Dvoeverie

Posted on April 30, 2014 by akgundud

We spent a fabulous and very breezy weekend in Vladimir and Suzdal, which are medieval cities located not too far from Moscow (it’s about a two a half to three hour train ride). In Vladimir, I fell in love with the St. Demetrius Church (Dmitrievskii sobor). We never got to see the inside of the building, but fortunately what interested me the most was the outside carvings on the white stone walls of the building. Sure, this church seems tiny and insignificant at first glance when compared to the famous nearby Uspenskiy Church, but the carvings made all the difference.

The high white stone walls characteristic of Medieval Russian churches in Vladimir.

Russians were not always Orthodox Christians. Before the Kievan Rus’ adopted Christianity in 988, they practiced Slavic paganism, which derived much of its characteristics from the natural environment of western Russia. Early Russians revered the woods, forests, trees, rivers, woodland creatures such as bears and birds, and they also had their own mythologies. Andrei Bogolyubskii built the church in Vladimir in 1197. He was a great prince, who moved the capital to Vladimir (nearby Moscow was a tiny place back then). Only a little over 200 years had passed since the Kievan Rus’ adopted Orthodox Christianity, and so the carvings on the church indicate the merge between old Slavic paganism and the newly revered Orthodox Christianity (feel free to check out some of the pictures below showing Russian dvoeverie—dual belief). The carvings depict elaborate carvings of griffins, birds, and trees, juxtaposed against the Apostles and King David. Even today, Russians’ love for nature, dachas, trees, the use of wood in art (matryoshkas and spoons) is largely present, and their respect for these things can be traced back centuries.

A close-up of the carvings. You can see all the woodland creatures!

It’s beautiful as the sun sets!

I really loved the carvings. Our professor told us that some believe the carvings might be trying to tell a story, but no one has been successful in deciphering the meaning of the story since so much renovation has been done on the church over the years and the carvings have probably been altered. My hope is that one day, someone can figure out the story because I want to read it.

There were carvings everywhere…

The top of the church with displays different architecture than most churches built in post-Medieval Russia.

Dmitrievskii sobor as we walk nearby…

Close-up with the Apostles…

Rivers of Vladimir and Suzdal

Posted on April 30, 2014 by eisenthall

Lately I’ve been feeling particularly drawn to water for some reason. Maybe it’s the anticipation for the fountains to be turned on come May 1st, or how excited I am to see the canals of St. Petersburg (we are leaving for Piter on a late-night train tonight!). Whatever it is, I felt it strongly while we were in the medieval cities of Vladimir and Suzdal on a trip this last weekend.

The Kamenka River in Suzdal

The two rivers that I found so interesting were the Kamenka (in Suzdal) and the Nerl (in Vladimir). I found out through some google-mapping that the Kamenka actually flows into the Nerl. According to the tour-guide that we had, the waters flow south and into the Volga, which eventually lets out into the Caspian Sea.
My favorite place that we visited in Vladimir was the Church of the Intercession, a tiny structure that sits on the Nerl river surrounded by wide-open fields. We went to see this church early in the morning, and the fields still were covered in dew. The church is made of white stone, and its thick walls extend deep underground in order to keep it from getting washed away by the waters, which are usually much higher than they are this year.

Church of the Intercession on the Nerl

I thought that the reflections of the church and the small trees that surround it were particularly beautiful.

Ryabushinsky Mansion / Gorky House

Posted on April 30, 2014 by eisenthall

One of the cool things about being in a big, old city like Moscow is the way in which neighborhoods are often layered with remnants of different historical eras. At one street intersection you can find the church in which Pushkin married Natalia Goncharova in 1831 (Greater Church of the Ascension) and the Ryabushinsky Mansion, built in 1900 for an influential merchant family and writer Maxim Gorky’s residence from 1931 to his death in 1936. Today the mansion functions as a Gorky museum, but visitors can still see the hidden chapel that was used by the Ryabushinsky family to practice Old Believer Christianity in private.
The Ryabushinsky Mansion is a striking example of style moderne or art nouveau architecture.

the walls that surround the house

Style Moderne favors curving lines and water motifs, as well as images of flowers. This is evident in the exterior of the house, with the curved, wave-like grates of the fence and the floral mosaics that adorn the walls.
Ryabushinsky mosaic

I found the outside of the building to be beautiful, and not that out-of-the-ordinary. And then I went inside, and saw a curving, intricately carved limestone staircase topped with a jelly-fish-like lamp.

