Two posts in a row?? Hot dog!!

An image I thought was relevant: a woman greets Russian Communist supporters from a window with a red cloth during the traditional May Day rally in central Moscow on May 1st. May Day traditionally celebrates the rights of the proletariat in the former Soviet Union. Crowds waving balloons and blue or red flags gathered in cities from the Pacific port of Vladivostok to Moscow in carefully-choreographed rallies reminiscent of the Soviet era when May 1 was one of the most venerable holidays celebrating international socialism.

THE ALKONOST IS, ACCORDING TO RUSSIAN FOLKLORE, A CREATURE WITH THE BODY OF A BIRD BUT THE HEAD OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.

It makes sounds that are amazingly beautiful, and those who hear these sounds forget everything they know and want nothing more ever again, rather like the sirens of Greek myth. The alkonost lays her eggs on a beach and then rolls them into the sea. When the alkonost’s eggs hatch, a thunderstorm sets in and the sea becomes so rough that it is untravelable. The name of the alkonost came from a Greek demigoddess whose name was Alcyone. In Greek mythology, Alcyone was transformed by the gods into a kingfisher. Basically, Alkonosts are everything I could ever want to be in life, and I would like to change my major to Alkonosty.

Move Over, Gugarin

Interestingly enough, some leaked papers on Russia's space plans have surfaced on the internet.

According to the article...

"The ambitious list includes multiple permanent research stations on Mars, probes exploring Venus and Jupiter, and a manned Moon landing.

The first stage of the project, targeted for 2020, would replace Russia’s Soyuz rockets — currently used to carry payloads to the International Space Station — with larger Angara rockets. They’ll launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, which is currently under construction and slated to open in 2018.

By 2030, Russia hopes to send both robot rovers and human Cosmonauts to the Moon.

The document also includes ideas about space stations that could succeed the ISS when it runs out of funding in 2020."

America is looking pretty lack-luster right now. But anyway, a fabulous Russian pun:

- Which Marxist always had a bad case of diarrhea?

- Trotsky! (I'm so sorry.)

Say Gay No More: Censorship in Saint Petersburg

As a group, we naturally have different tastes in religion, politics, and human morals. There's undoubtedly people in our class that feel that homosexuality is something that is against the will of God and man. But I think we could all agree, regardless of this orientation, nobody has the right to silence another human being -- especially about what they consensually do in their personal lives.

The petition was what enlightened me to the idea, and I by no means am asking one to sign it -- it was just where I got the information from. I feel that they express their concerns adequately, and not even from a point of view that's trying to justify homosexuality:

"Conservatives in St. Petersburg intent on passing this 'gay gag rule' believe they can casually dismiss calls from world leaders - and even the country's own international treaty obligations respecting freedom of expression. But at the same time, Russian leaders recently announced that they want to invest $11 billion dollars to build their international reputation and attract tourists from around the world. St. Petersburg, Russia's cosmopolitan "window to the west" is key to that strategy.

But they can't have it both ways - a thriving tourist economy can’t coexist with a new law that will muzzle artists, writers, musicians and regular citizens who live in - or visit - the city."

I couldn't agree more. Shouldn't a country attempting to become progressive and grand act as such? Where is this archaic desire for wrong censorship coming from?

Metro 2033

The year is 2033, the setting is the metro system of Moscow, Russia, and you are the 20 year old soldier, Artyom. You live underground with your station now, because this is not the civilised world anymore: this is a world filled with Soviets, Nazis, and aliens.

2033 is a newly released first-person shooter/survival horror game based on the book of the same title. My boyfriend got it a couple months ago and I've been translating the Cyrillic signs over his shoulder and watching the progress of the game. It has great historical context, and the setting is extremely interesting; as a player, you navigate through the tunnel systems and fight aliens known as the Dark Ones, all while attempting to avoid aforementioned Nazis and Soviets, who are warring above ground. It's an EXTREMELY unsettling game, for when you're in the tunnels, it is literally pitch black, and you have to depend on nothing but a flashlight, while above ground, the air is entirely toxic, and you have to cycle through gas masks to make it out alive.

