Life in a New Russia: St. Petersburg

Lauran Faes: Maya this is amazing! I am so glad ...

2009-10-01T23:53:20.741-04:00

Lauran Faes:

Maya this is amazing! I am so glad you made this blog <3

well thanks for reading!

2009-09-14T16:29:15.017-04:00

well thanks for reading!

as usual. What an interesting perspective, especi...

2009-09-14T10:47:53.568-04:00

as usual. What an interesting perspective, especially since, when I think of Russians in Paris, I think of the time of Peter the Great. I'm so delighted to know someone who shares with me her unique POV.

merci!

2009-08-13T05:59:03.550-04:00

merci!

Tres interessant!

2009-08-11T01:23:19.695-04:00

Tres interessant!

Your observation is very interesting, especially s...

2009-07-05T14:32:13.913-04:00

Your observation is very interesting, especially since my family isn't actually very close knit at all. It may seem that way because of all these stories, but this trip and we took was a unique event.

Nevertheless, the point you made about people defining themselves by a shared collective tradition is, I think, very true. Out here in the West, one defines oneself through individuality. This is becoming more and more the norm in Russia as well. However, in a sense we are still no one without our history and traditions, especially when you talk to the older folks.

I realized that a map would have been very helpful...

2009-07-01T21:41:33.750-04:00

I realized that a map would have been very helpful, so I've put one up.

Yes, the trials of the 20th century have been roug...

2009-06-29T18:42:52.747-04:00

Yes, the trials of the 20th century have been rough, and the memory of the war and all the horrors of the soviet period lingers very prominently in the collective conscience. Some people feel patriotic and others are ashamed, but generally no one forgets. So maybe the cheerful and optimistic spirit among the people living there today is derived from the fact that there have been much more terrible things in the recent past than a bending of "democratic rules" by the current administration. People are constantly amazed and grateful for the easy availability of products and services in Russia today; this is the stuff we take for granted in the West. As my grandmother says, "we have survived hunger, war, the post-war desolation, and much more, so we'll surely survive through this period of plenitude."

That's definitely what I'm aiming for! So I'm very...

2009-06-23T16:03:58.032-04:00

That's definitely what I'm aiming for! So I'm very happy that the effect is as I've intended!

I had the experience several times of traveling fr...

2009-06-22T20:26:54.105-04:00

I had the experience several times of traveling from Kiev to Kharkiv, and from Kiev to Lugansk (near Donetsk ) and the train was fine! As Maya says, the tea and food tasted wonderful; I am sure it was more fresh from a days-from-farm-to-table perspective than United States produce, most of which comes across the country and takes at least a week. Fortunately my compartment windows were fine; I got good Russian practice from my compartment-mates, and everything was on time, so I made my Borispol flight out on the way back. Traveling on the train is not as nostalgic here in America ; everyone is griping about being 1 minute late, because business yuppies over-schedule their days and then blame the services for not coming through. Give me a European compartment anytime!

That's definitely something that happens in Russia...

2009-06-18T18:09:47.369-04:00

That's definitely something that happens in Russia, at least these days. Older people still hold doors, but on average you're very likely, if you're not on your guard, to let the door hit you or push you away from the door of a packed trolley. Pushiness has become a basic survival skill in Saint Petersburg!

Haha! Thanks! She is very well well read and also ...

2009-06-18T18:04:05.205-04:00

Haha! Thanks! She is very well well read and also pretty opinionated. Glad you're reading!

Yeah! It's baffling! I guess people don't get a b...

2009-06-17T10:54:22.583-04:00

Yeah! It's baffling! I guess people don't get a bank when they open up their cash registers so they can only make change with whatever they earned.

That's so crazy! Like not being able to get an 80 ...

2009-06-17T10:02:42.816-04:00

That's so crazy! Like not being able to get an 80 cent candy bar because you have a $10 bill. I can't imagine it!

Ha! It's really funny. I am very surprised, thou...

2009-03-08T04:52:54.171-04:00

Ha! It's really funny. I am very surprised, though, that even if there was no native Russian speaker in the State department, it wasn't checked by a native speaker at all. They could have contracted someone outside the department to come up with a better translation. It's more than embarrassing, it further reinforces the stereotype that many Russians hold, that all Americans are idiots.

I'm not a native speaker, but I think that if the State department was paying me to do the research, even I could have come up with a better translation.