This particular room makes you feel like you could be underwater. The rest of the house is similar – with watery stained-glass and unusual details (from above you realize that the lamp is actually a turtle). When I later found out that Ryabushinsky backed modern artist Wassily Kandinsky, I was not surprised.
Caroline Brooke, Moscow: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)

The Tell-Tale Squint: Translating Your Awful Russian for the Average Muscovite

Posted on April 29, 2014 by aldrichc

After our first night here in Moscow, attempting to order the food that I wanted in the столовая (cafeteria) made me realize that Russians simply did not understand me that well. Often during the first few weeks (and even now) I would occasionally ask a Muscovite for something or other only to see the tell-tale squint:

The legendary Diane Nemec Ignashev (our program director and Russian professor back at Carleton) flawlessly demonstrating the “tell-tale squint”.

When I see this, I know the person I’m talking to did not understand what I was saying. Fortunately, we have our phonetics class to rescue us from our awful accents. It turns out, that when speaking with Russians that they tend to use certain intonations combined with emphasis on particular words when they speak in order to convey additional meaning in a sentence. For example, with regards to ИК-3 (the intonation that is most often used with questions) I might take a look at a question like the following:

Is there a concert tomorrow?

The meaning of this sentence is relatively clear, but there are several implied possibilities that would depend on context. In Russian, this is made very explicit with intonation. For example, we could raise the pitch, which signals the emphasis, on the word “concert,” as such:

Is there a concert tomorrow?

This would imply that the asker of the question is interested in knowing if there is a concert tomorrow, or perhaps if there is a play going on tomorrow. Alternatively, we could change the emphasis:

Is there a concert tomorrow?

This would imply that the asker is uncertain on when the concert is happening. If someone was answering, they might just let them know it is happening two days from now, if that were the case.
This sort of variation doesn’t happen as much in English (or perhaps I’m more familiar with it), so it has been quite the effort to adapt to this mechanism in the Russian language. The examples I have shown you here are some of the more simple ones. Various intonations are used for everything from simply placing emphasis to expressing formality and sarcasm. I suspect I’m improving though, based on the amount of squints I’ve been getting lately.

The Walls of Kitai-gorod

Posted on April 29, 2014 by browninj

The shape of modern day Moscow has largely been determined by that which is no longer there. From the first wooden fortress built by Yuri Dolguruky on Borovitsky hill at the confluence of the Neglinnaya and Moscow rivers, the city has crawled outward in an ever expanding circle that was once punctuated at various points by defensive walls. Aside from the walls of the Kremlin most of these walls are now gone, but they have left their mark in the form of wide ring boulevards and the concentric growth patterns of the city.

Part of the Kitai-gorod wall along the Kitaigorodskii proezd. The wall was designed by the Italian architect Petrok Maly and was often as thick as it was high.

Kitai-gorod, an area of the city located to the immediate east of Red Square and originally inhabited by those merchants and tradesmen not fortunate enough to reside within the Kremlin, is perhaps the best example of the lasting effect of walls on Moscow’s present form. The Kitai-gorod wall, originally built in the 1530s, survived largely intact until the 1930s when much of this “relic of savage and medieval times” was destroyed to facilitate access to the city center.¹ After all, the idea of a wall is anathema to a modern city struggling with congestion.

The view from the Kitai-gorod metro station along ulitsa Varvarka towards the Kremlin.

