Archive for 'when in Russia'
«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…
Meet the Verb: «собираться»! Posted by josefina on Jun 25, 2010
Maybe somewhere in between all the recent posts by Yelena on our blog – as well as Vickie’s excellent guest post two days ago – you might have asked yourselves: «А где же Джозефина?!» [“But where is Josefina?!”] I know there’s been a significant gap without me posting here about the wondrous world of Russian…
«Что делать в честь дня России?» [What to do in honor of Russia’s (Independence?) Day?] Posted by josefina on Jun 13, 2010
Yesterday – «12 июня» [June 12th] – was a very great and highly important day for citizens of Russia, Russians and, of course, our ordinary crowd of «сочувствующие» [pl. sympathizing] Russophiles worldwide. It was «день России» [‘Day of Russia’; or why not ‘Russia’s Day’], a public holiday formerly known as «день независимости России» [Russia’s Independence…
Real Russia: «Курение и курево» [Smoking and ‘something to smoke’] Posted by josefina on Jun 8, 2010
«Россия, у нас проблема» [Russia, we have a problem]. Last week I read some «пугающая статистика» [frightening statistics] about Russia in an online edition of a Swedish newspaper: every day in Russia «860 (восемьсот шестьдесят) миллионов сигарет» [860 million cigarettes] are sold. That’s 6,5 cigarettes per «гражданин Российской федерации» [citizen of the Russian Federation] «ежедневно»…
Part III: «Казань – литературная» [The Literary Kazan’] Posted by josefina on May 14, 2010
I’m afraid I only managed to photograph «памятник Мусе Джалилю» [the monument to Musa Jalil] – «татарскому поэту–патриоту» [to the Tatar poet and patriot] – from behind while in Kazan’… Even though Tatar literature isn’t really a part of ‘all things Russian’ in the strictest of senses – why be so strict, anyway? «Татарстан» [Tatarstan]…
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.