Defender of the Fatherland Day Posted by yelena on Feb 23, 2012
February 23rd is yet another holiday in Russia – День защитника Отечества (Defender of the Fatherland Day). The majority of young Russian males end up serving in the Armed Forces as призывники (draftees). Comparatively few Russian women serve in the military. Besides, women have their own holiday on March 8th. For all these reasons, February…
Time to Visit Your Тёща Posted by yelena on Feb 21, 2012
Don’t take this song (or this post for that matter) very seriously. Not all husbands experience intense dislike of their mothers-in-law and not all mothers-in-law can’t stand their sons-in-law. This week Russians celebrate the festival of Масленица (Maslenitsa). We wrote a bit about it on this blog before in this post, this one and this…
Valentine’s Day in Russia – Love It or Really Love It Posted by yelena on Feb 14, 2012
Do you like celebrating Valentine’s Day? If so, then I bet you had everything prepared days ahead – цветы (flowers), шоколад (chocolate), шампанское (Champaign), and, of course, a romantic валентинка (Valentine’s Day card). And if you don’t like this holiday, then you are probably too busy doing all the last-minute shopping to read this post…
12 Months in Russian – Part 2 Posted by yelena on Feb 9, 2012
In case you missed it, this is Part 2 of the story about old Russian names for the 12 months of the year. January through June are covered in Part 1. As for the video, it has a connection albeit tenuous to this post, specifically to one of the names for September. Июль (July) – the old…
Old Russian Names for the 12 Months Posted by yelena on Feb 7, 2012
Ну и зима выдалась! (This is some kind of winter!) Over where I am right now, daffodils and cherry trees are already blooming and folks are strolling around in t-shirts and flip-flops (and no, I am not in the Southern Hemisphere or in the tropics). All the while, my friends in Volgograd, Russia, mention чрезвычайно…
Russian No-nouns Posted by yelena on Jan 31, 2012
This post’s idea comes from Richard who mentioned that he was confused by the noun нежить (lit: the undead) that he encountered reading Nabokov’s story “The Wood Sprite”. Indeed, the noun нежить (undead) sounds exactly like the verb нежить (to pamper), but the meanings of the two words couldn’t be more different. False cognates…
Meet Michael McFaul, the New US Ambassador to Russia Posted by Natalie on Jan 30, 2012
In case you did not know, «я американка» [I’m American]. I grew up here and I go to university here, and I tend to look at foreign affairs through an American lens. I realize that a large portion of our readers are not American, so this post may not be as relevant or apply…