tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-247688442024-03-21T17:26:55.935+01:00TetradkiA Russian Review of BooksAlexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.comBlogger288125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-22759513484098688332022-04-11T18:04:00.006+02:002022-04-11T18:04:46.188+02:00What is an Oblast?<h3 style="text-align: left;"> (language)</h3><p><br /></p><p>An oblast is a region, an administrative division in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. It is roughly equivalent to 'state' in American terms, or 'county' in the UK terms, or 'departement' in French terms. </p><p>It is pronounced with a soft 't' at the end, like in 'tea'. The stress is usually on the 'o'.</p><p>What is noticeable since the beginning of the war in Ukraine (NB: not 'the' Ukraine), is that Western media have adopted the local term 'oblast' and not 'region'.</p><p>Proof, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61027292">from the BBC</a>: </p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">"Russia suffered a serious defeat around Kyiv and had to pull back. But it has not lost the war, and is grinding out territorial gains in the east and south. Since they left the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><b>Kyiv Oblast</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141414; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> the damage they have done is clearer than ever."</span></p><div id="piano-inline3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #141414; font-family: ReithSans, Helvetica, Arial, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="ssrcss-mxs2fu-ComponentWrapper e1xue1i810" data-component="image-block" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #141414; font-family: ReithSans, Helvetica, Arial, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 50rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><figure class="ssrcss-wpgbih-StyledFigure e34k3c23" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ssrcss-ab5fd8-StyledFigureContainer e34k3c21" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="ssrcss-1ib4mnz-Placeholder e16icw910" style="border: 0px; display: block; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 750px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div></figure></div>Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-26447547585344011922022-03-15T19:19:00.003+01:002022-03-15T19:19:46.165+01:00Breaking crockery over Russia<p> <i>This is a guest post by Miranda Ingram, a well-known English international journalist. While we all watch in shock the events in Ukraine, this is what she has to say addressing the Russians.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>To Sasha, my husband, and your Russian friends – our Russian friends…</p><p>Not only the best, but almost all the years of my life have been inseparable from my love of Russia, Russians. Russian-ness. </p><p>Those of us who are afflicted call it “the Russian disease”.</p><p>I had a mother who talked incessantly about Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn. About Lenin, even. When I was a child, she wrote an essay about Vladimir Ilyich for an international competition and won a tour of the Soviet Union. The local papers wrote about it.</p><p>Thus my enchantment with everything Russian was a fait accompli even before my first faltering words when I chose Russian as a second language at school.</p><p>I soaked up Russian literature through my teens, took my degree in Russian history and politics, visited the country both as a student and, later, for work.</p><p>I moved to Russia!</p><p>I got to know every inch of Moscow, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, spent weekends at dachas, swimming in rivers, picking mushrooms in the forest, eating new potatoes and dill and sour cream and berries. </p><p>I travelled right across Russia and all over the former Soviet Union.</p><p>I married a Russian, for God’s sake. </p><p>I have Russian children. Sasha doesn’t like me to say “half-Russian” – ‘they are both Russian and English’, he says.</p><p>Since we left Moscow, I have missed Russia more than he does. He calls me part-Russian.</p><p>I was with you in August 1991, outside the White House, watching tracer bullets in the sky and cheering for Yeltsin. I breathed that hope and joy that filled the air. ‘In two years, maybe five at most,’ my future husband promised, ‘Russia will be a normal country’. </p><p>We laughed; it seemed possible.</p><p>Of course, the 90s were wild, then along came Putin with a simple deal. He would put sausages into those empty shops and nobody need bother themselves about what was going on in the Kremlin. </p><p>Not rich, by any means, but comfortable, a Russian middle class started to shop at Zara and Ikea, drink Starbucks coffee and watch Netflix on tv.</p><p>Just like people all over the world.</p><p>A modest professional class also learned to travel, eat oysters, choose French cheeses. Civilised global participants, some of you emigrated - to the States, France, the UK. Some of you stayed. On Facebook, via WhatsApp, in person when possible, you continued to debate politics. </p><p>You were appalled by the death of Politkovskaya. </p><p>You bemoaned curbs on freedom and wrote articles that were just inoffensive enough to slip past the censor.</p><p>You admired, or didn’t admire, Pussy Riot and Navalny. </p><p>And now you are in shock. My husband, Sasha, rings Ukrainian friends to apologise even while he can’t take in what is happening. </p><p>He is depressed. He feels it is somehow his fault. </p><p>Don’t be silly, I comforted. It’s not your fault. We watched the news and grieved together.</p><p>And then I snapped. You know what – I turned on him – you are right: this is your fault. All of you - you, Andrei, Mikhail, Sergei, Lev, Alexei, Vasily…</p><p>Like the sausage-buying masses, you took your eyes off the Kremlin.</p><p>How could you? With your history? With your story? </p><p>A few years ago, I wrote a novel set in 1990s Russia in which I despaired that within a couple of years of the defeat of a one-Party state, “ordinary” Russians had already lost interest in politics. </p><p>And among you intellectuals, that post-putsch appetite for opening the files and learning the truth about the past quickly waned. </p><p>Who wanted to rake through all that?</p><p>Yet if you don’t know your past, I argued, what was done to you, how you responded – who you are, in other words – how can you hope to avoid the same mistakes again? Sleepwalking into yet another dictatorship?</p><p>This was your job - you, Sasha, and your friends, our friends, I ranted as I smashed crockery and burst into tears.</p><p>And you, Sasha, agreed with me, for once. You’re right, you said.</p><p>Oh, I don’t blame you New Intelligentsia entirely. I was uneasy with Western boasts of “winning” the cold war. I understood the humiliation of nozhki busha. I was livid at Britain’s spineless response to the Litvinenko murder in the heart of London and Europe’s and the West’s pusillanimous acceptance of Putin’s various annexations.</p><p>Nevertheless, I feel cheated. I must be like those true-believing communists who were told in 1991 that what they had believed in all their lives was a cruel joke.</p><p>I have loved, admired – romanticised, yes, been frustrated by, of course – Russia nearly all my life. And now those years of belief have been jerked from under me and my hand-woven Russian carpet turns out to be just a moth-eaten doormat.</p><p>After a lifetime of extolling the wonder that is Russia – the literature, art, music, science, warmth and that vast, vast nature – I no longer wish to recall my adventures, tell my anecdotes, bring out my photographs and souvenirs, cook Russian food for friends.</p><p>Will I be able to love Russia and Russians and Russian-ness again?</p><p>And you, does protesting that you “never supported Putin” make your hands feel clean when you introduce yourselves: “I am Russian”?</p><p><i>©M.Ingram 2022 ©publication A.Anichkin</i></p>Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-348207646697000922022-03-07T14:04:00.000+01:002022-03-07T14:04:56.543+01:00Books to understand Ukraine<p> </p><p>The Guardian offers a list of books to understand what is happening in Ukraine. </p><p>'<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/04/beyond-war-books-understand-ukraine-invasion-putin-gogol-oliver-bullough">Beyond the fog of war: books to help us understand the invasion of Ukraine</a>' is compiled and annotated by Oliver Bullough, himself a very good writer on Russia/Ukraine (The Last man in Russia, Moneyland and others).