{"id":5852,"date":"2014-06-23T07:50:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T07:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=5852"},"modified":"2018-08-16T15:27:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T15:27:21","slug":"russian-characters-in-orange-is-the-new-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/russian-characters-in-orange-is-the-new-black\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Characters in Orange Is The New Black"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are watched at least one episode of Orange Is the New Black, you will have seen its Russian characters. For those who don\u2019t know, Orange Is the new Black (OITBN) is the highly successful Netflix original series<\/a> (\u0441\u0435\u0440\u0438\u0430<\/span>\u043b) <\/strong>set in a women\u2019s prison. I’ll try not to spoil too much for those who haven’t watched the show.<\/p>\n

OITNB is fairly unique in that it features Russian characters throughout the series as something other than the \u201cbad guys<\/a>\u201d or sleeper agents. I can’t think of another recent show that would have a Russian feature as a part of the main character cast. Perhaps you were watching the show and wondering how realistic the Russian elements are. After all, it is made with the US audience in mind. Here are my observations on the matter.<\/p>\n

Russian Characters<\/h3>\n

One of the show’s heroines, Galina “Red” Reznikov<\/strong><\/span>, is a middle-aged Russian woman who used to run a grocery store with her husband on the outside. It seems like she got involved with her husband’s mob associates and that’s probably what landed her in prison (we don’t know yet). Red\u2019s husband and his associates are also Russian-speaking.<\/p>\n

There is another secondary Russophone character — the prison counselor’s wife Katya Healy<\/strong><\/span>. She is your stereotypical mail-order bride, who married her husband to get a US citizenship. There is some confusion as to where Katya is actually from, as Russia and Ukraine are mentioned interchangeably (which is probably typical of the American characters depicted). Her husband, Sam Healy is shown to have a Ukrainian dictionary on his desk, although all Katya is ever heard speak is Russian. Katya is reluctant to speak English or spend time with her husband. Her mother Pavla encourages her to be nice to her husband until she receives her green card.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Watch Kate Mulgrew talk about her character, Red:<\/p>\n