What makes the FSU so interesting?

[jone]

Thanks,

I love the city.  Known as the City of the Brides because of the textile industries.  Some good musuems of the early fabric trade.  But the real gem in the area is Suzdal, in the Vladimir oblast.  The reconstructed churches and the Kremlins where the Tzars and Tzarinas prayed are breathtaking.  Skip the nesting eggs.  They make some wonderful Enamels there as well.

A funny note;  I took some family members on a tour of Suzdal one trip.  The tour guide was prideful of Russia and commented on those nasty Poles who invade around 1600.  I started snickering and she stopped the tour to ask me what was so funny.  I mentioned that Suzdal was the farthest the Polish army ever got, and they did that once.  Four times the Russian army has completely overrun Poland, even to the point of eliminating the Polish nation as part of a gang made up of Austria, Germany, Sweden, etc.

[Eduard]

Thanks,

I love the city.  Known as the City of the Brides because of the textile industries.  Some good musuems of the early fabric trade.  But the real gem in the area is Suzdal, in the Vladimir oblast.  The reconstructed churches and the Kremlins where the Tzars and Tzarinas prayed are breathtaking.  Skip the nesting eggs.  They make some wonderful Enamels there as well.

A funny note;  I took some family members on a tour of Suzdal one trip.  The tour guide was prideful of Russia and commented on those nasty Poles who invade around 1600.  I started snickering and she stopped the tour to ask me what was so funny.  I mentioned that Suzdal was the farthest the Polish army ever got, and they did that once.  Four times the Russian army has completely overrun Poland, even to the point of eliminating the Polish nation as part of a gang made up of Austria, Germany, Sweden, etc.

I bet you got some looks from people who understood what you said  LOL
Well, all countries are guilty of revising history, US is not excluded.

[Eduard]

I need to find me a woman who knows how to cook - and soon.

I thought you have found a woman, Jon? It says "committed" on your profile, am I missing something?

[jone]

Yeah, but she hasn't showed me her cooking skills yet.  She works evenings. Typically she isn't home until around 22:00.  It dovetails with my commitment back to the states.  I work until late at night and sleep in because of the time difference.

[Eduard]

Yeah, but she hasn't showed me her cooking skills yet.

That's pretty unusual for an FSU woman.

[jone]

Okay, my flat has a hotplate to boil water in, no stove.  I have the dogs here and she lives in Nove Doma, too hard for me to get to her home (although I have been there).  On the weekends, we've travelled.  Maybe she's a social reject.  Who knows?  While I love those salads - I grew up on German Potato Salad with bacon and vinegar - I'm more of a shishlik kinda guy.  Although borscht can be good.  Reminds me of Abondegas that we have in Los Angeles. Damn. It must be time for breakfast.

Ha.

[Eduard]

yeah, I shouldn't be talking/thinking about food before going to bed...

[mendeleyev]

Did somebody say борщ?

Now we're talking! I have apparently honed my borsch skills to the point that I've been assigned the task of preparing the borsch for our Church celebration of the "Holy Supper" the night of Christmas Eve. That will be a first for me in preparing a dish for so many people. Mrs. M is assisting with decorating the adjacent church hall so I'll be able to run amok in the kitchen. There are 12 dishes in a Holy Supper and borsch is just one of them but still I'm excited.

[jone]

I need one of those long term visas so I can invade your kitchen when you're not looking!

[mendeleyev]

www.MendeleyevJournal.com

Sometimes you can learn some of the most interesting things from readers. Thanks to Mendeleyev Journal subscriber Raisa Tarasova, herself an interesting blogger, for alerting readers to the fact that cannabis was woven into the fabric of the famous Fountain of International Friendship at the All Russia Exhibition Centre (VDNKh) in Moscow.

First built in the 1930s and later reborn in the 1950s, the park encompasses an exhibition area over 2,375,000 square metres to various agriculture, science, industry, cultural and historical exhibitions. You can imagine our surprise when Ms. Tarasova pointed out that cannabis is part of the large and popular Fountain of Friendship exhibit. Since the park's original purpose was to promote Russian agriculture it makes perfect sense.

Take a look for yourself.

(photo: Alex Zeneko)

Take a closer look as there it is between sheaves of wheat and grain:



(photo: Natalia Gerasimova)

Raisa says that, "Historically, in Russia cannabis was one of the most cultivated cereal grains, its fiber was used for hemp and textile manufacturing; status of cannabis was as high as of wheat and sunflower. In fact, you can see cannabis leaves right between wheat sheaves on the fountain of the International Friendship in Moscow."

