What makes the FSU so interesting?

[mendeleyev]

You are both gentlemen. 

[mendeleyev]

Founded in 1487, the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery is a Russian Orthodox monastery situated deep in the woods of the Leningrad Oblast (Saint Petersburg area), just south from its border with the Republic of Karelia.





From Wikipedia: During the Time of Troubles, the Swedes sacked and burnt both hermitages on three occasions, yet the monastery continued to prosper. After the Russian-Swedish war the border was delineated west of the Svir River.

In 1644, when the five-domed Transfiguration Cathedral was finished, Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich presented to the monks a golden arc for keeping St Alexander's relics there. A belfry of the Trinity cloister was built in three tiers and crowned with three tents in 1649. Most of the monastic cells date back to the 1670s. The roomy Trinity Cathedral was completed by 1695. The last structure to be erected within monastery walls was the hospital chapel of St John of Damascus (1718).

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the brethren were executed or deported, while the relics of St Alexander were desecrated and put on a public display in Leningrad. The medieval monastery buildings housed an infamous gulag known as Svirlag. They were further damaged during World War II. Restoration did not commence until the 1970s.

Currently, the Transfiguration Cloister is the home to the local monastic community, while the Trinity Cloister still houses a mental asylum instituted in 1953.
                   

[mendeleyev]

The Mendeleyev Journal, Faces of Russia series:

When you have very cold winter temperatures, unless your home is in a city with central steam heat boilers every few blocks to pipe in some warmth, one needs a very large firewood supply.



Scenes like these are common in the countryside as farms and villagers stock up wood which will be needed in the coming winter months for heating and cooking.



Monasteries and Convents often provide their own winter heat fuel by gathering and cutting wood from nearby forests.
                   

[calmissile]

Mendy,

Very interesting woodpiles.  Have never seen a woodpile in this configuration.  What the reason for the cone shaped configuration?  Do you climb a ladder in the winter and throw down wood from the top?

[mendeleyev]

Doug, perhaps one of our native Russian or Ukrainians will correct me if wrong, but I believe that this is a way to cure the wood for later use. I think that these silos for lack of a better term are dismantled in summer or autumn after they're cured a year or more and the wood is moved somewhere closer to a house or building for use in winter.

At our Volgograd dacha for example, we don't use fresh firewood for cooking and heating water. Firewood chopped in spring & summer will be used next year. This summer we're using wood that was cut last year as green wood gives off too much smoke and creates a fire hazard in a chimney whereas dried (cured) wood burns hotter and without giving off dangerous resins or smoke.

However at the dacha we have a much smaller wood stack than one of these.

[calmissile]

Doug, perhaps one of our native Russian or Ukrainians will correct me if wrong, but I believe that this is a way to cure the wood for later use. I think that these silos for lack of a better term are dismantled in summer or autumn after they're cured a year or more and the wood is moved somewhere closer to a house or building for use in winter.

At our Volgograd dacha for example, we don't use fresh firewood for cooking and heating water. Firewood chopped in spring & summer will be used next year. This summer we're using wood that was cut last year as green wood gives off too much smoke and creates a fire hazard in a chimney whereas dried (cured) wood burns hotter and without giving off dangerous resins or smoke.

However at the dacha we have a much smaller wood stack than one of these.

Ah, that makes sense.  It was not clear to me that the center of the cones were hollow.  If so, then you are probably right on.  LOL

[Eduard]

Around the year 1240 Christians fled Kyiv (Kiev) Ukraine as Muslim invaders swept thru killing anyone who wouldn't convert to Islam.

interesting how nothing changed in 800 years with the Muslims. I guess you can sat that they are consistent.

[Eduard]

No clue, unfortunately, but I wonder if it had to to with pensions? 
 
A lot of serfs were conscripted in the fight against Napoleon, and they were not given the same pay as soldiers, or any pension.

I remember from history class at school that the serfs were set free after the 1812 war as a sign of appreciation for standing up and fighting Napoleon's army as partisans. Have you read anything different from that?

[mendeleyev]

Special the Mendeleyev Journal: Catherine's Cats; tail of Saint Petersburg's feline underworld.


Quick! What is the Russian word for cat? кот (koht), or the more affectionate term of кошка (kosh-ka).

