Posts tagged w/ Soviet Union

Word of the Week: «Время» [Time]

Posted by Josefina
Sep
4
2009

Sometimes Russian Blog’s Word of the Week is solely grammatically interesting, sometimes purely culturally or historically fascinating. Seldom can our Russian word of the week be both. But this week’s word is actually both! The Russian word «время» [time] is grammatically interesting because it is a neuter noun despite ending on «я» [ya] (which is usually the marker for feminine nouns) and has a highly intriguing declension in the six cases (just wait for it!) that might confuse you the first time but is well worth learning by heart. The Russian concept «время» [time] is culturally and historically fascinating since Russia is an enormous country with a total of eleven time zones. And that’s even though the entire «европейская часть России» [European part of Russia (that's all of Russia in front of the Ural Mountains)] has one and the same time - colloquially as well as officially known as «московское время» [Moscow time]. Historically the time in Moscow has been more important than the time in the rest of the ten Russian time zones; for example, all train times are according to «московское время». Though on your train tickets you’ll see that this is written as «время московское» [the change would make it correct to translate as ‘the time is Moscow time']. On plane tickets, however, the time marked for take-off and landing is always «время местное» [local time]. In Russia one often meets Moscow time on TV (news are often broadcast according to the capital), and also on the radio - yet after a while you will have learned to ignore it and apprehend that the popular provincial saying from the Soviet times: «Что Москва? Москва далеко» [What about Moscow? Moscow's far away], is very true indeed.

If you don’t live in Moscow and listen to the radio «в провинции» [in the province] you might hear the following: «Сейчас два часа дня по Москве». Probably you understand the part about ‘now it is two o’clock [p.m.]‘ but what does «по Москве» mean? Clearly not “on Moscow”. It is actually short for «по московскому времени» [according to Moscow time].

When talking about «время» [time] in Russian language and culture we could also bring up the Russian approach to time. What makes the Russian approach different from our own (now I mean to compare mostly with European or Western approach to time, since that’s closest to home for me)? Is it simply prejudice to say that «русские всегда опаздывают» [Russians are always late] or is there some truth to it? Speaking from my own personal experience I have to admit that it’s more than just a little bit true; even though one should always keep in mind that «все русские разные» [all Russians are different]. During five years in Russia I’ve learned that it is best to tell Russians to be somewhere at 11.30, for example, if you want to be sure that they’ll have arrived in time for 12.00. I don’t know why a majority of Russians can never be on time - is it because their lives are so full of stress? That they have too much to do? Or is it due to those «бесконечные пробки на улицах» [endless trafficjams on the streets] which we cannot even imagine before we’ve seen them (not to speak of getting stuck in one of them!)? When I discussed this with one of my professors in Yekaterinburg she said that before, «в советские времена» [in Soviet times], people weren’t at all late as often as they are now. She said it’s mostly «молодёжь» [young people; youth] that is never on time in Russia today. I couldn’t argue with her, obviously, since I’ve never lived in the Soviet Union due to being born in the beginning of «перестройка» ['perestroika' - or, more correctly translated as reconstruction; conversion; realignment; alteration]. That’s why I don’t know what kind of approach the average «гражданин Советского союза» [citizen of the Soviet Union] had. Maybe someone of you readers know more about this? Maybe someone has seen ‘time’ in both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation?

Okay, enough with the cultural ponderings - let’s decline this noun!

A good way of showing what happens to «время» [time] in the six cases depending on whether it’s SINGULAR or PLURAL («времена» [times] - did you see how the stress just jumped from being on the first vowel in singular to the last in plural? Now that’s confusing to me!) is to give twelve sentences in which this word is portrayed in all of its twelve forms. Okay? Let’s do it then!

«ЕДИНСТВЕННОЕ ЧИСЛО» [SINGULAR]:

Nominative: «Время - деньги» - [Time is money].

Genitive: «У меня нет времени» - [I don't have the time].

Dative: «Поезд придёт в Иркутск в пять часов утра по местному времени» - [The train arrives in Irkutsk at five in the morning according to local time].

Accusative: «Какое время года ты любишь?» - [What time of the year do you love?]

