories of summer there: «Белый пух» [white down; fluff; fuzz]: Summers in Russia are short, but intense, and sweet. In Moscow, our first memory of summer is «белый пух» [white…
«Моё первое русское лето» [My first Russian Summer] Posted by josefina on Jul 6, 2010
Russia is white not only in winter: during summer she’s («Россия» is after all a feminine noun!) covered in what I like to call «летний снег» [summer snow]. Other people call it simply «белый пух» [white down; fluff; fuzz]. The real name for it is «тополиный пух» [poplar fuzz] – and no Russian summer is…
Reading «Мастер и Маргарита»: Chapter 2 Posted by josefina on Jun 14, 2010
Where has your copy of «Мастер и Маргарита» [“The Master & Margarita”] been this week? I brought mine with me to the «университетская столовая» [university canteen] where I read it together with «кофе» [coffee] and «корзиночка со сливками» [lit. ‘little basket with cream’] a very tasty Russian pastry. Chapter 2 «Понтий Пилат» [“Pontius Pilate”] of…