Русалка

Last year, I wrote a research paper on different myths and legends in Russian folklore. Among many manifestations of a goddess or feminine spirit is the rusalka. This word is generally translated to "mermaid" now-a-days, but in years past, it was a much more general term for a mystical and powerful female spirit-being. Rusalki were often associated with water (such as a water nymph, or the aforementioned mermaid), and each rusalka was the restless spirit of a dead woman (perhaps drowned in water) that would maliciously guard a river or stream. They were thought to climb trees where they would sing songs to lure unsuspecting bachelors to their doom.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream

I apologize to anyone else who suffered through studying Wallace Stevens in high school. But I found this post on EnglishRussia, sort of a history of ice cream in a nutshell, with a focus on Soviet ice cream. Ice cream appeared in the USSR in 1937, and was actually made on American equipment. "Quite exciting, this frozen-dairy magic," thought the USSR equivalent of the FDA at the time, and demanded ice cream be mass-produced and sold at reasonable prices to the citizenry. A state standard for ice cream was created in 1941--one of the strictest in the world, even compared to today's standards--and Soviet ice cream became popular both inside and outside of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, by 1980, they had changed to the trade standard, producing a lower-quality product. They started importing ice cream in 1990, and this was of an even lower quality. The article also mentions that some regions had some...special ice cream flavors. Tomato ice cream in the Urals, and Muscovites enjoyed themselves some wine ice cream.

The article, as per usual for EnglishRussia, is full of neat pictures from the early 20th century--snapshots and posters advertising ice cream. I can't tell if they're advertising specific brands or just the concept of ice cream; both of them seem equally likely for the USSR. My favorite snapshot is this one, though. Never too cold for ice cream!


Link to full article for moar pictures.

Russian students 100 years ago

English Russia never lets me down. I found some pages from a book published in 1900 about Russian students. It has drawings of students in different disciplines and of various nationalities, all male of course. I kind of want to see the rest of this book; it starts out normally enough, with pictures of a physics student, medical student, law student and a student from "the Academy," who looks like a soldier to me. Then it just delves into ethnic/nationality stereotypes. There is a "Ukranian student," a "Polish student," a "student from the South/Armenia/Azerbaijan," and the obligatory Jew. I'd like to know what the target audience was for this particular work of, um, art.

There are all kinds of things I could say about these drawings but none of them would really do justice to the pictures themselves, so here is a link. Click!

Year 2 Unit 6 Blog

Question: Who inspired writers such as Dostoevsky and Kafka, wrote short stories that mixed fantasy and realism, spent most of his life in Italy, was seen as a radical, and died before he turned forty?

Answer: One of the most unusually writers in the Russian tradition - Ukrainian born Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol.



A CAREER IN BRIEF


Gogol was part of the minor nobility in Greater Sorochintsy, Mirigorod, Ukraine.


Very little information is available about his childhood except for anecdotes about Gogol being artistically inclined and mimicking the behaviors of others for amusement.


His father introduced Gogol to play writing at an early age in their home village; unfortunately, when Gogol was fourteen, his father passed away while Gogol is at the Nezhin Lycum.


While still a student, one of his first works is finished, "Hans Kuchelgarten,".


1829 found twenty-four year old Gogol publishing a five stanza poem "Italy" in a magazine and "Hans Kuchelgarten" published at his own expense.

Many critics harshly mocked the latter and Gogol in shame bought up every copy to burn it.


However, later that same year he began working on a collection of short stories, "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" based on experiences and village life in his hometown which would become his first major success.


After various failed jobs as a scribe, assistant history teacher, and actor, he met one of his literary idols, Alexander Sergeivch Pushkin.


Pushkin saw the talent and started publishing parts of "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" in Literary Gazette which he was co-founder of.

This early support helped Gogol continue writing as various civil service jobs at the time had failed and he had made himself a laughingstock as an history professor as his lectures were mumbled or never even occurred.


The next several years were filled with producing the last of his lighter pieces: the sequel to "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"and "The Story of how Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikovich".

His year long job as a history instructor ended - to the relief of the faculty, his students, and Gogol himself - and a change in his writing style appeared.

Gogol had found early fame with his witty pieces set in his homeland, but as he began to support himself with his own writings more, a more cynical and more Russian aspect to his writing emerged.

"Notes of a Madman" was published and work began on his play "The Inspector General" which would be one of his more cynical works.

Locals have heard that an inspector has been sent by the government to root out corruption; when a lowly governmental worker arrives they mistake him for the inspector that has been sent to end their under the table deals and illegal activities.

In the play appears at first to be a play about mistaken identity and the hi jinx that ensue, but through out the story runs the idea of corruption and bribery of officials.

What made it so unique was the lack of love interests or deep spiritual meaning; Gogol had written a play about human avarice that was at first glance a comedy of errors.

Some of his opponents may have hated it, but the play was a great success.

Gogol spent more time abroad as his dissatisfaction with Russian life continued and he began searching for outside influence.

1842 Gogol published "The Overcoat" which was one of his more cynical and fantasy style pieces.

A lowly government worker saves up for a new coat and is killed for it the first day he wears it, the spirit of the governmental worker kills the thief.

Gogol returned to a more light heart style with another work published that same year "The Nose" where another governmental employee loses his nose and the nose becomes even more powerful than his owner, even being elected mayor.

It was during this time that Gogol began work on "Dead Souls" which is now synonymous with Gogol.

Inspired by the "Inferno" by Dante, Gogol was convinced another trilogy of human vices was needed.