Locative: «Он не ориентируется во времени и пространстве» - [He doesn't orientate himself in time and space].

Instrumental: «Со временем ты меня поймёшь» - [With time you'll understand me].

«МНОЖЕСТВЕННОЕ ЧИСЛО» [PLURAL]:

Nominative: «Что за новые времена!» - [What kind of new times are these!]

Genitive: «Кто сейчас помнит нравы старых времён?» - [Who remembers the manners of old times now?]

Dative: «А ты скучаешь по старым временам?» - [(But) do you miss the old times?]

Accusative: «Я-то стараюсь забыть старые времена!» - [I for one try to forget the old times!]

Locative: «Не будем говорить о старых временах тогда» - [Let's not talk about the old times then].

Instrumental: «Всё изменится с новыми временами» - [Everything will change with the new times].

I hope that you found these twelve sentences to be helpful and that you’ll be able to forgive me for only using the word combinations «новые времена» [new times] and «старые времена» [old times] in plural. Suddenly, while writing this post, I came to suffer from instant brain freeze and couldn’t come up with any other combinations in which you use the word ‘time’ in plural in Russian. If anyone else out there has a clue, please leave it in a comment! I love to read your comments; they help me make this blog better. And I really want this blog to be the best - the best for learning Russian and keeping one’s affectionate feelings for Russian culture in the best of shapes.

 
Posted under Culture, Soviet Union, Traditions, language
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«Пилорама 2009» [Pilorama 2009]

Posted by Josefina
Jul
26
2009

Only on the way back from «Международный форум Пилорама» [The International Forum Pilorama] held in the village «Кучино» [Kuchino] outside and on the territory of formerly GULAG camp, presently museum of political repressions «Пермь-36» [Perm'-36], did I see a real-life (as apart from online) advertisement for it. Inside a bus stop in «Чусовой» [Chusovoy], which is the nearest town…

It’s been over a week since the last post here on the Russian blog, something for which I am very sorry and I hope that you can forgive me for not making it all the way to a computer - or, more correctly, to a computer with internet - during the entire previous week. The first half of it was spent visiting a close friend and her family in the city of «Курган» [Kurgan] which is located in the only part of the world that bears the name of «Зауралье» [a word that could be translated as ‘behind the Urals']. I had only just barely got on the bus back to Yekaterinburg on Thursday - traveling by bus in Russia can only be recommended to the truly brave and it is not even close to as romantic as riding the train in Russia - when a friend of mine called and asked if I would want to go with him to a festival called «Пилорама» ["Pilorama"] that would take place during the weekend on the premises of the famous GULAG museum «Пермь-36» ["Perm-36"]. My friend, who is also a foreigner in Russia just like me, doesn’t speak Russian, had never visited the museum before and told me that he would not go without me. It was the second time I heard about this festival. The first time I heard about it had been only a week before; on Thursday when I was walking in the footsteps of Shalamov in «Соликамск» [Solikamsk]. There I had - surprisingly enough - managed to run into the former director of the town’s regional museum and as she had given me a tour of everything there is to see in Solikamsk, she told me about the annual event “Pilorama” at everyone’s favorite museum of political repressions. I pondered going there on my own, but decided against it as I do not own a tent and going there would involve tenting. In retrospect I’m very glad that I didn’t go there on my own, as on my own I would have taken the bus there and probably not succeeded in getting a seat on one since there were many thousands of visitors to this event. And more than a few of them came on buses that kept pouring in during both the first and the second day. I was surprised to see so many people there, since I had paid more attention to the whole GULAG themed part of this civic forum, and managed to not notice what many others - especially «молодёжь» [youth; young people] - came there for in the first place: «концерты!» [concerts!].

Here is some art painted on one of the walls inside the former camp’s territory. The prisoner is writing the word «протест» [protest] while on the back of the fly it says «статья 58 (пятьдесят восьмая):10» [Article 58:10]. This infamous article cost many millions of people their lives during Stalin’s rule. The number 10 of this article in the USSR’s «уголовный кодекс» [penal code] stood for ‘Anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation’. Also written are the ironic phrases «истребительно-трудовые (лагеря)» [destructive-work (camps)] and «пятилетку за три года» [the five year plan in three years].