</p><p>From his list, I've read most and am looking forward to reading the rest. </p><p>In the latter category, Serhii Plohy's history of Ukraine seems the most interesting. I am getting rave reviews and enthusiastic recommendations from my friends in Russia and Ukraine. Andrei Kurkov's 'Death and the Penguin' is a must read, as well as the classic Ukrainian novellas by Nikolai Gogol. </p><p>To Bullough's list I would add Terry Martin's <a href="https://www.amazon.fr/Affirmative-Action-Empire-Nationalism-1923-1939/dp/0801486777">'The Affirmative Action Empire'</a>, an exhaustive, thought-provoking study of the bolsheviks' nationality policy and how it backfired. It includes a well-balanced analysis of <i>Holodomor, </i>the great famine in Ukraine during the collectivisation of individual farms in the late 1920s - early 1930s. </p><p>Another very good summary of the history of Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Poland and their relationship with the Muscovite Russia is in Norman Davies' '<a href="https://livre.fnac.com/a4113729/Norman-Davies-Vanished-kingdoms?esl-k=sem-google%7cng%7cc504437537169%7cm%7ckpla381597769134%7cp%7ct%7cdc%7ca120693145164%7cg12499685677&gclid=Cj0KCQiA95aRBhCsARIsAC2xvfw_rWCqR0bw-mtvKMGiPA2WM-bvhQh_vZQLwtqdxAiLge1190pHHwcaAqYhEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&oref=798ee099-2e92-6b1f-c2dd-f0421f8008c9&Origin=CMP_GOOGLE_MP_LIV">Vanished Kingdoms. The History of Half-Forgotten Europe'</a>. It contains a long chapter on the Polish-Lithuanian-Russian Commonwealth and its legacy — it only ended in 1795. And of course, there is a chapter on the 'ultimate vanishing act' — the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. </p><p>Here is the Bullough list as published in the Guardian:</p><p>1. The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy</p><p>2. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder</p><p>3. Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West by Catherine Belton</p><p>4. Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution by Chrystia Freeland, who worked as a journalist in Moscow and is now deputy prime minister of Canada.</p><p>5. Kyiv-born Peter Pomerantsev in Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible,</p><p>6. Joshua Yaffa did a fantastic job of exploring how ordinary people navigated the system Putin built in Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia.</p><p>7. Kleptopia by Tom Burgis.</p><p>8. Nikolai Gogol’s short stories. Raised in Ukraine, discovered in Russia, adored in both, Gogol conjures up the absurdity of life under autocracy better than anyone.</p><p>9. Andrey Kurkov’s Death and the Penguin</p><p>©Alexander Anichkin/Tetradki 2022</p>Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-1186085681292463672022-02-25T18:52:00.001+01:002022-02-25T18:52:29.543+01:00Ukraine. The war and the history.<p>This is from my column written at the end of 2013, when the events were rolling up and eventually lead to the curent crisiss. </p><p>[Ukrainian President] Viktor Yanukovych's refusal [2013] to sign an association with the EU under the Eastern Partnership programme is spoken of as a "victory" for Russia. Of course, it was a victory. Only a victory with an unpleasant aftertaste. Because the “victory” of one is the defeat of the other.</p><p>Here in Europe, both French and English commentators agree: Ukraine's retreat is a Moscow's victory. True, they also talk about “strategic patience”. As they say, 'the process is still going on'.</p><p>Why is the Eastern Partnership, proposed by the Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski, causing such rejection in Moscow? In addition to today's considerations, there is also an old, deep-seated one.</p><p>"Poland" and "Lithuania" — Польша, Литва — in the Russian mass consciousness, have long acquired a mythical meaning, the image of the enemy on the western borders. But where is this from? </p><p>Well, yes, for Mayakovsky, in 1920s, Poland was “geographical news”. There was also the Livonian War, Gogol's Taras Bulba fighting with the Poles, then the partitions of Poland and the “Polish question” that remained after all that. The older, statist Pushkin wrote a poem 'To the Slanderers of Russia' about the suppression of the uprising of the Poles against the Russian empire. To the critics in France he said: do not interfere, this is our internal, Slavic family business.</p><p>At home, we are accustomed to one reading of our history — the Moscow reading, without even noticing it. There was a Kievan Rus, then the feudal fragmentation, then the Moscow principality began to “collect lands” and so on up to the empire and the USSR. </p><p>One long Summer evening I was talking about modern politics with an old school friend, who by that time had gone into big politics. The chatter turned to history. </p><p>My friend suddenly asked: Where did Ukraine and Belarus come from? There's nothing in our history?We had Kievan Rus, then the feudal fragmentation, the principalities... Then, suddenly, in a leap, Moscow “gathers” Russian lands, fights with Lithuania and Poland. And between that, what? </p><p>Where were Ukraine and Belarus?</p><p>But it was not only Moscow that 'collected' Russian lands. And the 'Russian lands' in question didn’t always want to “get collected”. </p><p>“Lithuania”, for example, was not the one state that is now [2013] holding the summit. The old 'Litva', or Lithuania was multinational, multi-confessional, with Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims left over from the Tartar-Mongol “yoke”, and Jews, who fled to Lithuania from persecution in Western Europe, engulfed in religious wars. The state was fully called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rusian (with one s) and Zhomoytsky. </p><p>The state stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In addition to Lithuania, it included modern Belarus, part of modern Ukraine, Russia and Moldova. The state (administrative) language in the principality was Russian, more precisely Western Russian (or Old Belarusian). All office work was carried out in it, all legal documents were written in Russian and the early printer Francis Skoryna (Francysk Skaryna) put this on the cover of the Bible he printed — "Библия руска" - “The Russian Bible”. </p><p>Later on Lithuania united with Poland in what was to be called the Confederation or the Commonwealth. The name is a reverse translation into the languages of the state of the time of the expression 'res publica' — a common cause, a republic. Later, in our time, historians agreed to call that polity the Commonwealth. However, in the Russian mythological consciousness, the enemy remained as "Poland".</p><p>From Muscovite Russia, which built the state on the principles of the 'vertical of power', the Western Russian Commonwealth was different in that it had an elected head of state (the king was elected), a parliament, an autonomy of city self-government and a religious tolerance. The Commonwealth ceased to exist only in 1795, with the 'third partition of Poland'.</p><p>You say, it was a long time ago! And a lot of things happened since, and now we have completely different interests at work. But no, isn't a commonwealth, an alliance of friends, more attractive than an empire? </p><p>The drift of Eastern European countries towards the commonwealth, even if it is now the European Union, is also a drift away from the empires. The ghost of “Lithuania” wanders around Europe, it still attracts.</p><p>It is difficult to part with an empire, especially the one in our mind. This one battle with Kiev can be won, but will the European drift stop there?</p><p>Vladimir Putin once remarked that England would never part with her Empire. And the recent “non-statement” by Dmitry Peskov about England as a “small island” completely stung the British. The Prime Minister delivered a fiery speech in defence of the English heritage, including even the fact that all sports were invented by the British. The country laughed, people compared it with the speech of Prime Minister Hugh Grant in the film 'Love, Actually', also about heritage, from Shakespeare to Harry Potter and Beckham's left foot.</p><p>So the empire was not just dismantled, but moved on to the Commonwealth of Nations, now even without the "British". Fifty-three states, both large and small. Moreover, even some of those who were not colonies of the British Empire had asked to join and were included, eg the former Portuguese Mozambique and the former Belgian Rwanda. One can underestimate the influence of this community, one can overestimate iIn Russia, hardly anyone follows it closely. But there is an influence, and a membership in the "family of peoples" is valued. </p><p>The attraction remains. Apartheid in South Africa collapsed not least because the country was put outside the Commonwealth. In Pakistan, democratic change was stimulated by the fact that the Commonwealth expelled the country for a military coup. Thatcher fell out with Reagan when the Imperial US invaded the little Grenada in 1983 because it suddenly decide to have a communist government. After the event, Thatcher refused to talk to Reagan at all for a long time. They almost ruined the Russian perestroika! And take India, the former "pearl in the British crown", it remains the biggest democracy in the world.