Politics, huh? Russian politics are great, very entertaining and at times rather frightening – just not my shot of vodka, if you get my drift. When I started out as a ‘watcher & commentator on Russian life’ [particularly from a Siberian point of view] back in 2005 at the tender age of 20, I was very angry with myself because I lacked political awareness and couldn’t comment wisely on any current events of certain weight. I still lack political awareness but have since grown to accept this and thus I can now comment on current events as much as I’d like. Perhaps I should’ve looked into the ‘argument’ that aroused this past week between Georgia and Russia, but I’m afraid it didn’t really catch my attention. However this headline did: «Достоевского признали женатым» [Dostoevsky was declared married]. The article – perhaps only interesting to me and other «достоевсковеды» – is about finding the marriage certificate of Dostoevsky and his first wife, Maria Isaeva, in the Siberian town of Новокузнетск, where they were married in 1857. Here’s a little excerpt:

«Находку прокомментировала Валентина Ветловская, специалист по творчеству Достоевского: – Любой документ, касающийся жизни и творчества Достоевского, на вес золота.» [The find was commented on by Valentina Vetlovskaya, a specialist on the works of Dostoevsky: – Any kind of document that has anything to do with the life and works of Dostoevsky is worth its weight in gold.]

On Wednesday this past week, the 23rd of April, it was a year since the death of Boris Yeltsin. This event was commemorated especially cordially in his [and mine!] “hometown” of Yekaterinburg, where he went to university and also began his political career. «УГТУ-УПИ стал вузом имени первого российского Президента» [Ural State Technical University (formerly known as Ural Polytechnic Institute) became an institution of higher education in the name of the first Russian President]. In addition to getting the biggest university in town, something that was decided upon after a voting by students and teachers (go democracy!), he also received one of the most beautiful streets in the city. It was the street along which he used to stroll on his way to work in the town administration, which is right by the river and used to be «улица 9-ого фераля» but is now «улица Ельцина». After his demise last year there was a lot of talk about renaming the main street of the city – like in every other city in Russia it’s called «проспект Ленина» – to «проспект Ельцина», but for some reason or other they chose not to. Perhaps they didn’t want to stand out among all the other cities, or perhaps because it would have caused the two enormous statues of Lenin right now standing along the prospect to become rather superfluous.

A headline that both shocked me – and, sadly, not shocked me so much – was «Армия России несёт потери: среди погибших за три месяца 2008 года – 50% самоубийцы» [The Russian Army suffers losses: among the diseased for the first three months of 2008 – 50% of them commited suicide]. I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it many, many more times – the Russian Army is a terrible institution that does very little good. If I wanted to, then I could probably find at least one headline every day that had to do with irregularities in the Russian Army, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to search for that since I live here, and I have to walk past soldiers on the street every day. (And because I’m a simple mortal woman I can’t help but to look twice at them boys – come on, it’s soldiers! Men in uniform – any kind of uniform – never fail to catch the female eye, I suppose.)

And don’t forget – on Sunday it’s Пасха [Orthodox Easter]! If some Russian says to you on Sunday morning: «Христос воскрес!» [Christ has risen!], don’t forget to answer them with «Воистину воскрес!» [Truly risen!]. I would like to blog about it, but on Sunday I’ll be stopping in Novosibirsk on my way to a conference in Tomsk, so I can’t. Hope you’ll all enjoy the holiday (within or without the great Motherland)!