The game's purpose is to set off a missile silo that will destroy the Dark Ones, basically, but by the end, it can take two routes: the Dark Ones will send you a "hallucination". You may now either choose to detonate the missile silo, and kill them all, or abort the mission (this is technically the good ending, because it turns out that the aliens were only trying to peacefully communicate).

What I found really interesting about it, apart from the whole Nazi/Soviet dynamic and plethora of Russian weaponry, was the fact that it took place in the Metro system. Alina mentioned in class how Russia's subway system is absolutely beautiful and pristine, while above ground it was pretty trashy and had a bunch of homeless people -- so it was really bizarre and unreal seeing how decrepit it was underground, and how there was suddenly a society of Russians living there.

For comparison:

Hetalia, Part 3: Russia and the Baltic Trio!

So if you've been keeping up, this would be the third and final and nearly-forgotten-about (sorry) installment of the Russia blog posts, by yours truly: Taylor Takushy-face + Katya (Taylor Takoushian and Katherine Fanning)! But not the actual country -- you see, we're talking about the character from the popular anime, Axis Powers: Hetalia, which personifies and parodies the countries of the world and their respective histories.

Without further ado, the introduction! As we've heard mentioned a couple times in class, there are three countries that border Russia and have important relationships with it: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. They are known as the Baltic Trio, and are all more or less absolutely terrified of Russia.

Latvia is the youngest of the Baltic states, and the most sensitive. Though he wishes he had siblings, the other two do not think of themselves as his brothers. He is easily intimidated by Russia, and arguably the most dominated, as he has tried and failed to oppose Russia various times. He attempts to please Russia, but ends up doing things blindly and bluntly, and is basically emotionally tortured for it.

Lithuania is the oldest of the three Baltic states and a shy, gentle type. He was once the partner of Poland during their days as a superpower, but were split apart when Russia partitioned him. In the main storyline, he is shown as an underling of Russia as part of the Soviet Union. He is often intimidated by Russia even in the modern day -- Russia admitted that one of his goals in life was to see "a crying and confused Lithuana come crawling to [him]." He is actually deeply attracted to Belarus, and is unaware of her utter loathing of him!

And last but not least, is Estonia!

The studious one of the three Baltic states, who is really into computers and allegedly has the most luck in avoiding Russia and problems due to his wit (though this conflicts with Estonia's actual unlucky history). When something dangerous or unfortunate happens to Latvia, he can usually be heard screaming his name.

And that is the end of our three-post special on Russia's role in Hetalia! Thank you for such a great semester, guys ):

Хеталия: Россия (PART 2)

Hello again everyone, Taylor Takoushian and Katherine Fanning here with PART 2 of the blogs about the character of Russia from the webcomic-turned-animated show Axis Powers Hetalia by Hidekaz Himaruya!

If you don't know what we're talking about, click here to view our previous blog post about Russia himself, which should explain everything really.

Anyhoo, on to this blog's topic. which will be Part One of Russia's Relationships~!

Two other characters that Russia commonly interacts with are his two 'sisters', who are the personified nations of Ukraine and Belarus.

 
Cuties, aren't they?

Lets start off with Russia's older sister, Ukraine~!

Ukraine is depicted as having short blonde hair (which she keeps held back with a blue or green headband and clips), blue eyes, and wears a long-sleeved white blouse and blue overalls. Her most notable physical feature, however, is her large breast size, representing Ukraine's status as a major agricultural nation ("large tracts of land").  She can also be seen carrying a pitchfork at times. 

Ukraine is the oldest of the three siblings and is constantly getting dragged into some sort of mess. She is described by her brother as being very warm-hearted and motherly, having taken care of him and Belarus when they were little. He also notes that she's a bit of a cry-baby, yet with a big heart. She apparently has chest and back pains due to her assets. She was the one who gave Russia his scarf, which he continues to wear today.
Unlike Russia and Belarus, Hetalia's author Himaruya Hidekaz has not yet chosen a definitive human name for Ukraine. (However, the fans tend to call her Yekaterina or Katyusha.)

Now for Russia's younger sister, Belarus~!