</p><p>In terms of economics, it has been estimated that, on average, one Commonwealth member trades with another 50 percent more than with a non-member country. Yes, and in Britain itself there is a movement to develop and strengthen the Commonwealth instead of EU membership.</p><p>The Soviet Commonwealth, the CIS, has stayed as a leftover of the Soviet empire. Perhaps, it it were less of an empire and more of a commonwealth, there would be no need to win “battles”. Talk, don't fight.</p><p><i>This column was also published in <a href="https://www.bfm.ru/news/238315">my blog "Like in Europe" on the BFM.ru portal</a>. Texts may vary. </i></p>Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-9481507670569675042021-09-23T14:24:00.003+02:002021-09-26T15:21:15.113+02:00When two generals meet<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicr3imbmt-VEYeTNNwbP1n9wwxX_m1kXi8XU1jhCZW737yptM_MF4N3P1rOKUzQZKICCLeb3JRyCrdnExE-7nYEZM2mlSOvrf6TM83kMx88yr3ZUjZQpkEr_3nXXbRrWUNdggi9g/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1364" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicr3imbmt-VEYeTNNwbP1n9wwxX_m1kXi8XU1jhCZW737yptM_MF4N3P1rOKUzQZKICCLeb3JRyCrdnExE-7nYEZM2mlSOvrf6TM83kMx88yr3ZUjZQpkEr_3nXXbRrWUNdggi9g/" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Gen Mark Milley and Gen Valery Gerasimov, </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Helsinki, 22 September 2021,<br /></span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Photo: <a href="https://www.jcs.mil/Media/News/News-Display/Article/2784245/readout-of-chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-mark-a-milleys-meeting-wit/">Master Sergeant Chuck Burden, <br />DoD USA</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">As the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Gen. Mark Milley and Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces Gen. Valery Gerasimov held lengthy negotiations in Helsinki on Wednesday 22 September all eyes were on their tunics.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">It is believed that the main agenda was the likely resumption of the US military presence in the countries of Central Asia, the former Soviet republics.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">But of course, the generals had more to talk about.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Gerasimov in the West is considered to be the author of the doctrine of hybrid war, and the meeting itself coincided with the British authorities' announcement of identifying "the third man", an employee of the GRU of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, who allegedly led the operation at the Salisbury spire. <i>(GRU — Main Intelligence Department, the Russian military intelligence)</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">And note: the American general showed up in a single-breasted tunic! As opposed to the proper double-breasted tunic of Gen.Gerasimov. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">In the West, you may not be aware of the reference. Yet, as every Russian knows, you don't fight a war in a single-breasted suit, not in our days. It follows from the film 'That Very Munchausen' ("Тот самый Мюнхаузен", 1979), a witty paraphrase on the stories of the great Baron, written by Gregory Gorin and produced and directed by Mark Zakharov.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">In this scene the actor Leonid Bronevoy gets all excited by the prospect of a war with England that the Baron declared in support of the American colonies. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">However, the chief is more worried about the uniforms than the logistics. Shall we fight it in single-breasted or double-breasted uniforms? What an affront! Nobody fights a war in a single-breasted tunic, not in our time! </span></p><p><iframe frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://youtube.com/embed/p9bb8qz4FxQ" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p9bb8qz4FxQ/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe></p><p><br /></p>Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-23512475633380210092021-04-18T08:00:00.001+02:002021-04-18T19:33:23.388+02:00Russian Kontakion at Prince Philip's funeral<p> </p><p><br /></p><div><div><span style="font-family: times;">Russian Orthodox Kontakion sung at Prince Philip's funeral yesterday: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">where sorrow and pain are no more;</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">neither sighing but life everlasting.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">In Church Slavonic (Russian):</span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: times;">Со святыми упокой, Христе, души раб Твоих, </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">идеже несть болезнь, ни печаль, ни воздыхание, </span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">но жизнь безконечная.</span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/cvwW5ju6PH8" width="480"></iframe></div>Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-35375464851647041272020-02-06T09:44:00.001+01:002021-08-04T08:33:23.948+02:00Falling out over Pushkin.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The <a href="http://www.onegin.live/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Onegin Live</span></a> site offers a free download of Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' read by Stephen Fry. But there is also a brief historical bibliography of over forty translations of the great Russian novel in verse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Much of it would be known to those who have an interest in Pushkin, but still I found this snippet thoroughly enjoyable. Nabokov and Edmund Wilson falling out over whose translation is best:</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In 1963, Walter Arndt published a verse translation of Eugene Onegin preserving the rhyme schemes and metrical structure of Pushkin’s text. Vladimir Nabokov reviewed Arndt’s work in an essay entitled <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/apr/30/on-translating-pushkin-pounding-the-clavichord/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“On Translating Pushkin Pounding the Clavichord”</span></a> that was published in <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">The New York Review of Books</span></a>. Nabokov furiously criticised Arndt’s translation; according to him, the attempt to preserve the original iambic tetrameter resulted in Arndt’s defacing Pushkin’s spirit and the literal meaning of the novel. Arndt replied with a letter <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/apr/30/goading-the-pony/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“Goading the pony”</span></a> that was followed by an article <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1965/jul/15/the-strange-case-of-pushkin-and-nabokov/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“The strange case of Pushkin and Nabokov”</span></a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Wilson"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Edmund Wilson</span></a>, a critic who rose to Arndt’s defence and thus ruptured his close friendship with Nabokov.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In this clip Nabokov reads Pushkin's testament 'Exegi Monumentum' (1836) -</span></div>
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-56013773441536954952020-01-15T18:05:00.000+01:002020-01-18T18:07:00.559+01:00Putin's changes don't matter.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="css-901oao r-hkyrab r-1qd0xha r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="tweet-text" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #14171a; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Putin has proposed constitutional changes. </span></span></div>
<div class="css-901oao r-hkyrab r-1qd0xha r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="tweet-text" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #14171a; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A power shift from presidency to a little known body. </span></span></div>
<div class="css-901oao r-hkyrab r-1qd0xha r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="tweet-text" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #14171a; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Gorbachev was planning a shift in power from the Communist party to his newly formed presidential administration. It didn't end well. </span></span></div>
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<div class="css-901oao r-hkyrab r-1qd0xha r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="tweet-text" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #14171a; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.3125; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Government resignation and Mishustin's appointment don't matter, shouldn't be in the main news&</span></span></div>