Thanks to Ms. Tarasova our next visit to the All-Russia Exhibit will be even more insightful in understanding the fountain's history.

[mendeleyev]

Russia has historically brimmed with talent in the arts, writing, poetry, painting and music. That tradition continues and around this time of year Mrs M and I enjoy some of our favourite videos of talented Russian and Ukrainian musicians and singers. One cannot help but think of the literal stream of talented performers who continue to thrill audiences at Moscow's House of Music. Situated along the Moscow River, this stunning venue has played hosted to not only Russia's finest, but the most sought after performers around the world.

The scene is 2005 and Italian singer Al Bano (Albano Carrisi) traveled to Moscow for a concert billed as "Al Bano and his ladies" featuring Russia's top female singers on stage. Some of his on-stage ladies included Fabrika, Larisa Dolina, Aziza, Anna Semenovich,Yulia Mikhalchik, and Alsou.

Alsou is the beautiful olive skinned ethnic Tatar singer from Russia's over 1,000 year old Republic of Tatarstan. Incredibly talented she possesses a silky smooth voice and is fluent in Russian, her native Tatar (a Cyrillic based Turkish language) and English. Her single "Before You Love Me" hit #1 in the UK music charts in 2001.

[mendeleyev]

www.MendeleyevJournal.com

Perhaps it's just that we're hungry or maybe this is news to some of our readers: KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) will add full KFC restaurants in Kyiv to their three existing KFC owned "Kryla" (Wings) cafes already in Kyiv.


Kryla or "Wings" is a KFC cafe chain serving mainly wings and fried potatoes.
(photo: Mykola Timchenko / Den' newspaper)

The new KFC restaurants in Ukraine will mirror the menus of KFC outlets in Russia.







KFC is not really new to either Ukraine or Russia. A Russian chicken chain named "Rostik's" had copied the KFC recipes and developed quite a following in the years when places like Russia and Ukraine weren't as friendly to foreign fast food restaurants. KFC eventually purchased Rostik's in a joint deal with Baskin Robbins Ice Cream and operated the restaurants under the KFC-Rostik's brand.

In 2011 KFC removed the Rostik's label and renamed all 164 restaurants as simply "KFC."

[jone]

Hahahahaha

That poor girl sweeping up doesn't stand a chance.  She will be eating KFC for many years and in ten years will go from her trim physique to one similar to the lady last in the waiting line. 

[Lily]

The scene is 2005 and Italian singer Al Bano (Albano Carrisi) traveled to Moscow for a concert billed as "Al Bano and his ladies" featuring Russia's top female singers on stage. Some of his on-stage ladies included Fabrika, Larisa Dolina, Aziza, Anna Semenovich,Yulia Mikhalchik, and Alsou.

Alsou is the beautiful olive skinned ethnic Tatar singer from Russia's over 1,000 year old Republic of Tatarstan. Incredibly talented she possesses a silky smooth voice and is fluent in Russian, her native Tatar (a Cyrillic based Turkish language) and English. Her single "Before You Love Me" hit #1 in the UK music charts in 2001.

Russians love Alsou, but they are aware of the fact that she probably would not make it without her father's financing. Her father, Ralif Safin, senator and former Lukoil shareholder, is worth about $ 500 mln. according to the Forbes.ru. Unfortunately, smooth silky voices are hardly valued by the pro singers, therefore Alsou likely stood no chance without a considerable financial investmens. Her video clip ''Winter Dream"' had its price of about $ 100k, according to compromat.ru.
 
Sometimes lovely Alsou was nicknamed 'a singing gas station'. They noticed a tendency that when Alsou makes her new album, the gas price in Russia goes up
http://www.compromat.ru/page_11846.htm

[mendeleyev]

Sometimes lovely Alsou was nicknamed 'a singing gas station'. They noticed a tendency that when Alsou makes her new album, the gas price in Russia goes up

Yes, the "princess of oil" as they say. When she married, it was dubbed the Mafia wedding of the century in Russia. Entire Moscow blocks were shut down and guarded by men in black tuxedos armed with assault rifles and other assorted automatic weaponry. Wedding gifts included a Bentley and a $10 million penthouse in downtown Moscow.

Her the-future husband had been dating Mariah Carey but dumped Mariah when he learned that she had no title to royalty. Alsou supposedly does have some link to Tatar royalty, at least enough to marry the guy.