Now, how do you spell mousetrap in just three letters? C-A-T!

What do you use to comb a cat? A catacomb.

Okay, enough cat jokes. Let's get serious for a moment because if you're a cat lover then you know how easily one of these furry friends can in no time have you wrapped around their paws.

Cats are generally loved and adored in Russia. In fact, the breed called Russian Blue is thought  to have originated in the Russian port city of Arkhangelsk. A Russian Blue is a beautiful cat with a silver-blue coat. These cats are regarded as highly intelligent and playful yet timid around strangers. Many Russians claim to seek them out because of their intelligence and willingness to share affection with their owners.

Catherine the great loved cats too. She loved them so much that she had carriages loaded with cats brought from the far reaches of Russia to Saint Petersburg. Her thinking was that if the Cossacks were good enough to guard the palaces, then Russia's finest cats could be trusted to keep mice and rats on the run, too.

Today, a special group of cats guard the famous Hermitage complex in Saint Petersburg and these cats are treated like royalty.

Just watch:




(Disclosure: The Mendeleyev Journal has a sponsorship relationship with Viking River Cruises.)

[Eduard]

Special the Mendeleyev Journal: Catherine's Cats; tail of Saint Petersburg's feline underworld.


Quick! What is the Russian word for cat? кот (koht), or the more affectionate term of кошка (kosh-ka).

Trust me, Jim, you don't want to call your male cat  "кошка (kosh-ka)" no matter how affectionate you feel about him.  кошка (kosh-ka) just means that it's a female cat while " кот (koht)" is a male cat. An affectionate version that can be applied to either sex is "Kiska [kiss-kah] or [kotyah] or [kah-tya-rah] (a loving way some people address it if a cat is big and fat).

[Misha]

Trust me, Jim, you don't want to call your male cat  "кошка (kosh-ka)" no matter how affectionate you feel about him.  кошка (kosh-ka) just means that it's a female cat while " кот (koht)" is a male cat. An affectionate version that can be applied to either sex is "Kiska [kiss-kah] or [kotyah] or [kah-tya-rah] (a loving way some people address it if a cat is big and fat).

You forgot the affectionate "котик" 

[Eduard]

You forgot the affectionate "котик" 

but that can be applied to a male only (cat or human) 

[Misha]

but that can be applied to a male only (cat or human) 

Aren't we discussing what Jim can call his male cat 

[BC]

Mendy,

Very interesting woodpiles.  Have never seen a woodpile in this configuration.  What the reason for the cone shaped configuration? 

Nuns do have fantasies I guess.

The woodpiles are pretty cute.

[ML]

I remember from history class at school that the serfs were set free after the 1812 war as a sign of appreciation for standing up and fighting Napoleon's army as partisans. Have you read anything different from that?

Apparently the pivotal event was the Crimean War rather than 1812.

    In 1861, Czar Alexander II issued “The Manifesto of February 19, 1861" according to which “the serfs will receive in time the full rights of free rural inhabitants” (Alexander II, Emancipation Manifesto, 1861).  On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued “The Emancipation Proclamation.”  The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free” (The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863).

    Alexander II understood that serfdom must be abolished.  But he also realized “that so radical a revolution was fraught with danger to the entire economic and political structure of Russia” (Woldman, p. 171).  For several
years he had been trying to find a compromise with nobles but without much success.  So “he decided to take matters into his own hands.”  “On March 3, 1861 he issued a manifesto setting all serfs of Russia free.” (Woldman).  [Note: This March 3 date and my earlier referenced February 19 date difference relates to the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars.  Russia did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1917.]

    Even the fates of these two men were similar.  They both were assassinated, but for opposite reasons.  Alexander II was killed by members of the Narodnaya Voya [this translates into English as “The People’s Will”], who thought that he did not give real freedom to former serfs.  Lincoln was killed by Confederate sympathizer John W. Booth who was against the emancipation of slaves (O’Donnell, 2011).

    References

    Alexander II, Emancipation Manifesto (1861). No author or other information given. Retrieved April 2, 2012 from www.academic.shu.edu/russianhistory/index.php

    Lynch, M. (2003). The Emancipation of the Russian Serfs, 1861: A Charter of Freedom or an Act of Betrayal? No other information given.  Retrieved March 13, 2012, from http://www.historytoday.com

    O’Donnell, E. (2011). Turning Points in American History.  Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses.