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-51172075546468267382020-01-03T10:36:00.000+01:002020-01-04T11:50:46.545+01:00Haji Qassem and War in the Middle East<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In Baghdad, early this morning, Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was killed by an American drone strike.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> The attack was sanctioned by US President Trump. According to the White House, a "decisive defensive action" was carried out. Soleimani was a</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and commander of its Quds Force, the elite division for operations outside Iran. Some say he was the second most powerful man in Iran. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Soleimani's convoy was hit by an American drone.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrOHPozV7slAUO6-i0WxgEyjNyM_Ey-rkMfZvWpjUIb4pQ-4Xx0gPN_x40pJsdOI9aeaYdGQ-djG_IUw-dF_tteSqVNsiNrUc6ct1j7D9-StcyFfbx5g3wgkSWodtxVvYTPS6Eg/s1600/400px-Qasem_Soleimani_with_Zolfaghar_Order.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrOHPozV7slAUO6-i0WxgEyjNyM_Ey-rkMfZvWpjUIb4pQ-4Xx0gPN_x40pJsdOI9aeaYdGQ-djG_IUw-dF_tteSqVNsiNrUc6ct1j7D9-StcyFfbx5g3wgkSWodtxVvYTPS6Eg/s200/400px-Qasem_Soleimani_with_Zolfaghar_Order.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Qassem Soleimani</b><br />
<i>photo <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qasem_Soleimani_with_Zolfaghar_Order.jpg">credit</a></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This event can be considered as a "declaration of war" by the USA against Iran. It is one thing to pursue terrorists on the run, it is aomething completely different when a foreign high official is assassinated on foreign soil with official blessing by the President. In any case, this is an extremely dangerous escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, directly affecting Russia as well. What is even more dangerous, is that is that it is not clear what American strategy is for the near future, what are the next steps. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Reaction in France and Britain shows there was not enough consultation, if any, before the attack. Experts there expect an "asymmetrical" counter-attack from Iran. They also say that the attack has thrown in disarray a strategy of careful, step-by-step strategy of engaging with Iran, of drawing it away from radical actions throughout the region.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Soleimani (among his supporters he was knwon by the respectful nickname Hajj Qassem, like Tolstoy's Haji-Murat) was heading to Baghdad in connection with the prolonged siege of the American embassy by pro-Iranian groups. It is not clear why, was it in order to continue to act against the American military presence in Iraq, or the opposite, in order to restrain the further escalation of the conflict. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">From the outside it is not always clear, but after the fall of the regime of Saddam and especially as a result of a long war with Daesh (ISIS), Iraq turned out to be a field of direct rivalry between the United States and Iran. And the further events unfolded, the more the situation developed unfavourably for the United States. The government of Iraq is now insisting on the withdrawal of all remaining US troops from the country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Soleimani is considered the chief architect of Iran’s military-political expansion in the region, including an alliance with Russia. As a result, the country has become a regional superpower. This suits some, while others are extremely worried, in particular those in the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel. In the US, Soleimani is on the official list of terrorists. He is also on the sanctions list of the European Union.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Soleimani was the commander of the Iranian special forces Quds with an estimated number of 10 to 20 thousand elite fighters. Quds supported the armed opposition in Afghanistan against the pro-Soviet government in the 80s, then groups that fought against the Taliban regime, and still later supported the Taliban who fought against the pro-American government.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In Iraq, the Iranian Quds supported the Kurds in the fight against the Saddam regime, and later in the fight against Daesh (ISIS). According to some reports, the Quds militants fought in Bosnia on the side of the Muslims there against the Serbs. In the war against Daesh, Soleimani fighters played a key role in a number of important battles. He himself was reportedly seriously injured. In Iran, these reports were denied.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">General Soleimani was a confidant of the Russian military. According to reports, it was "Haji Kassem" who brought Russia to Syria. He convinced Moscow of the possibility of a successful military operation there in order to support the Assad regime and defeat Daesh (ISIS). And he began pressuring Russians as early as 2013, even before the Ukrainian crisis. During 2015-2016 he visited Moscow </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">four times </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">for negotiations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">With Russian already in Syria, it was Soleimani who led the operation of the special forces that saved the Russian SU-24 pilot Konstantin Murakhtin, shot down by the Turkish F-16 near the Syrian-Turkish border in November 2015. Soleimani contacted Russian commanders and suggested using special forces under the Iranian command to rescue Murakhtin. The rescue group included 8 Hezbollah fighters and 18 Syrians from a pro-Iranian group. With satellite and air support from the Russian forces, the group penetrated 6 km “beyond the enemy’s lines” (that is, apparently into Turkey) and liberated the pilot, who later returned to the Russian base in Syria (according to reports by the AFP, The Times of Israel, Iran’s Fars Agency and the Persian-lnaguage service of Sputnik).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So far, the US conflict with Iran had remained within the framework of the proxy war. Even despite the fact that over the past two months in Iraq there have been 11 serious attacks on US military and civilians. On the eve of the New Year America began moving additional strike force to the region. Now there are up to 14 thousand US troops there, the army, marines, navy and aviation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is unclear how much Washington took into account the role of Soleimani in the Russia-Iran-Turkey triangle. It is clear that this blow to Iran is also a blow to Russia. Further escalation of the conflict will put Russia in a dangerous proximity to the military confrontation with the United States.</span><br />
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-76683763391414124242019-12-31T22:00:00.000+01:002020-01-07T09:53:46.934+01:00Happy New Year from Tetradki!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My traditional New Year's Card<br />
<i>Computer graphics, all drawings made in Apple's Pages programme</i><br />
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-2685249731673567462019-09-27T19:26:00.002+02:002019-09-27T19:26:55.888+02:00Though cowards sneer and traitors flinch...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Language of Brexit</i></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It takes one communist (me) in the history of this great island to point out that the PM, the Surrender Boris, and other <a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/334270/is-it-brexiteer-or-brexiter">brekkers (formerly known as brexiters, or, to the admirers, as brexiteers)</a> get their language mostly from communist sources. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is a short list of the common words and expressions thrown by brekkers at anyone who supports the core democratic principle of fighting for your views, that is that Britain should stay in the EU. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Surrender — </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[Surrender Bill = the Benn Bill = democratically adopted Parliament Act forbidding a no-deal Brexit] </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It may sound like it’s evoking Churchill’s famous ‘We shall never surrender’ speech, but in fact it has other, sinister overtones. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It hails back to Lenin’s ‘defeatism’, the idea that socialists should help the defeat of their own country in an ‘imperialist’ war in order to facilitate a revolution. Lenin, it is claimed, was paid by the German General Staff in the hope that his ideas would help defeat the Russian Empire in the first world war. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The point of this reference is in accusing your opponent of being a surrenderer/defeatist, and on top of this being an agent of a foreign power or an agent of its influence. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Traitors — </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The ‘Red Flag’, anthem of Labour, both British and Irish (and also of the Japanese Communist party and the North Korean Army), goes as follows</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer </span></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We'll keep the red flag flying here </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The original tune is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Flag">German ‘O, Tannenbaum’</a> made famous in the form of ‘Oh, Christmas Tree’ by Disney’s ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ (1960). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">However, note the word ‘traitors’ in the text. The violent hatred of ‘traitors of the cause' goes back to the roots of socialist-communist movement, and has become a curse word since long ago, and a killing curse since Stalin’s great purges of 1930s, when ‘traitors of the Motherland’ were summarily executed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A communist source again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Entryism —</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is an invention of Trotsky. In 1930s he suggested that radical left-wing groups should dissolve and join larger, main-stream socialist and social-democratic parties to work inside them and shift their agenda to radicalism, hence ‘entryism.’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Enemies of the people —</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Next, and most obvious. It is another Stalinist term. This is not a Soviet invention, but the term was widely applied during Stalin's rule, became known throughout the world, and is associated with the infamous Show Trials of the Great Purge under Stalin in 1930s when often innocent people were accused of being 'traitors of the Motherland' and ‘enemies of the people’ on trumped up accusations and killed or sent to Gulag. Some were rehabilitated twenty years later. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Non-aggression pact —</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Farage promises a majority of a hundred or more for brekkers if tories agree to a ‘non-aggression pact’ with his Brexit Party. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But what is this ‘non-aggression pact’? The term comes from the agreement between Stalin and Hitler in 1939 that helped to unleash the second world war with the attack on Poland, and to dragg England and France into war. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the ashes of that war, the European Union was founded to prevent such catastrophe happening ever again. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now Farage is offering it to us again. Thank you, Nigel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>People’s will —</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What is this ‘people’s will’? It is one of the oldest populist cliches of all. Roman Emperors ruled dictatorially in the 'name of the people.' Bolsheviks suppressed the people in the ‘name of the people’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">While our own John Stuart Mill fiercely argued against the ‘tyranny of the majority.’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Democracy —</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What about democracy? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Defending democracy, i.e. the people’s will, a democratic choice, expressed in the 2016 Brexit referendum, has become the main line of attack by brekkers on all those who want a reasonable European deal for Britain. That leaving the EU means losing Britain’s independence in the face of such superpowers as the USA, China and, yes, the European Union itself, is another story. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What is important for the purposes of this argument, the debunking of the brekkers’ language, is to point out that this ‘democratic’ point is taken straight out of the Communist Party Charter. There, it is called ‘democratic centralism’ and demands ‘absolute submission of the minority to the majority’. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It was the guiding principle of the Soviet Communist Party since Lenin, and then of the whole of the Soviet Union as a state. It is still in use in China and North Korea. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Needless to say that true democracy demands respect for minority rights and opinions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So, be careful, when you talk of democracy. Ask for definitions and their sources. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">PS: </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Here, we look at it from the left point of view. Tetradki will look at how the right views the language at a late stage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In this clip Winston Churchill (played by Gary Oldman aka George Smiley in 'Tinker, Tailor') makes his famous speech 'We shall never surrender'. At the end, one of his tory rivals says, 'Winston mobilised the English language and sent it into battle.' In fact, this phrase was <a href="https://blogs.letemps.ch/garry-littman/2018/11/13/he-mobilized-the-english-language-and-sent-it-into-battle/">made famous much later by President John Kennedy, who in turn borrowed it from an American broadcaster, the great CBS anchor Ed Murrow</a>. — </span></div>
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And here is the Red Flag sung by Billy Bragg —</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zEKYQ4GOqmk" width="560"></iframe></div>
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-48565957383194194652019-09-25T10:12:00.003+02:002019-09-25T10:13:29.483+02:00Will of the People<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Will of the people, will of the people, will of the people, they say.<br />
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If Moses had listened to the will of the people, the Israelites would still have remained Pharaohs' slaves. (<a href="https://biblehub.com/exodus/16-2.htm">Exodus, 16:2</a>)</div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-21742067390391172512019-09-18T14:08:00.000+02:002019-09-19T10:54:20.675+02:00Taking a sickle to the balls<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>(Lord Sumption on Boris's 'hammer and sickle' attitude)</i></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the UK, on the eve of the Supreme Court hearings on two challenges to Boris Johnson's decision to prorogate (suspend) the Parliament, a prominent lawyer Jonathan Sumption QC used a loaded metaphor to describe the situation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On BBC television's Newsnight programme he said: </span><br />
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">"If you behave outrageously and defy the political culture on which our constitution depends, a lot of judges are going to be tempted to push the limits out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">"Boris Johnson has taken a hammer and sickle to our political culture in a way that is highly provocative to people who believe that there ought to be solutions consistent with our traditions."</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Now, hammer and sickle, of course is a well-known communist emblem. It originated early in the Russian Revolution, roughly at the same time as swastika was being adopted by the nazis in Germany. Today, it is still in wide circulation in Russia and remains in use in the remaining communist countries but banned in many others as the symbol of brutal totalitarian oppression.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Which makes Lord Sumption's application beautifully apposite. He says, in effect, that Johnson is disregarding the delicate constitutional setup of Britain. Disregarding it to the point of destruction in a bolshevist manner, applying the 'hammer and sickle'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While this meaning is widely known in the West, few would know, I think, another Russian idiomatic expression with the sickle — пройтись серпом по яйцам, take a sickle to the balls. It may not be for a polite company, but basically means the same as in the above quotation by the Right Honourable Lord Sumption, to harm someone, to damage, to assault brutally, literally — to castrate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Which, to finish this, may be added to the notebooks of those who see the hammer and sickle as a Dan Brownesque sexual symbol, hammer for man, sickle for woman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Here is a clip from Newsnight's Twitter with Lord Sumption's quote. (Watch a longer, more detailed 2 min video of the interview is on <a href="https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/lord-sumption-on-bbc-newsnight-1-6273602">The New European site</a>) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #e1e8ed; color: #8899a6; font-family: "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center; white-space: nowrap;">“If you... defy the political culture on which our constitution depends, a lot of judges are going to be tempted to push the limits out."