 

A view of the «палаточное поле» [field for tenting] as the sun sets only close to midnight this far north in the Urals… And more and more people gather to listen to the concerts of several different Russian bands playing in the open air until midnight… (This picture was not taken by me, but by Matthias Tödt. Just so you know - I’m only borrowing it because he takes better pictures than my camera does).

 

Both I and my German friend were very surprised to find that this building - which during the festival served as «гостиница» [hotel] for the VIP-guests - is currently used as a neurological clinic… Is this really the right kind of condition for a building to be used for medical purposes? Or am I just being overly sensitive again?

I fully understand if some faithful readers of this blog are thinking: «Хватит ГУЛАГа уже!» ["Enough with the GULAG already!"] right now, and I promise you that this is the last post I’ll be writing on this subject for a while (even though I personally think this is a highly important subject which deserves to be observed often and written about a lot and talked about everywhere and discussed even more than this). One of the things that surprised me most about this international forum, or civic festival - call it as you may - was how diverse in age the visitors there were. Teenagers mixed with old people and whole families with not just their kids but also their dogs were seen everywhere and it made the place look like a true scene of traditional Russian «народное гульяние» [people's outdoor party; festival; celebration], usually something that happens in this country on dates like «9 мая» [9th of May], «12 июня» [12th of June] or «день города» [‘The City's Day' - every Russian town, both tiny and huge, have their own ‘day', more often than not it falls on a date during the short but intense Russian summer]. I had never before seen it happen on a field outside a former GULAG camp located in a place that closely resembles ‘the middle of nowhere’. It was a very impressive view. What was also impressive was Pilorama’s large program - not only were there several different concerts by Russian groups, but also many movies, many discussion groups, quite a few theatrical plays shown on stage and exhibitions in the barracks. During Pilorama excursions of the camp was for free; though an excursion is not that expensive if you are unable to visit the museum during the last weekend in July. One could also buy many rare books in Russian on GULAG camps. One exhibition was about German concentration camps, another about Russian writers who spent time in the Soviet concentration camp system (yes, Shalamov was presented among them). All in all, the organization of this event could not have been better. Only one thing could’ve been improved - the weather… it rained from time to time both during the first and the second day. Due to the rain I didn’t stay for the last, third, day, but what I managed to see I was very pleased with.

Of course, I understand that many of the young people that went there did so because they wanted to spend time with their friends - camping, drinking beer and listening to free rock concerts. But that is as a matter of fact the right approach if you want to raise awereness about this kind of things among young people in Russia today. Maybe while drinking beer and listening to their favorite band these kids will take a moment or two to think about this country’s past. And maybe go on an excursion. And maybe listen to one of the political discussions. And maybe think some more. And - who knows? - maybe that’s where «гражданское чувство России» [Russia's civic feeling] begins?

 
Posted under Culture, History, Literature, News, Soviet Union, The Russian Emotion, Traditions
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Russian Cases: «Дательный падеж» [Dative]

Posted by Josefina
Jun
21
2009

And where might one find this bold statement made out of red metal on red wood pictured above? I found it in an old and forgotten «дом культуры» ['house of culture'] in Krasnoyarsk in July 2005. What does it say, anyway? «Мир народам, власть советам» ["Peace to the peoples, power to the soviets"] written in old school Russian with the «ъ» [hard sign] at the end of masculine words which was what they did before another important Russian revolution of 1917 - the Orthography Revolution.