But the wall’s 400 year presence is still felt. Kitai-gorod developed into the wonderful collision of architectural styles, narrow streets, and densely constructed buildings dating from the 1500s to the 2000s because of the limited, but desirable space behind the wall. Walking down Ulitsa Varvarka, one of the area’s three main streets, you find a string of five or six churches dating from the 17^th and 18^th centuries along with the Old English Embassy from the 1500s and the 16^th century residence of the Romanov Boyars all leading up to Red Square and the Kremlin. Across the street lies the Gostiny dvor, originally constructed in 1830 following Quarenghi’s designs, but extensively renovated in 1995 so that it now looks like a modern glass and steel structure thinly veiled by neoclassical trappings. Interestingly the wall has slowly been creeping back, old sections and towers have been resurrected and there are now ideas floating about to restore it fully so as to prevent automobile access and to turn Kitai-gorod into a fashionable pedestrian zone.

Qtd. Caroline Brooke, Moscow: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 14.

Red Square: History and Contrast

Posted on April 29, 2014 by moreesandersa

Red Square is full of strange and fascinating contrasts. When I visited, I was struck by the way a single square could combine elements from so many parts of Russian history. Even the name seems to bridge the imperial and soviet eras: deriving from an old Russian word meaning “beautiful,” the square came to be called Krasnaya Ploshchad after St Basil’s cathedral was built on it in the middle of the sixteenth century under the tsar Ivan the Terrible. In modern Russian, “Krasnaya” refers to the color red, which seems appropriate given Russia’s soviet past.

The Lenin mausoleum in front of the Kremlin wall. Photo credit: Wikimedia commons

The architecture also presents some interesting juxtapositions. In the same day, I went into both the Lenin Mausoleum and St Basil’s cathedral. The mausoleum’s stern right angles and somber colors are in stark opposition to the cathedral’s bright domes, winding passageways, and intricately painted geometric and floral patterns, but the amazing thing is that both seem to fit into the architectural ensemble in some way. Styles have certainly changed over the last five hundred years or so, but Red Square is so full of unique architecture that nothing seems out of place.
When I first got through the gates leading onto the square, I almost ran straight into a pro-communism demonstration.

My first view of Red Square

Seeing this group of modern communists demonstrating against the backdrop of a nine-hundred-year-old fortress, two Orthodox churches, a huge secular mausoleum, a museum, and an early twentieth century shopping center was a startling reminder of how many different forces have played a role in shaping modern Russia.

Metro Mishaps

Posted on April 24, 2014 by fernholzg

Music: Игорь Скляр, Комарово
————–
Today was the second consecutive day that train doors have closed on me in the beautiful Moscow metro. In honor of that, here’s a blog dedicated to the little struggles and notable happenings I’ve experienced during my commute.

The metro is impeccably clean and so beautiful.

The metro is impeccably clean and so gorgeous.

This kind of decor and ornamentation is not uncommon in the Moscow metro system.

On our first full day in Moscow, we did the metro tour with Diane. We had just begun the excursion when three young people entered our train car, huddled together next to the doors, and proceeded to take vodka shots. We were stupified – surely, this wasn’t standard Russian behavior! Indeed, it’s totally illegal, and I haven’t seen anything similar since.
…But then again, there was Easter. Svetlana and I were on our way home from church. There were many intoxicated people out on the streets that night, and a few spilled into the metro. In the train car ahead of us, a couple guys were… you might call it wrestling. One guy threw the other across the car onto some seats. The young man recovered and charged at his thrower. They went down, collapsing onto a bench. I think they were laughing and that it wasn’t serious. Their buddies were in the vicinity, but everyone else was huddled together at the far end of the car. I don’t blame them; they could have smashed someone’s delicious kulich (Easter bread)!
You learn the limits of your personal space on the metro. Or rather, you learn that you don’t really have any. On the first morning of commuting from my homestay, I got to experience the joys of rush hour. I was jostled into the middle of the train car, away from any saving handrails to cling to, boxed in by well-dressed Russians. In front of me stood a very tall gentleman. His height and my height were such that the fur hood of his coat tickled my face the entire time, and I couldn’t do anything about it. It did smell good though.