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e1e8ed; color: #8899a6; font-family: "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center; white-space: nowrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #e1e8ed; color: #8899a6; font-family: "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center; white-space: nowrap;">Lord Sumption says “Boris Johnson is taking a hammer and sickle to our political culture in a way that is highly provocative.”<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Newsnight?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Newsnight</a> <a href="https://t.co/96ac9vA3Cy">pic.twitter.com/96ac9vA3Cy</a></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #e1e8ed; color: #8899a6; font-family: "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center; white-space: nowrap;">— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1173716307667087361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></span></blockquote>
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-12701894098801669422019-04-21T12:00:00.001+02:002019-04-21T12:11:48.121+02:00Everything is All Right, Magdalene<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Easter Sunday, and Jesus Christ is Superstar again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is the Russian version of ‘Everything’s All Right’ number that is often referred to as ‘Magdalene’s Lullaby’.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the midst of the soothing singing, the fierce argument continues between Jesus and Judas. Mary is anointing Jesus with myrrh ‘to cool the fire’ in Jesus’s head. ‘Relax, think of nothing tonight,’ she says.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Apostle Judas challenges her and Jesus, '</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Hey woman, your fine ointment, b</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">rand new and expensive, </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">should have been saved for the poor. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why has it been wasted? </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">We could have raised maybe t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">hree hundred silver pieces or more'.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mary Magdalene carries on, ‘try not to get worried, try not to turn onto problems that upset you.’</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus seems to be annoyed by Judas’s accusation. He retorts, ‘Surely you're not saying we have the resources t</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">o save the poor from their lot. There will be poor always, pathetically struggling. Look at the good things you've got. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Think, while you still have me, move, while you still see me, you’ll be lost, and you'll be sorry, when I'm gone.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tim Rice’s dramatic script was written in 1970s, with an emphasis on the conflict between Judas and Jesus, a conflict between a populist leader, the Messiah, and a socially minded Judas. The bells of that argument are ringing as loud today as they were then.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Curiously, the Russian version smoothes out this confrontation. And later on, when Judas is arguing with Simon about where the main thrust of Christianism should be, Simon seems to be in favour of the people’s rebellion, but Judas wants peaceful dispensation in favour of the poor and the suffering. Simon gets angry and snaps, “Несчастный либерал! Сиди и жди чудес!” — ‘You wretched liberal! Sit and wait for miracles!’ </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This anachronistic ‘liberal’, that appears in the Russian text, in the 90s and later certainly was meant to ring in the ears of the audience. In the post-Soviet period, ’liberal’ has swiftly become a swear word in Russian political parlance.</span></span></div>
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Anyway, here is the video (the 'Rock Opera' theatre, St Petersburg) — <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UtqzKO351as" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-25552300010954221322019-04-13T20:18:00.000+02:002019-04-13T20:18:17.061+02:00Tchekhov et la mer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">(4 aout - 10 septembre 2018)</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">( la rédaction sur comment j’ai passé les vacances d’été )</span></h4>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">par A.Anichkin</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji2ZIFPhIbMQvm-JmwXExiNHcPYwgLwYBF59n-BCKyRoC4ATEKEaAyPiR8csU_l99JSqyXk8lp8N6YdOVfTqiowedDSIpvCW7uASVSskpOtzEsTF9_iNf8mjde8bMfYegzco0QWg/s1600/mediterranean-seacoast-1890.jpg%2521Large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="750" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji2ZIFPhIbMQvm-JmwXExiNHcPYwgLwYBF59n-BCKyRoC4ATEKEaAyPiR8csU_l99JSqyXk8lp8N6YdOVfTqiowedDSIpvCW7uASVSskpOtzEsTF9_iNf8mjde8bMfYegzco0QWg/s320/mediterranean-seacoast-1890.jpg%2521Large.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-align: start;">" La </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"><b>mer Méditerranée "</b><br /><i>par Isaac Levitan, 1890</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Pendant les vacances d’été on va à la plage. Au bord de la mer on passé le temps à bronzer, nager, à converser et à lire des bons livres. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Un bon week-end plein de soleil je suis resté allongé sur le sable fin, entouré de centaines des français et françaises nues. Au lieu de dévorer ces bonnes gens de la plage je me suis absorbé dans un livre sur la vie de Tchekhov et sa femme Olga Knipper, l’actrice célèbre de théâtre Artistique de Moscou (MHT). </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">En 1901 Tchekhov habitait en Crimée, au bord de la Mer Noire où il a écrit sa pièce très connu, “ Les trois soeurs ”. Knipper a jouée Macha, une des trois soeurs, et Stanislavski, l’acteur-fondateur du théâtre Artistique, a joué le colonel Vérchinine qui se prend tombé amoureux de Macha. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Cétait presque la fin de la journée, mais un groupe de trois femmes et un homme en casquette de marin, avec une barbe grise est arrivé juste sur la plage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Ah! — je me suis dit en moi-même, — le colonel et les trois soeurs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Après quelques spectacles triomphaux, Stanislavski a décidé de se faire remplacer par une nouveau étoile de troupe, Vassili Katchaloff. Tchekhov est avait venu à Moscou de la Crimée pour assister au premier spectacle avec Katchaloff. Après le spectacle Katchaloff était très impatient d’entendre l’opinion de Tchekhov lui-même sur sa performance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Tchekhov, après avoir réflechi un moment, lui dit : “ Vous saluez comme un lieutenant, et ne pas comme un colonel. ” Et s’était tout ce qu’il dit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">En lisant cet épisode, j’ai ri et je lisait le passage encore fois, en riant plus en plus aux éclats ; puis j’ai le lit à haute voix à ma compagne, et nous a ri bruyamment ensemble. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Pendant ce temps les trois soeurs et ses “ colonel ” ne se sont ni installés, ni déshabillés, ils décrivaient des cercles autour de nous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">À la fin ils m’ont irrité, et j’ai demandé à une femme la plus proche.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Est-ce que vous cherchez quelques chose?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Non-non, — elle m’a dit. — C’est juste que nous attendons que vous partiez.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Que nous partions? Pourquoi?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Ah! Nous voulons prendre votre place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Notre place?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">J’ai jeté un regard à gauche — il y avait sept kilomètres de plage jusqu’à Granville. Puis, j’ai regardé à droite — des douzaines de kilomètres de plage vers le Cotentin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— On peut vous louer notre place. C’est complètement gratuit. — j’ai dit. — Mais pouvez-vous m’expliquer pourquoi cette exacte place?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Simplement, parce que c’est un emplacement heureux.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Ah bon! Un emplacement heureux. Comment ça? </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Vos rires nous ont seduit, c’est la raison, — elle a répondu.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Nos rires? C’est pourquoi?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">— Bah, oui…</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Et voila. C’est le pouvoir de Tchekhov et de la mer.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Un film russe " Le trois et le deux " —</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/237m-LGLDbo" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
