Archive for 'Soviet Union'
«Летать Аэрофлотом» [Flying Aeroflot] Posted by josefina on Feb 10, 2009
Once onboard a «Аэрофлот» plane, as I clearly was when I took this picture a couple of days ago, there’s no turning back. One can only hope the pilot’s sober and that it won’t come tumbling down or, «шутки в сторону» [joking aside], down some whiskey and enjoy the ride… (Внимание! [Attention!] This post does…
С Наступившим! [Happy Not-so-New-Anymore Year!] Posted by josefina on Jan 2, 2009
In Russia «Новый Год» [New Year] is the BIG holiday of the year, it is to one sixth of our planet Earth’s spacious land what Christmas is to most of the Western world. So if you’re in Russian between, let’s say when the first colorful lights start blinking, sparkling, glittering and the stores put up…
Introducing: «Советский анекдот» [the Soviet Joke] Posted by josefina on Nov 29, 2008
Russia is not only terribly fascinating just because it is the wildest, most chaotic and most unpredictable place on the face of the Earth, but also because it was once home to another country – yes, you guessed it – the Soviet Union. It is difficult to sum up the Soviet Union in a short…
The «Русский Паспорт» vs. My Swedish Passport Posted by josefina on Nov 14, 2008
Some things happen for a reason. Other things happen for other reasons. Yesterday my wallet, my cell phone and my friend’s memory card (that she naively enough trusted me with) were stolen «среди белого дня» [‘in bright daylight’] from my backpack during lunch break at the university. Yes, I can think of funnier things to…
Learning ‘Conversational Russian’ Posted by josefina on Sep 2, 2008
A good textbook often reads just like a novel. One excellent example of this is Helen Yakobson’s “Conversational Russian: An Intermediate Course” from 1985 [при The George Washington University]. Earlier this summer I found it in a box up in my mother’s attic marked “Russian books”, this pale orange and tattered little book of no…
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…
Book & Movie Tip: «Собачье сердце» [Heart of a Dog] Posted by josefina on Jun 7, 2008
Everyone who’s read «Мастер и Маргарита» [“The Master and Margarita”], or perhaps only seen one of the many movies or TV-shows based on this wonderful fantastic novel (published first only in 1967, in an English translation, despite it’s author finishing writing it before his early death in 1940), knows that Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков [Mikhail Afanasevich…