Linguistic Football & Jugglery
I never really questioned the origin of the Russian word for “T-shirt”— “footballka,” coming from the word “football,” obviously. Read more
Russian Response to Origami: Paper Punching
The Japanese have their origami, and we Americans have our chewed paper wads, so why should Russia fall behind in the worldwide paper craft fad. Read more
Tolstoy's show explodes Moscow
I have just been to a presentation of a new CD by the famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in a Moscow club. I've heard his „War and Peace” and „Anna Karenina” before, and decided to check out his concert. Read more
Russian Geography: Tips and Tricks
As I found out while reading feedback, many of my readers don’t exactly know where this mysterious Russia is. Some think that it’s located in the far north — between Finland and Scandinavia, some think it to be on the far east — between Mongolia and Alaska. The time has come to dot the i’s. Read more
Snow-melting and Jug-cooling Days
Most foreigners who come to Russia stay in luxurious hotels that cater to their every wish and thus never get to learn this side of everyday life here — the exciting world of water service interruption! Read more
Toilet-gardening and Bathtub-plantation
Although it has gotten to be much easier to obtain fruit and vegetables in the winter, fresh produce costs a lot and the vast majority cannot afford it. Therefore, most Russian families prepare for winter by freezing sacks of potatoes so that they keep longer. A family with large supplies of potatoes won’t lose more than one or two people a year to scurvy. Read more
What Russians Suck
Ice-cream here is more than just ice-cream; it is a part of Russian national pride. Not as boring as the famous blinis (pancakes) with caviar, ice-cream is incredibly popular and is truly one of the most loved national specialties. Read more
Beware of Bathrooms
Russians strongly believe in superstitions and ill omens; for that reason, foreigners must be aware of certain behavior which they may consider normal but to a Russian is grave offense and/or peril. Read more
Shopping a la Russia
The first time I got to Moscow I wanted to buy food. I was going to go to the supermarket to buy something to eat and pick up a few other things. I went out of my home and looked for the supermarket. But there were none at all! Read more
The First Color TV Appears in Russia
Today pioneering color TV sets are available for sale in Moscow! Russians are in amazement! It is an innovation in this country! People are going mad, they are buying up all of them! I never knew that Russians had no color TVs. They used to always watch black-and-white TV. Read more
Dusya and the Mafia
The following tale comes from my friend Yevdokiya Vyacheslavovna Vakhromeyevskaya, or “Dusya,” her Russian family nickname. Dusya works at night as a prostitute in a very prestigious bordello and in the daytime writes dreamy letters to be placed in mail order bride ads. “One morning I was awakened by the sound of shooting outside my window that was louder than usual”. Read more
Why There are so Many Bears on Russian Streets
When you first arrive in Russia, you will be very surprised to see an enormous number of bears, walking around and seeking food. Only the elderly remember the times when bears in this country were looked upon as something really strange and scary. Read more
|
|
|
What’s in a (Russian) Name?
If you have ever thumbed through a book by a Russian author, you must have, at some point, felt yourself in the grip of confusion. It’s so hard to keep track of which characters are which, because a single person, at different times, may be referred to as 1) Ivan Petrovitch, 2) Vanya, 3) Vanyusha, 4) Ivanushka, and 5)Vantuz. I’ll try to explain why at least some of this happens.
When Russians got forcibly baptized into Christianity, they had to switch from meaningful pagan names to Greek and Hebrew names (John, Paul, Peter, Maria…), which held no significance to them. So, for each name they derived a family nickname. It bore some resemblance to the original Christian name, but at the same time was endowed with mystical powers that protected the child and steered him or her in the right direction in life. So, each such name is a gerund indicating some task or profession.
Parents who wanted their daughters to become good cooks, named them Varvara (Barbara) and privately called them “Varya,” which means “cooking.” Boys who were to live off the land and plow the fields like their fathers and forefathers were named Pavel (Paul), which became Pasha (“plowing”). The parents of little Marias usually called them “Masha”, which means “waving” and refers to the task of winnowing grain, while some, greedy for fast cash, called the girls “Manya,” which practically predestined them for the street, as that nickname means “enticing.”
There are also “Katya” (Kathrine)—“rolling” (for rolling out that pierogie dough!), “Zhenya” (Eugene)—“marrying” (designating future priests), “Kolya” (Nick)—“chopping” (firewood), and the not particularly flattering “Vanya” (John)—“stinking”, for building outhouses and cleaning up horse manure.
Up till recently, children usually followed these gentle guidelines, which influenced their thoughts since day one. Why do you think the first Russian president was none other than Boris Yeltsin? His family nickname was “Borya”, which stands for “struggling” or “fighting”! As you may well know, he had to struggle a lot to bring down the Soviet Union.
 | Some people who felt that they were misnamed would change their names legally—I know a “Valya” (“toppling down”) whose mother wanted him to become a deconstruction worker or at least a lumberjack, who went to court to change his name to “Seryozha” (which had previously meant “playing the balalaika” but has been modernized to mean “playing the guitar”). |
But now, Russian children often disregard their elders’ wishes, without having the decency to change their name. Why, I personally know a “Varya” who dropped out of culinary school and embarked on a folk singing career without as much as considering changing her name to “Petya”—“singing”.
While the majority of modern Russian names came from the Christian tradition, many people still have names left over from pagan times. These names were preserved by indignant pagan tribes that hid away in the frosty wilderness of Siberia for centuries, until the Communists came and made it ok to not be a Christian. These are names like Svetlana and Snezhana, which are equivalent to American hippie names like Sunshine and Snowflake.
 | This was part of the evidence used by Russian anthropologists to figure out that ancient Russian pagans wore headbands and bellbottoms. |
These peace-loving, tree-hugging pagan roots still manifest themselves in the modern-day Russian politics—Russians choose to make love, not war. You may have heard about the latest scandal involving t.A.T.u., the Russian girl band making big waves in the UK and the US, with the girls appearing on TV, wearing t-shirts with offensive slogans protesting war in Iraq.
Subscribe to hear of Greg's new discoveries
There is ordinary one discovery a week
|
|
with Greg McNafferson