</div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-17119160123760485912019-02-02T09:35:00.001+01:002019-02-02T09:35:30.337+01:00Anna Fischer's Russian translation resources<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
Anna Fischer, an American translator, compiled a list of Russian language online resources, bilingual and Russian only. It includes specialised resources like slang, phraseology, new coinages and etymology and cultural references.<br />
<br />
The list is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/160505774303435/permalink/574603739560301/">published in The Russian Literary Translators Group</a> on Facebook and is open to new additions.<br />
<br />
It is also downloadable as standalone document (<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g4rptiGgRVffFKmeskEtvek1YrOds19DT2dvIel3LUw/edit?fbclid=IwAR1bN0On2dNLRovvjWem53uKRkOZnh1nUm-qS-QuJ3mwccEPWHHwTA3rUqU">link here</a>).<br />
<br />
Thanks, Anna!</div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-11420787820193988632018-12-01T12:42:00.002+01:002018-12-01T12:42:49.259+01:00Will the People.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<i>(Limerick)</i></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPx9-hEP_nM9Xgkv4Y-DqmpYp7wENMSLWenaDbj8t8hx8MwQVDQgNA6wkl878NmtzOSyB9JNsEzP1-kqhz5mWuNTLs_EfFLhMyoQ04B_eenVQU4zjnjfkkFTpTrwHfvWO9kJ1slA/s1600/Will+the+People+%25C2%25A9A.Anichkin+2012-2018.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="290" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPx9-hEP_nM9Xgkv4Y-DqmpYp7wENMSLWenaDbj8t8hx8MwQVDQgNA6wkl878NmtzOSyB9JNsEzP1-kqhz5mWuNTLs_EfFLhMyoQ04B_eenVQU4zjnjfkkFTpTrwHfvWO9kJ1slA/s320/Will+the+People+%25C2%25A9A.Anichkin+2012-2018.png" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mr. Will the People</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There was good prime minister May,<br />
Who tried very hard, they all say.<br />
She cobbled a deal<br />
For a Brexit piecemeal.<br />
Will the People accept it? No way!</div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-14344104015688121902018-11-05T13:05:00.000+01:002018-12-01T13:28:22.546+01:00Schadenfreude.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
Towards the end of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xwq">today's </a><i><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xwq">Start the Week</a>, </i>a weekly topical programme on <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4">Radio 4</a>, Tiffany Watt Smith seems to suggest that schadenfreude doesn't have a real equivalent in 'genuine' English.<br />
<br />
But isn't it simply gloating?<br />
<br /></div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-5635708027687241472018-10-18T13:43:00.000+02:002018-10-18T13:51:29.149+02:00S’il y a des chauvesouris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(un limerick en français)</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oú sont chauvechats, qui chassent chauvesouris ?</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">demandé mon ami à moi, en faisant un sourire.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Les chauvechats, mon ami,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sévèrement j’admis,</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ils n’aiment pas les chauvechiens, c’est pourquoi sont parti.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">©A.Anichkin, 2018</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSk1rCRpDl64L93ftN1DscfW8NJfLe263oSUR2oxrJoG3ZZFy4bqdfUzYf8DM91E5XkwmoocrHXN_t-brltN89oYR8M4tqCnIpa76KZMvKXV7qx93XaF5PSvEIi6WhwYt7Q0Dhrg/s1600/chauvechien+Anichkin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="860" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSk1rCRpDl64L93ftN1DscfW8NJfLe263oSUR2oxrJoG3ZZFy4bqdfUzYf8DM91E5XkwmoocrHXN_t-brltN89oYR8M4tqCnIpa76KZMvKXV7qx93XaF5PSvEIi6WhwYt7Q0Dhrg/s640/chauvechien+Anichkin.png" width="618" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Un chauvechien,<br />©Jeremy Nicholl.</b></td></tr>
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-52438074966905284682018-06-27T14:01:00.001+02:002018-06-27T14:01:30.392+02:00Les canons russe en Normandie.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>L'aigle d'empire russe sur le canon</b></td></tr>
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<br /><br />J’ai pique-niqué récemment au Mont-Cérisy-Belle-Etoile en Orne. A coté du chateau en haute du colline j’ai trouvé deux canons russe d’epoch de la guerre de Crimée des années 1850s. <br /><br />Il me semble que ils sont de cette epoch. Ils a des aigles d’empire russe. Le question en reste ouvert est d’où vient ils? Pourquoi ils a ramené au Mont-Cerisy? <br /><br />Le chateau a construit dans année 1880s par un avocat anglais et puis achetée par une entrepreneur normande. <br /></div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-2487914852898733762018-05-23T17:00:00.000+02:002018-05-24T15:12:32.492+02:00Yulia Scripal's statement in full.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Reuter's video of Yulia Scripal's statement on 23 May 2018 —<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="reuters-vidembed" height="394" src="https://www.reuters.com/assets/iframe/yovideo?videoId=429643558" width="700"></iframe></div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-19031810932260542062018-04-27T13:40:00.000+02:002018-06-27T13:41:46.932+02:00Le déjeuner des troglodytes affamés. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /><br />Cette nourriture des dieux!<br />
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On a flânent à Paris avec un vieil ami, habitué du Quartier Latin et connaisseur de ses charmes. Tout d'abord on a bu généreusement du bon Sancerre avec deux douzaines d’huîtres au café à Saint-Severin, juste en face de Notre-Dame. Puis on s’e promené et on avait étudié le nez ébréchée de Voltaire.<br /><br />Après cela, bien sûr, on avait encore faim! Et voila, le moment glorieux du jour, mon ami m'a révélé le plus délicieux secret du quartier — l’os a moëlle cuit au four. Ils est servi avec de bâtonnets de pain de campagne grillée, coupé de la longueur des os. Pas de condiments, sauces, garniture ou autres excès et bigoteries culinaires. Ca marche comme ça: vous plongez le pain dans les os, récupérez de möelle et puis ramasser la graisse.<br /><br />Nous nous sommes assis sur la terrasse avec ce miracle, bien nourris et heureux. Des passants se sont arrêtés pour regarder le dîner de troglodytes, certains nous montrant même du doigts. Une Italienne arrêtée, est venu vers nous et me demandé ce quoi ça, quel est le nom de cette ce plat. L’os a moëlle, delicieux, dis-je. Elle cria: osso bucco! molto bene! Il me semblait qu’elle à se preparait à me “sauter au cou”, mais son mari l’a retenu.<br /><br />Non, tout ce que vous dites, c’est l'aliment le plus naturel, le cholestérol primordial et propre, rien d'autre.<br /><br />Maintenant, je demande toujours des os à la boucherie et je le cuis à la maison moi-même.<br /><br /><b>Recette</b>:<br />
<br />un ou deux os a moëlle par personne (assaisonnez la moëlle à chaque section avec un peau du sel)<br /><br />
bâtonnets de pain<br /><br />à cuisiner au four à 230ºC pendant 35 minutes et manger tout suite! <br /><br />L’os est bon pour votre chiens après vous.<br />