    Rowe, N. (1861). Serfdom in Russia.  Macmillan’s Magazine, Volume 4, 384-391. Retrieved March 14, 2012 from http://books.google.com/books

Russian Serfdom. No author or other information given.  Retrieved March 13, 2012, from
    http://histclo.com/country/rus/cr-serf.html

Serfdom in Russia.  Wikipedia Retrieved March 15, 2012.

    Sobornoye Ulozhenie   No other information given. Retrieved March 20, 2012 from  http://www.prlib.ru/en-us/History/Pages/Item.aspx?itemid=319

    Streich, M. (2009). Comparing American and Russian Emancipation.  No other information given. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from www.exampleessays.com/veewpaper113767.html

    Syponitskay, I. (2006). Slaves and Serfs. 1st September History 2006 Volume 14, Issue 4. Retrieved April 2, 2012 from his.1september.ru/2006/15/4.htm

    The Emancipation Proclamation (1863).  No author or other information given.  Retrieved March 28, 2012 from www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents

    Woldman, A. (1952). Lincoln and the Russians. Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company.

[SANDRO43]

Another interesting form of "slavery/serfdom" was that of Indentured Servants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant), mostly used in labour-starved colonial North America.

Indenture could either be a free choice, or a forced servitude in the case of British convicts who, after the American independence, were dumped to Botany Bay.

Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth, England
mourning their lovers who are soon
to be transported to Botany Bay, 1792

[mendeleyev]

You forgot the affectionate "котик"

That's right, I did!

I forgot котёнок (kotönok) too, for kitten.

Jim, you don't want to call your male cat  "кошка (kosh-ka)" no matter how affectionate you feel about him.  кошка (kosh-ka) just means that it's a female cat while " кот (koht)" is a male cat. An affectionate version that can be applied to either sex is "Kiska [kiss-kah] or [kotyah] or [kah-tya-rah] (a loving way some people address it if a cat is big and fat).

Ed, of course you are correct. The ladies in our house seem to attach an "a" at the end of any animal bit it a dog or cat or whatever. I'm wondering now how offended our male cat is at being lumped in with his sister! 

If we went back to the days of Catherine I and her love of cats, what do you think would be some of the endearing names her cats would have been called? Has the language changed or do you think such terms have remained consistent?
           

[mendeleyev]

Almaty (Алматы), the former capital city of Kazakhstan could be anywhere in the FSU when it comes to reading and a love for books. Book collections in homes and attendance at book fairs are a popular scene in Eastern Europe and Asia.

Local university students have launched a project for a mobile reading room in Almaty through the end of August. The idea is to move the mobile library to a new location every two weeks. The locations are city parks with volunteers running the venture from 9 am to 8 pm.



Designed by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the  cabinet consists of open cubes which are mounted and held together with magnets. The design makes it very easy to pack, move and quickly reassemble.

Every venture has to start somewhere and this summer the project is operating with an inventory of about 300 books, most written in English, Kazakh and Russian languages with titles from children's literature to history to novels. So far the library is busy most every day as readers come to sit in the park and read for an hour or two.
                   

[mendeleyev]

Excerpt from the Mendeleyev Journal section on "Life In a Russian Home"

Communal apartments:

Most Westerners won't live in one, but it is nice to know about Communal apartments which remain a fixture of Russian life. A communal apartment is just as it sounds, with more than one family living in a single apartment. After the Communist revolution in 1917, the Soviets confiscated large apartments that were owned by Russian nobility and converted them into Коммуналка, communal apartments called "Kommunalkas" to hold multiple families. Each year the number of Russians still living this way grows smaller but some still do it by choice and others of economic necessity.





In Soviet times apartments were assigned by state authorities in accordance with the standards of living space designed for one individual, regardless of marital status so often 2-3 or even 4 persons ended up living in a room really meant for one person.



(Disclaimer: there is a sponsorship relationship between Viking River Cruises and the Mendeleyev Journal)


My cousin Gherman and his wife Natasha live in a (Коммунальная квартира) communal apartment in the centre of Moscow. Aunt Lyuba lives in a communal, too. Their apartments have big rooms but the common living spaces such as the hallway, kitchen and bathroom are not as spacious as the apartment in the previous video and with just one stove in the kitchen, the 3 families which share Gherman & Natasha's apartment have kitchen schedules so that each family gets a turn to prepare their own food.