[Lily]

The most wonderful notes about the Soviet Russia and perceptions of the West:
http://forums.drom.ru/garazh/t1151238838.html
Sorry Russian only. A translation would be a brilliant idea.

[Anotherkiwi]

The most wonderful notes about the Soviet Russia and perceptions of the West:
http://forums.drom.ru/garazh/t1151238838.html
Sorry Russian only. A translation would be a brilliant idea.

(with the appropriate music)...
 
Your task, should you choose to accept it...

[mendeleyev]

19 January is the day that millions of Eastern Orthodox believers jumped into an icy pond, river, lake or pool. Depending on time zone, most have already done so as it is done at night. It is the Epiphany, Крещение, the commemoration of Christ's baptism by the Apostle and Saint, John the Baptist. First a priest blesses a section of frozen water and then believers, old and young, male and female, plunge three times while making the sign of the cross. From Asia to Eastern Europe this is a more common event. It just doesn't happen often in America, yet, but there is nothing wrong in hoping that someday it will.








For those of you who observe this tradition, С Крещением Господним!

[mendeleyev]

[mendeleyev]

Today in the Mendeleyev Journal:

We're guessing that when you hear the phrase "crocodiles in Ukraine" the first thing that comes to mind is the terrifying drug sweeping Russia and Ukraine known as the "crocodile drug." That is scary enough, but imagine yourself in southern Ukraine, along the Black Sea and you run into a region seemingly fascinated with crocodiles.

From Odessa to Sevastopol to Yalta, it doesn't take long on a beach boardwalk to encounter a statue to the deadliest reptile on earth, the mighty crocodile. Most of the older statues are more elegant and from the Soviet period, but today a more casual or shall we say "folksy" legacy has come to represent the Crocodile.



Most of our readers will wonder what caused all this interest in crocodiles along the beach cities of southern Ukraine? The crocodile is native to Africa and Australia while it's cousin the Alligator is native to the American continent and China, certainly not native to the Black Sea.

While we generally see large reptiles like the crocodile in a Zoo setting, in the years immediately after the breakup of the Soviet Union it was common for exotic animals to mysteriously find their way into the collections of wealthy individuals as city and regional zoos were plundered or sold off in many cases.

In 2008 in the sea port city of Mariupol an ocean exhibit went awry when a crocodile escaped his handlers and headed out to sea. It took 3 months to capture the elusive crocodile, during which time local authorities posted signs but allowed beaches to remain open. The crocodile, named Godzik, apparently died from injuries sustained while being captured and today a small bronze statue of the crocodile stands in front of a local cafe bearing the inscription: "To Godzik of Mariupol."

Then in 2009 local fishermen in Odessa discovered two crocodile in a pond near Odessa's Lukoil oil refinery plant. Odessa Emergency Situation Department divers confirmed that two crocodiles, one at 3 metres and the other about half that size, had been released in the pond. Although crocs are not native to this part of the world, they can adapt and live in just about any kind of water.

In January of 2011 a tourist at the Zoo in Dnipropetrovsk dropped her cell phone into a tank while attempting to take a photo of a crocodile. The Croc, named Gena, ate the phone. Zoo officials didn't believe the young tourist at first until the phone started ringing in the reptiles stomach. Zoo officials injected Gena with laxatives but that didn't work.

Meanwhile the tourist, a young lady in her 20's by the name of Rimma Golovko, was demanding the return of Sim card as it contained her photographs and contacts. To make matters worse, when it became clear that surgery would be necessary to save both the crocodile and the phone, zoo veterinarians admitted that they didn't know how to treat such non-native animals at their zoo.

In December 2010 a crocodile aquarium opened in Yalta, Ukraine. Usually we associate Yalta with those stunning mountains which plunge into the Black Sea, the out-of -place yet beautiful Swallow's Nest, and of course who could forget the Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" powers; the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom was held at Yalta's Livadia Palace, the former Romanov vacation home, where leaders met to divide up Eastern Europe between the victors of World War II.




Current admission prices: 50 UAH adults and 30 UAH children. (photo: Anna Panchenko)

This time however Yalta gained a крокодиляриум (Crockodilyarium). Possible translation: another zoo where vets may or may not know how to treat such large animals. The facility was built to fit numerous sea creatures from sea turtles to crocodiles and 77 baby Nile crocodiles, almost one for every thousand citizens according to the 2012 Ukrainian census, were imported and are housed inside the facility.