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©A.Anichkin<br /></div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-25573943293474062392018-04-02T23:04:00.001+02:002018-04-02T23:04:24.768+02:00Andrei Rublev reads Paul's message to the Corinthians.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Easter message)</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I thought I'd known 'Andrei Rublev', the great film by Andrei Tarkovsky, by heart. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's only this Easter, fifty years after I'd first seen the film, did I realise that Andrei's famous monologue about the essence of love is, in fact, an equally famous passage from the Bible, Chapter 13 from Paul's first message to the Corinthians (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Corinthians_13#Agape">1 Corinthians 13</a> on Wikipedia). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Atheistic upbringing! How much it removes! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>but the greatest of these is love.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is the text as it appears in the King James Bible (<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8046/pg8046.html">from Gutenberg</a>), where love is equal to charity: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not;<br /> charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not<br /> easily provoked, thinketh no evil;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,<br /> endureth all things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a<br /> child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put<br /> away childish things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:<br /> now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am<br /> known.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the<br /> greatest of these is charity.</span></div>
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<i>(Russian text below the video)</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8CqXvZjLqUM" width="560"></iframe><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Из Библии, Первое послание Павла коринфянам, глава 13 (1 Кор, 13, <a href="https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%BA_%D0%9A%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%84%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BC#%D0%93%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0_13">источник</a> или <a href="http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Bible/B_1_kor13.htm">здесь</a>) —</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Если я говорю языками человеческими и ангельскими, а любви не имею, то я — медь звенящая или кимвал звучащий. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Если имею [дар] пророчества, и знаю все тайны, и имею всякое познание и всю веру, так что [могу] и горы переставлять, а не имею любви, — то я ничто. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">И если я раздам все имение мое и отдам тело мое на сожжение, а любви не имею, нет мне в том никакой пользы. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Любовь долготерпит, милосердствует, любовь не завидует, любовь не превозносится, не гордится, </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">не бесчинствует, не ищет своего, не раздражается, не мыслит зла, не радуется неправде, а сорадуется истине; </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">все покрывает, всему верит, всего надеется, все переносит. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Любовь никогда не перестает, хотя и пророчества прекратятся, и языки умолкнут, и знание упразднится. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ибо мы отчасти знаем, и отчасти пророчествуем; </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">когда же настанет совершенное, тогда то, что отчасти, прекратится. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Когда я был младенцем, то по-младенчески говорил, по-младенчески мыслил, по-младенчески рассуждал; а как стал мужем, то оставил младенческое. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Теперь мы видим как бы сквозь [тусклое] стекло, гадательно, тогда же лицем к лицу; теперь знаю я отчасти, а тогда познаю, подобно как я познан. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">А теперь пребывают сии три: вера, надежда, любовь; но любовь из них больше.</span></span><br />
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<i>(A version of this post in Russian is <a href="http://european-book-review.blogspot.fr/2018/04/blog-post.html">here</a>)</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>©А.Anichkin/Тetradki.</i></span></span><br />
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-37455427774331963802018-03-06T20:01:00.000+01:002018-05-15T07:19:48.477+02:00Any Questions? No Questions! Вопросы есть? Вопросов нет!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>(fine tuning your Russian)</i></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Muireann Maguire </span>posted<span style="font-family: inherit;"> this on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/muireann.maguire.1">her Facebook page</a> —</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;">I was rather touched by this email between some of our second-year students on a Russian culture model, showing their determination to proceed with a seminar on the topic of "народ" [people] despite the strike (also showing a blissful innocence of the use of the <b>genitive plural</b>, but one can't have everything):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">***Привет народ, [hi, people]</span></div>
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We'd like to ask everyone to still turn up to the seminar (BYOB) (preferably vodka) as Muireann may still be on strike at 09:30 on Tuesday for fun discussions o<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">n the readings attached about the народ and other related subjects. If you have any other interesting sources then please bring them along to discuss.</span></div>
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Есть вопросы?</div>
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Нет вопросы. До свидания </div>
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X, Y, Z, and Putin***</div>
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(I've removed the students' names above, but I left their rather surprising celebrity guest, Putin; I suppose those Russian spybots get everywhere, even Exeter's VLE).<br />
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Thanks, Muireann!<br />
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There's more here than a slight confusion on the plural genitive. The famous phrase "Вопросы есть? Вопросов нет!" comes from "The White Sun of the Desert", a cult film of the 70-s. Ever since its release the phrase has been current in modern Russian.<br />
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So, people (народ), inverse your word order. Or else!<br />
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Here is the clip (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqnqFhc9aho">full movie available on YouTube</a>) -</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZmWlcBBn3Yg" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24768844.post-69293576911679689322017-11-09T17:03:00.000+01:002017-11-09T21:36:39.518+01:00Roman Numerals for Months Avoid Ambiguity.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In most countries of the world the day-month-year<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country"> date format</a> is used. On various official forms it is represented as DD/MM/YY for double digit representation.<br />
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The US tradition of putting the month before the day sometimes is confusing, even to professionals. One translator cited an example of a colleague mistakenly translating 9/11 as the ninth of November!<br />
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I was teaching English students about days, dates, months and years in Russian and mentioned in passing that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals#Modern_use_in_continental_Europe">Roman numerals are traditionally used to represent months</a>, i.e. American 9/11 (September the eleventh) would be IX/11 with Roman numerals for months, while in Russian/European format it would be 11/IX (the eleventh of September). Some were quite impressed (the group of adult professionals included Brits, Americans, Italians and Chinese) with how easy it makes to avoid confusion between American and non-American dates.<br />
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Arabic numerals are commonly used these days for months alongside Roman. When pronounced the month can also be referred to by its number, одиннадцатого девятого. Even though 9/11 is recognised in Russia for what it represents, the awkwardness of quickly switching from one format to the other is still preventing 9/11 from being widely used. Instead the phrase "attack on the Twin Towers" — "атака на Башни-близнецы" is used.<br />
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A map of date formats used in the world (<i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Date_format_by_country_(new).png">graphic by Typhoon2013</a></i>). Cyan for DD/MM, magenta for MM/DD —<br />
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Alexander Anichkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08716415983965000292noreply@blogger.com0