Archive for 'History'
Reading Russian literature: А. П. Чехов «Человек в футляре» Posted by josefina on Feb 18, 2009
Today is the day I share with you – long overdue, of which I am aware – my post on how to read a Russian short story in the original. For a long time I pondered on exactly what short story to choose for today’s post, as there is an abundance of great short stories…
The Splendor of Russian Proverbs! [Пословицы!] Posted by josefina on Jan 17, 2009
The ‘Word of the Week’ that we’ve had here on this blog for a while now is a very good thing (it proved especially good when that “word” was «Барак Обама»), but what about making some changes in the new year and try ‘Proverb of the Week’ instead? If you really want to get to…
And the ‘Name of Russia’ is… Posted by josefina on Dec 29, 2008
…АлександрНевский [Alexander Nevsky]! If you remember (and have been a reader of this blog for long enough – thanks, by the way!) I wrote about the Russian people voting in the national contest/TV show «ИмяРоссии» [Name of Russia] in a post of mine back in July [ИмяРоссии: who’s your pick?]. Well, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday…
One Year With Russian Blog! Posted by josefina on Nov 9, 2008
On the 9th of November 2007 I published my first post here on this blog, which is one year ago today, something that calls for a few reflections on the year gone by. This year has been a learning experience for me; I have learned so much, much of things I never thought I’d need…
Russian Reading Tip: “The Icon And The Axe” Posted by josefina on Jun 14, 2008
One of you readers commented a couple of posts ago that one of the most helpful works when it comes to trying to understand Russia is Orlando Figes’ “Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia” (1998). Clearly, I cannot argue with this, as I have not yet had the pleasure to read it, but I…
Две «Исходные» Беды России [Russia’s Two Initial Troubles] Posted by josefina on Jun 12, 2008
When I in my last post stated that, according to the vice-premier of Russia, this country has five problems getting in the way of its development, one reader (thank you, Stas!) brought it to my attention that, initially, Russia only had two problems. And initially they were called «беды» [trouble, singular form «беда»] instead of…
Another Part of Tomsk: the NKVD museum Posted by josefina on May 5, 2008
Томск [Tomsk] has a population of half a million and is located in Siberia, but since Siberia is a big place one is quite in the right to ask – where exactly? North-east of Novosibirsk by five hours by commute train, to be precise, the city is seated two hours north of the Trans-Siberian railroad…