An average afternoon crowd at Biblioteka imeni Lenina.

Everything tends to run smoothly on the metro, but other people can throw off your rhythm. Yesterday, I was following a police officer from Lubyanka station to Kuznetskii Most. As the escalator went down and the platform came into view, I saw my train sitting on the tracks, doors thrown open, waiting… for me! Seconds passed, and there it sat. I set off from the escalator at a brisk pace, following the police officer as he went in the exact direction I was heading. The doors stayed open, it was miraculous. He strode in, confidently pushing his way through the crowd, me right behind him, and then — the doors closed. I mostly took the hit on the shoulder, and they opened again, enough for me to throw my weight into the car and secure a spot.
That doesn’t always work though. This afternoon, a barrage of people poured out of my target wagon. The last one out was a guy carrying at least three full garbage bags of something. I entered, but the doors closed right on me. I yelped and extracted myself onto the platform. The Muscovites around the door just watched, unperturbed, and the train took off. A young woman next to me on the platform smiled and made a comment about the guy with the bags. I worked up the courage to tell her that it was the second time the doors had closed on me. But Russian students will understand my pain regarding this interaction: I said Это второй раз двери закрывались на меня! I probably should have said закрылись. I’m rationalizing my statement by maintaining that since the doors did NOT crush me completely, using imperfective was acceptable. She laughed anyways. You take the good with the bad when it comes to communication. Interestingly, both of these door incidents happened in exactly the same place… perhaps there’s a particular train out to get me.

Kuznetskii Most, where I get on the train home.

In general, people will help you though. Once, it was my stop, and I got up from the bench right before the doors were set to open. My backpack’s strap adjuster loop got caught on a pole right as I crossed the door threshold, and it yanked me straight backwards, mid-step. A whole crowd was pushing past. Thankfully, a nice young man untangled the strap so that I didn’t have to fight my way back in and miss my exit. I said thanks. He smiled. I hope he knew that I really was grateful.

Classes at MGU

Posted on April 24, 2014 by landk

Before coming to Moscow, I worried about a variety of different things. Would I be able to communicate with people? Would I get lost in the city? Would I miss home too much? Strangely, thinking about classwork never really crossed my mind. I envisioned taking some kind of language classes and beyond that I just knew that I would hopefully improve my Russian and all would be well. However, after having taken almost four weeks of classes, I must say that the style of classes here as well as the challenge of taking classes completely in a foreign language has been real.
To begin with, we have phonetics, in which we try to pronounce sounds that our tongues seem incapable of making. My biggest challenge with this class is simply not laughing while my classmates and I repeatedly make baby sounds (“me me me”). It is incredibly strange to be evaluated on how well you can manipulate your mouth to make words and so frustrating when we are unable to perform as our professor would like. It has also been eye opening just how strong our accents are. Nonetheless, phonetics class is hugely rewarding in that I can see the progress we are making (or rather hear it) and learning about how Russian is spoken also makes it much easier to understand people in the real world.
We also have conversation practice class, in which we discuss, among other things, our love lives, our future spouses, and whether or not we would like to have children. My professor will often ask me and Dilara, the only other female student in our class, what we think about something “as women.” Gender relations in Russia are noticeably different than back home, even in the classroom. Another major difference between our classes back at Carleton: here, if you say a wrong answer, you will be told immediately that you are wrong. If you think too long about something, you will be told to hurry up. Our professor will often reprimand us for forgetting things that we should have learned. She has no problem pointing out that, while your presentation may have been decent, you made three tense mistakes and she wrote down every one of them. This is not to say that our professors are in any way unkind. In fact, I love having class with all of them. Having someone badger you about your mistakes makes you more aware of your speech and I can even get used to having my professor yelling at me for laughing while trying to pronounce the word “monastery” for the fortieth time in a row.

Our trip to Novodevichy Monastery, which prompted the impromptu lesson about how to correctly say the word “monastery.”