Some things to remember when visiting a communal apartment:

- Be sure to hang your coat or jacket on the correct coat rack. Also, each family may have their own shoe rack for shoes so ask your host where to deposit your shoes when you are given slippers to wear. You'll be given slippers to wear so make sure to take off your shoes. If you'd like, bring your own slippers as it is okay with most hosts.
 
- Not only should you wash up with the host family's soap and dry with their towel, but toilet seats are separate too. Likely your host will have a coloured toilet seat that is different from the other families. It will be hanging on the wall so take the right one down for use and don't forget to hang it back on the wall when you're finished.

- Each door buzzer sounds slightly different so ring the right bell so as to not get your host in hot water with his close neighbors.

- When helping in the kitchen be sure to use the correct stove and refrigerator. In some smaller apartments those appliances are shared with neighbors. Cousin Gherman & Natasha also have a separate refrigerator in their bedroom in addition to the one shelf they are allotted in the communal kitchen fridge.

Perhaps you're wondering about privacy?

You're kidding, right?

Next question is likely about utilities. Who pays what and how is it determined?

Electricity for example can be calculated in several ways. Some communal apartments have one meter and each family pays their "share" based on the number of rooms they have (some families have more than one bedroom) and the number of persons in the family. Most remaining communal apartments have separate meters for each family bedroom and they split the expense of the common areas such as the hallway/entryway, bathroom and kitchen.





Most communal bathrooms are split into two very small rooms which allows more than one person to be in the area, yet with maximum privacy. The first half of the bathroom area is the toilet--pretty obvious as to the use. Hardly larger than a telephone booth the only thing in the room is the toilet commode itself. The other half is a small separate but adjoining room called the bathroom, or Ванная (van-na-ya).  Also small, this room has a sink and a bathtub and that is all. Some older style bathrooms (as seen above) have just a shower and the sink is in a hallway near the bathroom.

Below: a one room living room by day and bedroom by night for everyone in this family.





There is an excellent presentation of communal living by Colgate University at this site: http://kommunalka.colgate.edu/cfm/v_tours.cfm?ClipID=234&TourID=10

Drop-down menus at the bottom of each video allow you to move to the next short video in the series which is hosted by Professor  Ilya Utekhin, an anthropologist from European University in St. Petersburg, who lived in the building for over 30 years. Today he and his family live elsewhere, but one of the rooms in a fifth-floor apartment still belongs to him. Ilya's book, Studies in Communal Living, is the basis for this video tour.


(Photos by Aleksandr Hitrov)
                 

[Eduard]

The ladies in our house seem to attach an "a" at the end of any animal bit it a dog or cat or whatever. I'm wondering now how offended our male cat is at being lumped in with his sister! 

He is prolly having an identity crises right about now, Jim! Better find a psychologist for him quick!

[mendeleyev]

He is prolly having an identity crises right about now, Jim! Better find a psychologist for him quick!

Ed, not only for him, one for me too! Every affectionate nickname they call me, heck even Papa, has an "a" ending! 

[Misha]

Ed, not only for him, one for me too! Every affectionate nickname they call me, heck even Papa, has an "a" ending! 

I am sure we can come up with a list of suggestions that do not end in "a" 

[Eduard]

I am sure we can come up with a list of suggestions that do not end in "a" 

go for it, Misha! I'm braindead right now... My GSD puppies wake me up every morning at 6am so I've been feeling like a Zombie for several days now. Thank God the are going to their new homes in 3 weeks! Knowing this is what keeps me going! 

[Fashionista]

My cousin Gherman and his wife Natasha live in a (Коммунальная квартира) communal apartment in the centre of Moscow. Aunt Lyuba lives in a communal, too.                 

I am amazed they still exist. On the other hand, I can't find a reason why not. I bet it takes some social skills to live their in peace with other families.

[Misha]

go for it, Misha! I'm braindead right now... My GSD puppies wake me up every morning at 6am so I've been feeling like a Zombie for several days now. Thank God the are going to their new homes in 3 weeks! Knowing this is what keeps me going! 

Let's see... зайчик, красовчик, котик, пусик...