Belarus is portrayed with long, blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She wears a long navy blue dress, a white hairbow (shown in one illustration to be on a headband), a white waist apron, and black shoes with black thigh-highs. Russia has also stated that she is "a very pretty girl" while Lithuania stated that she can be "strong yet cute"


Belarus is most highly noted as prettymuch the only character able to instill fear in Russia himself, who is normally the one everyone else is wary of. She is also shown to carry around a knife at points, most notably in the "Meeting Of The World" comic strip where she's holding it to a traumatized Latvia's back as her brother scares him.
Despite her cute appearance, Belarus is an intimidating, harsh young woman who has a deep infatuation with her older brother Russia, to the point where she wants to get married to him. 
[I just want to add a quick note here for anyone who is perturbed by this: Please keep in mind that this is NOT incest. Remember that these characters are the embodiments of COUNTRIES, so are technically not 'related' as normal humans are.]

However, he doesn't feel the same way, and feels disturbed by her very presence. Her love for him is as obsessive as it is unrequited, though much to Russia's dismay; the latter does not deter her. She is shown to stalk after him, as well as stick by his side to intimidate those who she feels might stand in their way. Her human name is Natalia Arlovskaya. (though there are alternative spellings at the moment)

Below is concept art of their military outfits.

 And here we have posted the episode of the anime where Russia introduces his two sisters to us and tells us about them. Its only 5 minutes long so go ahead and watch it~! [this is the original version of the episode which originally aired in Japan, so the voices are in Japanese. BUT ITS GOT ENGLISH SUBTITLES SO ITS ALL GOOD ;D]

We hope you've enjoyed our latest installment of the Хеталия Россия blog series, and be sure to tune in next time for more about our Russian friend~!

Хеталия: Россия

Now we [Taylor Takoushian & Katherine Fanning] know probably none of you in this class watch anime, but thankfully one exists that we can relate to this class: Hetalia: Axis Powers. Originally a webmanga/webcomic by artist/author Hidekaz Himaruya, this anime recently became ridiculously popular, starring the personified countries of the world playing out their cultural stereotypes and histories with satirical humor.

 

And of course, there is glorious Russia.

 Glorious, downright adorable Russia.

You just wanna hug him, don't you?

Believe it or not, Russia is portrayed as a very split character! He is introduced as sweet, soft-spoken, and filled with positive intentions, but it is rapidly shown that due to the strain of his bloody history, he has partially snapped. Russia frequently exhibits an intimidating aura. Russia is completely aware of his volatile personality, and generally has all of the innocence and cruelty of a small child.

Russia's character design depicts him with a slightly prominent nose, beige-blonde hair, blue-ish eyes and has him rather tall, about 182cm, and he is usually clad in a standard beige, winter trenchcoat adorned with a military medal, a scarf given to him by the character Ukraine (his "big sister" whom he misses dearly), and is seen holding sunflowers, vodka, and/or a faucet pipe. Sunflowers, because Russia hates the cold and longs to live in a sunny place filled with such flowers, vodka for obvious reasons, and the faucet pipe...... well, who knows.

In the profiles of the published manga, he is described as a large young man who is seemingly bighearted and innocent, but is in reality childishly cruel. He comes off as intimidating without even saying a word, his gentle smile and disposition only intensifying the aura of dread which seems to constantly hang over him. He is often described as gentle and naive, and not malicious, but insane. Though he is capable of being incredibly cruel-minded, Russia himself is unaware of it.

Russia hates the cold mostly because every year he is attacked by General Winter. However, General Winter is his most powerful ally in the face of war.

His given human name is Ivan Braginski, or Иван Брагинский, and in fan-works the diminutive "Vanya"/"Ваня" is sometimes used.

Himaruya, the author/artist, has also created various female versions of the characters, Ivan included. as you can see below.

Isnt she a cutie? The female version of Russia does not have an official given name at the current time.

 Below, there's a video clip from the English-dubbed version of the show, here we get to see BOTH SIDES OF RUSSIA. (and a really freaked out France) 

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We hope you enjoyed this little expose on Hetalia's Russia.

Stay tuned for more blogs about him, his sisters, and his foreign relations with the other Nation people~!

До свидания~!