Finally, we have grammar, which requires the most concentration and patience. Our professor has a systematic way of working through exercises that forces us to deal with all the pesky bits of Russian that I think most of us would rather forget. Yesterday we discussed the usage rules of the verbs «пользоваться» and «использовать» which frustratingly both mean “to use.” It is even more difficult when we have to ask clarifying questions about using the verb “to use” and how to pick which verb for “to use” to use.
All of this is to say that classes are a big part of our daily life and have highlighted to me both the incredible richness and depth of the Russian language as well as the mountain of things I need to learn before I will truly be able to understand this language.

"Flash Mob" in the Metro / We're on Russian TV!

Posted on April 23, 2014 by eisenthall

Before coming to Moscow, I had only one idea of what the metro was like, and it came from this video clip. It’s the ending of the 1964 film Я Шагаю по Москве (or Walking the Streets of Moscow in English.) The main character is singing the titular song while exiting the University metro station.
Some time last week, our grammar teacher let us know about a flash mob that would be happening in that same spot to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film’s release. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we made sure to get to stantsiya Universityet by 11 pm last Tuesday to see what would happen. When we arrived, the station was buzzing with anticipation – extra security was standing around, there was a somewhat large crowd gathered at the end of the station, lots of green “Metro” balloons, and several heavy-duty video cameras.
We found a wall to lean on and waited, and to our dismay we were approached by one of the heavy-duty video cameramen and a guy with a microphone. After getting over a split-second of pretty intense fear, I managed to say a couple words. You can watch the Pyatnitsa [Friday] news program that we were featured in here:

For non-Russian-speakers, the gist of our clip is that even foreigners know about the film and the famous song.
As for the flash-mob itself, a band played and the crowd moved through the metro and up and down the escalators a few times while loudly singing, and kind of reliving that famous scene. Thankfully the woman on duty didn’t interrupt us this time.

The Stolovaya

Posted on April 23, 2014 by browninj

As previous posters have mentioned, Moscow State University is basically a small city with all the necessary accoutrements. And as Almeda and Gretchen have already mentioned in some detail, cafes and stolovayas (cafeterias) are littered throughout each building with enough variation in prices and food offerings to keep things interesting. But I think the stolovayas merit extra attention because they are where I tend to find my food, they are also scattered across the city and seem to be a very popular form of restaurant, and because I am not aware of any clear equivalent in the United States. Essentially, they are long buffets where you grab a tray and utensils before being swept along a line of food by a wave of hungry customers. Along the way, you request various dishes from servers and then get out of the way as soon as you receive what you asked for. The path is predetermined and you end up at the kassa where an expert enters in the prices of the food items you have collected and presents you with your final total.

Tonight’s line at the smaller столовая диетического питания in the main building.

In all honesty, my most stressful moment in Russia thus far has been eating at a university stolovaya for the first time. I had no idea what the dishes were called, no idea how to request a dish in the first place, and once I finally managed to get a plate of steamed vegetables and a mystery cutlet on my tray I seemed to cause the cashier endless exasperation by not having exact change.

Tonight’s delectable dinner of assorted beans, mystery meat, juice, and salad cost a total of 150 rubles. That’s approximately $4.10. And with the help of a dictionary, the mystery meat stopped being so mysterious. Guess who just learned the Russian word for “liver”.

But like most everything else here, I have grown accustomed to the ways of the stolovaya. I no longer feel quite like I’m about to jump out of a plane or something of that ilk when I hit a stolovaya at the peak of lunch hour and everything seems makes sense. The servers either request orders, or wait for you to call out (using Intonation 2) the list of dishes you would like to eat. Pointing while saying “это/this” also works wonders when you are eying that strangely delicious looking chunk of something, but can’t even come up with its taxonomic kingdom, let alone its Russian name. Exact change is not a requirement, but rather a request. In fact, that one particular cashier actually looks mildly disappointed when you provide him with the proper number of 2 ruble coins without being prompted. And the food is always cheap, plentiful, and delicious.

Carleton Moscow & Beyond 2014

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Monthly Archives: April 2014