The Soviet kitsch on the picture above isn’t solely opening today’s post because it is worth sharing with the world, but because it contains two whole constructions with the dative case, and that is - incidentally - what we’re going to discuss today: «дательный падеж» [dative case]. In this case the question «Что?» [‘what?'] becomes «Чему?» [‘what?'] and «Кто?» [‘who?'] turns into «Кому?» [‘who/whom?']. Masculine nouns that end on a consonant get an «у» added on to the end of the word, which means that the male professions «врач» [doctor] and «шахтёр» [miner] become «врачу» (note how the stress in this word falls on the last vowel!) and «шахтёру» in dative case. Masculine nouns that end on the soft sign - «ь» - receive the same kind of ending, but a soft one in the form of the letter «ю». Thus «водитель» [driver] turns into «водителю» and «учитель» [teacher] to «учителю». Female nouns that end on an «а» change that letter into a «е»; for example «учительница» [teacher] becomes «учительнице» and «продавшица» [saleslady; salesgirl] turns into «продавшице». Female nouns that end on «ь» [soft sign] on the end - mostly this is abstract words like «возможность» [possibility; opportunity] and «жидкость» [fluid; liquid] - receive their ‘dative case change’ in the form of the letter «и». Thus in dative the two words above will look like this: «возможности» and «жидкости». And how about «средний род» [neuter]? Even though neuter will pretend to be its own grammatical unit, it is only really so in the first nominative case, because that’s when you can see that the neuter words have an «о», like the word «озеро» [lake], or a «е», like in «знание» [knowledge], at the end of them - which is, as we all know, the first sign of a word being neuter. But when you start changing these words in different cases you’ll soon come to find out that most of them behave just as if had they been masculine! Both of the words receive letters at the end according to the same rule that goes for masculine nouns. Thus «озеро» becomes «озеру» (because «о» is considered a hard vowel) and «знание» turns into «знанию» (since «е» is a hard vowel).

Clearly, we should discuss the ’sexes’ of Russian nouns more. I’ll make a note of it and promise to return to it. But for today, let’s go ahead and go through some of the basics concerning the case of the day - dative!

This is a Russian/Soviet classic: «Миру мир» ['Peace to the world']. The Russian word «мир» means both peace and world and that’s why you can write tricky sentences like this one. But that’s not why scholars are still discussing what Tolstoy actually meant with the title of his little fictional work «Война и мир» ["War & Peace"], but because the old Russian word «мiр» used to mean ‘society’ way back when…

The dative case is, as is the general rules with Russian’s six cases, closely linked with a couple of verbs that always demand to be followed by it. For example:

«звонить/позвонить» - [to call]

«Позвони мне!» - [call me!]

«Я звонил другу весь день, но тот трубку не берёт» - [I've been calling my freind all day, but he isn't answering; lit.: ‘but he doesn't pick up the reciever].

Dative is mostly famous for being the case used in IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS. Yes, we have reached the very core of the mysterious Russian language! Let’s have a look at a few ways to express an ‘impersonal construction’ using the dative case.

«Вам не холодно?» - [Aren't you cold?]

«Не стыдно вам!» - [Aren't you ashamed of yourselves!]

«Им не кажется, что этот ресторан - дорогой» [It doesn't seem to them that this restaurant is expensive].

«Тебе это не нужно» - [You don't need this].

«Ему хочется спать/есть/пить» - [He is tired/hungry/thirsty].

«Нам пора пойти домой» - [It is time for us to go home].

«Ей придётся пересдать на водительские права» - [She'll have to retake the driver's license test].

«Как это ему удалось, не знаю!» - [I don't know how he succeeded with this!]

«Брату нездоровится» - [My brother is feeling ill].

«Сестре надоело ждать меня» - [My sister got tired of waiting for me].

«Петру, наверное, скучно одному на даче» - [Pyotr is probably bored alone in the summer house].

«Матери некогда» - [Mother has no time].

«Мне лень готовить и прибираться» - [I'm too lazy to cook and clean].

The dative case is also used in constructions with numbers expressing AGE:

«Сколько тебе лет?» - [How old are you?]

«Мне 32 (тридцать два) года» - [I'm thirty-two years old].

«Бабушке Маше недавно исполнилось 88 (восемьдесят восемь) лет» - [Granny Masha recently turned 88].

«Петру будет 12 (двенадцать) зимой» - [Pyotr will turn twelve in the winter].

«Моему городу почти 500 (пятьсот) лет» - [My town is almost five hundred years old].

This is, of course, not everything there is to know about the dative case in Russian language, it’s more of a ‘brief introduction’ but I hope that you got the general idea. Dative expresses the indirect object, or an impersonal object in Russian language, and is highly important, because with it one must express almost all Russian emotions! By the way, my finals are over for this year, I got straight A’s and am now officially halfway to a master’s in Russian literature! And what does that mean? That I’ll have more time to blog, of course!

 
Posted under History, language
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