Russian Blog

After you’ve spent more than two weeks in Russia and made friends with at least a handful of Russians you will, without a doubt, ask yourself: “Is it just me or does this country only have ten given names all in all?” Though it may seem as if everyone you meet is either a Masha or a Dasha or a Misha or a Vova, it would be harshly unfair to claim that Russians only have ten names to go around, five for women and five for men. Believe it or not, but that is as a matter of fact not the case. Recently I received a wonderful gift from the students in my Swedish class at Ural State University in Yekaterinburg, Словарь русских личных имён [Dictionary of Russian personal names] by А. В. Суперанская, which boasts on its front page to contain «более 7500 русских имён» [“more than 7500 Russian names”]. My first reaction at this was, of course, to raise my eyebrows in surprise – if they have so many names then why do I have over ten women called Irina in my phone and almost as many men with the name Aleksey? Russian parents aren’t known for being very eager to experiment and choose an infrequent or peculiar name for their newborn child but prefer something usual, traditional and as common as bread with soup. Keeping kids apart in a class with five boys named Boris can easily be done with a little help from their отчества [father names]. In Russia a person is officially called both by first name and father name, but in private the first name is rarely ever used in its full form. Instead every name has a short form and that is the name most commonly used, and what some people might see as their “real” name. The use of first names in their full form has become more and more common during the last ten years since Russia, despite its deep dedication to xenophobia, has failed to withstand influence from the West.

In some countries you get one day off in January – the first. In other countries you might also get the second day off as a part of the public holiday known as New Year. In Russia – not so much. As a matter of fact – even more! The first seven days of 2008 are days off for everyone (but in 2006 it was even better – a whole ten days – what a glorious year that was…), and, as always when it comes to Russia, opinions on why this is so differ greatly. Some say that the delegates of the Duma in Moscow decided to do something kind for the people; others say that the same delegates of the Duma in Moscow decided to make an extra holiday for themselves. They have the money to get on a plane, fly out of the freezing country and travel to Egypt or Turkey. There they lie in the sun or go swimming in the Mediterranean while the greater part of the population is left at home to roll their thumbs while finishing off the salads and booze left over after New Years Eve. A third part declares that this is because Christmas in Russia, celebrated in the Orthodox Church which still counts the year by the calendar used before the Revolution of 1917, falls on the 6^th of January, leaving only four working days between the two big holidays. Why not let the two celebrations embrace each other and allow for families to spend more time together, enjoying this season’s pleasures?

Even though I don’t think anyone with even the slightest interest in Russia can possibly have missed this amazing blog, I still felt like I have an obligation to tell the world about it. Every time I take yet another picture out and about in the Great Russia, capturing her peculiar splendor and her eccentric yet fascinating surroundings, I always ask myself this question: “Will this become the picture that will finally give me something good enough to be posted on www.englishrussia.com?”

As of yet, despite numerous tries (I even did a witty series of shots from our ‘foreigners’ dorm in the Urals’ and sent it in with no success last spring, as the snow was thawing and making our whole existence into a flood of mud water), I have not had anything published on that remarkable outlet for all us Russophiles. Instead I choose to share a little something here that I think must be ‘englishrussia-worthy’ – a picture that was taken in the outskirts of Omsk, Siberia in May 2006. It portrays a rather innovative spin on the good ol’ pioneer-theme, with Lenin wearing a basketball cap. I don’t know if the campaign was successful, but I sure hope it was, since it had such a catchy slogan (though I’m sure I’ve heard it somewhere before…) – всегда готов [always ready]!