If it makes you feel any safer, the "Krokodilyarium" is near Yalta's waterfront boardwalk and close, and by that we mean really close, to Yalta's McDonald's--just 50 metres away.







Oh, and if the management at McDonald's thought they had a lock on birthday parties for children, the new Crocodile aquarium has gone after the kid birthday party market with offers of all sorts of cool prizes, including new Olympus cameras!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJI5rT8jCJA]


Not to be outdone by Yalta, Sevastopol officials announced in May 2012 that a crocodile farm was ready to open. The Sevastopol crocodile farm is commercial of course, open to the public.

Just what Ukraine needs, or maybe not.




(Aквариум = Aquarium, in Ukrainian)

[SANDRO43]

Most of the older statues are ... from the Soviet period

Apropos of Soviet crocs:

Крокодил was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922, and named after Fyodor Dostoyevsky's satirical short story, The Crocodile...After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the magazine was discontinued. It was reinstated in 2005 in Russia, issued monthly, headquartered in Moscow, and with editor-in-chief Sergei Mostovshchikov. The reinstated version is deliberately printed on old Soviet-style paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krokodil

[ghost of moon goddess]

Apropos of Soviet "Крокодил" magazine 

It was hugely influential, offering satire on many aspects of life.

What Sandro has posted up-thread is the magazine's traditional section to condemn a US "Capitalist" benefiting unfairly from the hard work of a low-wage Worker who was (for undisclosed reasons) named John Bull.

Capitalist: "You've been complaining that you can't afford to eat enough, whereas you, dear John Bull, keep gaining weight".

Wonder how would Крокодил's cartoonists depict what today is sometimes regarded as the modern face of poverty in the USA ---- obesity among low-income people 

[BBC]

Wonder how would Крокодил's cartoonists depict what today is sometimes regarded as the modern face of poverty in the USA ---- obesity among low-income people 

It could look like this  :

[SANDRO43]

a US "Capitalist" benefiting unfairly from the hard work of a low-wage Worker who was (for undisclosed reasons) named John Bull. Capitalist: "You've been complaining that you can't afford to eat enough, whereas you, dear John Bull, keep gaining weight".

John Bull is a national personification of Britain in general and England in particular...John Bull originated from Dr John Arbuthnot in 1712, and was popularised first by British print makers. Arbuthnot created Bull in his pamphlet Law is a Bottomless Pit (1712).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull

The faintly discernible date on that Крокодил cartoon is 1952. What many do not know is that WWII food-rationing in the UK only ended in 1954 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_3818000/3818563.stm) after 14 long years of deprivations, due to Nazi U-boats sinking most of the British merchant fleet that carried also food to the beleaguered island.

A shopkeeper cancels the coupons
in a British housewife's ration book

The after-effects were still noticeable in 1961 when I first visited London for a fortnight and suffered pangs of hunger for lack of decent meals there .

[BBC]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull

The faintly discernible date on that Крокодил cartoon is 1952. What many do not know is that WWII food-rationing in the UK only ended in 1954 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_3818000/3818563.stm) after 14 long years of deprivations, due to Nazi U-boats sinking most of the British merchant fleet that carried also food to the beleaguered island.

The after-effects were still noticeable in 1961 when I first visited London for a fortnight and suffered pangs of hunger for lack of decent meals there .

I had no idea it was so long after the WW2 in the capitalistic world  .

I remember coupons for meat, sausage (normally it was bologna sausage), butter, soap. Availability of coupons did not guarantee that the products would  be obtained - there were special days when they were sold (we never knew what days and what time of the day), and long awaiting in the gray sulky lines in the stores not always was successful. There were also special coupons for shops for WW2 veterans and for troops served in Afganistan. The lines in those "ex-military" shops were significantly shorter and the range of goods bigger.

Funny story - we had an overweight boy in the class (rather rare case in Soviet times), he was lazy and often missed lessons. His mother was a seller in the grocery store.  After being absent in the school for a long time he materialized one morning and brought the written notice from his mum with explanations why he was absent. The teacher of Russian took his notice and automatically started to correct mistakes with the red pen. From what I could see every line was corrected at least 5 times. When the teacher realized what she was doing, she quickly turned the paper face down. The boy was rehabilitated.
Well, sellers were "respected" people in Soviet times, they were like local kings and others felt very dependent on them. They sold "shortage" goods at their own benefit, bartered them for other goods they needed, and from the way themselves and their kids were dressed I believe they had virtually everything in materialistic terms. Probably, they formed one of the bases for corruption roots in FSU.