But you know, I think this doesn't just happen with Russian. I was reading the other day, I can't remember where, but the State department only teaches its translators Modern Standard Arabic. Which is no one speaks natively. People speak dialects, Iraqi Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, etc., but the State department lumps them all into one. No matter that the translators, who are being payed to translate, can't do their job with the training the government has decided is correct.

About Russian, and kind of related, I read in one of my books about мат the story of a Russian-American girl who was taking a course in мат at her university. Her dad thought it was preposterous, but the guy explained that learning such things--bad words, slang-- is really important for really learning a language. If I can find the story, I'll post it, it's not that long. :-)

Oooh, I love it. Very cool! Glad to see you're b...

2009-02-07T06:46:25.524-05:00

Oooh, I love it. Very cool! Glad to see you're back as well!

Rozmin

Hi RichardWordle is a website that lets you create...

2009-02-04T17:18:40.295-05:00

Hi Richard
Wordle is a website that lets you create word association clouds, like the one above. You'll see it if you click on the link. You can enter your own text to create a cloud, or you could put in a website URL, and it will make one for you based on the frequency of various words on the site!

Maya

Hi Maya! What is a Wordle?Bye, Richard

2009-02-04T16:54:09.088-05:00

Hi Maya! What is a Wordle?

Bye, Richard

Wow, thank you so much for sharing your story! It...

2009-01-06T00:43:22.367-05:00

Wow, thank you so much for sharing your story! It's really an incredible journey your family has come through, and I'm happy to hear that you have preserved the language of your forefathers! It's interesting to note that today, there are so many younger immigrants, people who were born in Russia but came to the States or Canada when they were kids, who don't speak Russian at all anymore! In many families, the language is not preserved. However, I've heard interviews with and met people in western Europe, whose great grand parents immigrated after the Revolution, and who are second or third-generation french citizens for example, who speak Russian perfectly. It's always wonderful to hear!

It was interesting reading your story about yours ...

2008-12-31T11:33:35.583-05:00

It was interesting reading your story about yours and your compatriots feelings about life here in North America and back in Russia. As for myself, my roots are Russian though I was not born there. My family interacted daily with Czar Nicholas prior to the Revolution of 1917. My grandfather, who I never met, was imprisoned and sent to Solovki where he spent eight long hard years. The rest of the family sold their worldly possessions and bought,bribed their was out of Russia eventually settling in Yugoslavia. This was prior to World War II. After WWII, Marshall Tito kicked out most of the Russians out of Yugoslavia for fear they might start a revolution of sorts there. The city of Trieste was on the border with Italy and many of the Russians were sent there to live in refugee camps. That is where I was born. Trieste became a processing centre for refugees from eastern Europe. The quota for Canada and the US was filled so the only places willing to take us in were Paraguay and Sweden. My parents chose the latter. We lived in Sweden for 9 years. I found the Swedes to be very prejudiced. Maybe it was due to Peter the Great demolishing Karl the XIIs armies at Poltava - a historical reminder but nevertheless I always sensed it expecially from the adults. Life was hard but we persevered. It was similar when we emigrated to Canada. The Anglophones would look down on us and act superior in all aspects. I fought almost everyday until the Anglophone kids eventually stopped picking on me because I was an immigrant. They used to call me all kinds of names like Honky and Pollock. As I stated earlier, eventually it all subsided. We never changed our last name but we did Anglosize our first names to make it easier for teachers and school. Mihail Mihailovich became simply Michael or Mike. Even today I like using Michael Michael as my first name when filling out government forms. We never backed down from a challenge in life beit dealing with establishment or obtaining a job. I look around and see new Canadians of Russian background and canèt really identify with them. To me, they are from the post Soviet Union era. Many of them, if not most, were fed lies in schools. I grew up speaking Pushkins Russian and not this harsh Soviet Union Russian language. When I do have interaction with them, they always compliment me on my way of speaking. For the most part, most chose to toss the Russian aside and work on their English speaking skills.

Rozmin, thanks so much for your feedback! I defin...

2008-11-08T15:15:30.546-05:00

Rozmin, thanks so much for your feedback! I definitely think that immigrants from all countries share this common story and grapple with the same difficulties, especially when they love in predominantly American communities. I think it may be a little easier on those living in large cosmopolitan ares in cities like New York or LA. When I visit Russian communities in those places, I definitely feel a sense of cultural safety.

Anyhoo, I'm glad you can relate!

Maya

Zdrastvuyte, Maya! I think that your article is d...