"Dead Souls" was the first leg of the journey for the corrupt characters; originally Gogol had planned to make it a trilogy, but his health and outside influences prevented that.

Intestinal problems - he believed it was caused by an upside down stomach and many doctors were convinced stomach acid was the culprit - from childhood grew steadily worse and slowly he fell under the influence of a corrupt monk much like a minor Rasputin.

Convinced he was a sinner headed straight for hell, Gogol began an extreme fast in 1851; he refused all nourishment and starved himself to the point where doctors could feel his spine when they went to check his heart rate.

On March 4th 1852, Gogol was dead and the second part of "Dead Souls" had been burn in his fireplace ten days before.

WHY IS GOGOL IMPORTANT?

Gogol did not write deep pieces concerned with how to improve society; he wanted to write stories that made people laugh at their own foibles and vices.

Gogol was convinced that Russia needed to fix itself, but left others to do it.

His works blended fantasy with drama to hold up a mirror to Russia and Ukraine to show what he saw and knew about.

"We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat" -- attributed to Dostoevsky or Turgenev. this quote reveals why Gogol matters - he touched something in the soul of Russian art no one else had.

He may have vengeful ghosts and noses running around Russia, but he walked the fine line between absurdity and realism perfectly and became one of the most beloved Russian authors ever.

GOGOL ELSEWHERE

Many of his stories have become or inspired films; throughout Russian cinematography Gogol has enjoyed enduring popularity as a long awaited animated version of "The Nose" is in the works and a new release of one of his most controversial works "Taras Bulba" has been made into a film last April, shortly after the two hundredth anniversary of his birth.

Unfortunately, his homeland has almost abandoned him.

Gogol has been been "kicked out" of Ukrainian schools for being a foreigner, accused of turning to Italian and Russian culture instead of his Ukrainian upbringing.

While this is unfortunate, Gogol himself would smirk and laugh as he has survived two hundred years and an unfortunate early death; he will endure and win.

Russian Presence in Deep Space

Since 2005, the Red Alliance, a powerful Russian-speaking conglomerate of various Russian Corporations, has established itself as a major player in the mineral-driven economy of New Eden. I'll briefly describe some of the events that have taken place in the Red Alliance's storied history.

The Red Alliance formed after a prior group disbanded. This group was known as the Curse Alliance and it's destruction led to the formation of various new powers, not the least of which was the new Red Alliance. Another alliance that formed from the ashes of the Curse Alliance, was The Five, which would go on to betray the Red Alliance. But with the aid of their friends in Rage and Terror, the Red Alliance was able to triumph over it's former allies.

Eventually Lokta Voltera would begin expansion into the Red Alliance's territory, and with the help of other alliances, would go on to defeat the Red Alliance in Immensea and also in Wicked Creek.

After the defeat in Wicked Creek on the 8th of March when R.A. lost 9 dreadnaughts, a dark period began in RA’s story. Torn by internal intra-corporation conflicts and surrounded on all sides by the encroaching forces of the coalition, RA began rapidly losing conquered territories. First to fall were Immensea and Detorid, next in line came Wicked Creek, the last to fall were Insmother and Scalding Pass. Corporations were fleeing the alliance, each one presented different reasons and excuses – “we didn’t receive help in our time of need.” In the end the alliance was abandoned by all non-Russian speaking corporations. The order was given to re-group forces in Curse, Cache, and Konora.

In the beginning of March 2006, RA began populating its territories with citizens. A majority of the new corporations were ordinary carebears, miners, and ratters who didn’t need anything except high-end ores and fat NPC’s. But in the Scalding Pass region an unusual corporation formed. The region bordered the Great Wildlands and was constantly under attack by -V- alliance. Consequently the new industrial corporations were forced to constantly defend themselves and learned how to PVP. When the coalition began attacking Scalding Pass, those who did not run to Empire, remained with RA forces in 28y till the end to defend the station and remove the POSs. After the fall of 28y they moved with RA into H-ADOC. Because most of the corporations lost many of their members, who did not like all the fighting and who wanted to peacefully carebear, many corporations were down to only a few members.

Fast forward to today, and the Red Alliance has re-established itself as one of the major powers of New Eden, among the likes of the KenZoku and the Tau Ceti Federation.

This is not real. This post is about a Russian-Speaking alliance in the EVE Online video game. Yeah.

Jessica Simpson Making it big in Russia..

So apparently Jessica Simpson is quite the movie star abroad, a new movie "Major Movie Star" starring Simpson released on November 8th but there is no scheduled date for release in the U.S. No wonder people think the United States is crazy! 

Jessica Simpson, Russia’s Sweetheart: Huffingtonpost.com

What ever happened to Jessica Simpson’s comedy, “Major Movie Star”?

The “Private Benjamin” – like film has never opened here in the United States. But on October 9th, “Major Movie Star” debuted to top box office in… Russia.

Next up for a movie described by one of its participants as “maybe one of the worsr films ever made”: a November premiere in Bulgaria.

So far there’s no U.S. release date set. Nor is there one for any other country in which English is the primary language.

No fewer than 15 producers are listed on the credits of “Major Movie Star” including Jessica’s enterprising dad, Joe. The director was Steve Miner, whose credits are mostly from television.

While Jessica’s singing career transition into country star has gone pretty well so far, her movie credits seem to be getting worse rather than better. She’d be substantially better off, frankly, having a sitcom in which she can play herself.

To see the trailer click here (it's in English) 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/28/jessica-simpsons-major-mo_n_138446.html 

It will explain itself..