2008-11-07T23:21:34.058-05:00

Zdrastvuyte, Maya! I think that your article is definitely worthy of publication, and certainly it's coherent. I'd like to point out though, that I think that many immigrant/first generation communities feel the same way as the members of the Russian community in the States. I'm first gen. American, my father is from India, and I think it's part of why I can get along so well with my Ukrainian boyfriend; I understand him, his friends and family in a way than many other girls in America can't. That feeling that others back home think you've "sold out" is there with other groups too. I recently went to India with my father, and you could tell that most of his countrymen no longer considered him Indian. They were surprised he could even speak the language, thinking that Indians who come to the States totally abandon their culture. Probably a lot of those left home think that, no matter what the country. Anyway, I'm glad I found your blog, and look forward to reading more.

As for the russian government, the Russian establi...

2008-08-23T12:08:09.716-04:00

As for the russian government, the Russian establishment is absolutely arrogant and doesn't value fellow citizen's life a dime, i am sorry to say. That has always been the case there, and, even despite i haven't been there for ages now, i am pretty sure it is still the case. It is firmly part of the society. It also shows in the foreign policy mistakes they make -- they absolutely miss the concept of stick and carrot. Namely, they forget about carrot; or, rather, they never knew about it. The neighbors know that very very well, and hence quick to unveil the criticism. Much due to that, any sort of military operation they make will unfortunately be bound to be ridden with all sorts of transgressions, regardless whether this operation is justified or not. Simply becuase of that, i wouldn't want russian forces pretty much in any status anywhere other than the russian soil.
For the same reason they had a pretty bad pr fiasco in Ukraine (forgot about carrots, again)..They are just not capable of good diplomacy, it seems, even though that a good diplomacy seems to mean a good hypocrisy to the rest of the world. I mean, whenever their causes may have good grounds, they spoil it by a sloppy diplomacy.

As for the initial attack... for what little i managed to gather from various media, it is my understanding that the georgian side started shelling civilian quarters with GRAD rocket launchers, a battery of which has about the same aiming promiscuousness as a nuclear strike (and they did it in violation of cease fire, and the timing is certainly poignant, too). Russian side can claim pretty much any number in casualties now, they may as well pull it out of the air, but if these basic facts are true, then does it really matter what the number is; and whatever number they come up with, it probably won't be that far off anyway. On the other hand, civilian casualties on the georgian side from much more massive offensive of the russian military are however reported within 60-70. And certainly i haven't heard of GRAD being used. So it doesn't look good for Saakashvili, not good at all. In fact, it looks... Nazi-like?

And the third point, about western media. There's no doubt they are biased (or maybe so it seems as they air Bush or Condy a lot). However, what strikes me more is that parties involved are rarely named by the proper names; instead, ethnic & blanket labeling is increasingly used. E.g. russian military is referred to as just 'russians' (that is, all people of russian ethnicity), or statements of western governments are referred to as statements of the "west", i.e. subconsciously a point of view of everyone living to the west of asia. This certainly doesn't help, since more people feel involved and having to take sides; and that puts the nature of conflict into ethnic prospective; it sends a message 'if you are a georgian(westerner), you better be on this side, simply because they (osetians/russians) are fighting all georgians/westerners)'. This message directly attributes to stoking ethnic conflict; that's even worse than just subjective coverage, imo.
In terms of subjectivity, i find russian media even more subjective, but then i don't really have a chance to read any more than just utro.ru (which is, reportedly, quite yellow).

oops, i probably contributed more than i wanted...

This is a very interesting website.The only way to...

2008-08-23T07:27:56.606-04:00

This is a very interesting website.

The only way to solve this money problem would be lower the price and make it the same for everyone who wants to go. But then someone will loose a lot of money.

There are Armenians beaten up in Moscow and Africa...

2008-08-22T00:58:11.055-04:00

There are Armenians beaten up in Moscow and African Americans in Atlanta. These things are wrong.

The media has an opportunity to make them right by educating the public. Unfortunately the media in a free country like the US choses to perpetuate ignorance. I think this is wrong.
What good is a free press that keeps people from a)information b)understanding and c)action?

We can keep saying and thinking that Russia is a shit hole full of cruel, hateful, and misguided people. Just like Harlem, Compton, Pakistan, and Sudan. As long as we keep thinking this and allow others to think the same, powerful people will be able to sell their guns, buy their oil, and get away with just about everything.