Ten Things You Didn't Know About Russia Part 1
Susan Bauckus
sbauckus at earthlink.net
Sat Mar 22 13:44:14 UTC 2008
In War and Peace, the first few lines (6 and a half) are French, not the
first 10 pages (I say this with the book in front of me, not based on
memory). Although French appears throughout the book, it's essentially used
for dialog and some correspondence and Tolstoi was, one could say, fond of
narration.
Susie Bauckus
> [Original Message]
> From: Andrew Jameson <a.jameson2 at DSL.PIPEX.COM>
> To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
> Date: 3/22/2008 5:36:14 AM
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Ten Things You Didn't Know About Russia Part 1
>
> TEN THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT RUSSIA PART 1
>
> _____
>
> Dear Colleagues, Here is the complete summary so far, exactly as sent to
the
> SEELANGS list.
>
> THANK YOU ALL FOR TAKING PART. Andrew Jameson, Malvern UK, Good Friday, 21
> March 2008
>
>
>
> Initial request:
>
> I've been asked to write a not-too-serious lecture for the Annual General
> Meeting of a society concerned with Russian and Soviet studies. I'm
calling
> it "Ten things you didn't know about Russia". Such things as: St Cyril
> didn't create the Cyrillic alphabet etc. etc.
>
> I'm wondering if you have any unusual or bizarre facts about Russia which
> you would like to share?
>
> Andrew Jameson
>
>
>
> If I were giving such a talk, I'd be tempted to include "Vodka is actually
> Polish." Though it's not a linguistic fact on the surface, discussing the
> word's (very simple) etymology and perhaps the different diminutives
Russian
> has to use to distinguish "vodochka"
>
> and "voditsa" -- and perhaps the connections with eau de vie, aquavit and
> whiskey? -- does offer some linguistic satisfaction. Wishing you enjoyment
> as you put the talk together! Sibelan
>
>
>
> Of course that the October Revolution didn't take place in October (or it
> did, but then got celebrated in November) Nathan Longan
>
>
>
> Very few people realize the true size - and climate range - of Siberia. My
> civ students always assume that it's perpetually cold and one big prison
> camp somewhere to the north of Moscow Nicole
>
>
>
> 1. Matreshki came from Japan.
>
> 2. The greatest Russian poet is 1/8 Black (octoroon).
>
> 3. The last Russian czar was 1/256 Russian by blood.
>
> 4. St. Basil cathedral is the most un-Russian church, more like Turkish,
and
> for good reason: it was built on the occasion of the taking of Kazan.
>
> 5. It was not the Bolsheviks who abolished the monarchy.
>
> 6. Peter the Great usurped the power from his older brother Ivan V.
>
> 7. Russia covers 11 time zones. Alina Israeli
>
>
>
> "Considering that the defining line in a family's history was its
> patrilineal descent as it was just about anywhere else in the western
world,
> Pushkin's preoccupation with his African ancestry is all the more telling
> since Ibrahim Gannibal was his maternal great-grandfather. Furthermore,
> Nadja, his mother, was through her own mother, a descendant of the same
> Pushkin forbear from whom her husband Serge descended. This is genetically
> interesting since it explains why the poet, who is generally but
mistakenly
> accepted as an octoroon, looks perceptibly blacker." From PBS/WGBH's
> Frontline, "The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families" Tom Nicholson
>
>
>
> How about (off the cuff) "The name 'Russian' originally referred to
Swedish
> Vikings"?
>
> "The first ten (roughly) pages of "War and Peace" are in French"?
>
> "Russia and Scotland are the only countries in Europe with three kings
> called Alexander"?
>
> "Dutch nearly became an official language in Russia" colkitto
>
>
>
> It might be of interest to know that the first complete translation of
the
> Bible in Russia was done in Novgorod in the 1490'S'(?) under aegis of
> Archbishop Gennadij and that the translation was done from the VULGATE
with
> the aid of a Roman Catholic monk ( Dominican?, I'm not sure)> I'm
relating
> from memory here so the details have to checked, but the main statement is
> true. prolland
>
>
>
> This is a convoluted non-logic, which would not be accepted in an
> undergraduate paper.
>
> The fact that Nadezhda Osipovna Gannibal was related to Pushkins on her
> mother side does not diminish the fact that she was a grand- daughter of
> Abram Petrovich Gannibal on her father's side, one does not negate the
> other. See the chart:
>
> See the chart: http://www.as-pushkin.ru/index.php?cnt=4 and also:
>
> http://www.genery.com/ru/drevo/images/pushkin_big.gif
>
> [Note from AJ: I hope these have transferred correctly, you may need to
> adjust these addresses]
>
> It's Pushkin's blood that got infused into him twice but it does not
> additionally dilute the Gannibal's blood. Someone has to learn to count
> fractions there. (There was recently a report that Americans do not
> understand fractions.) Alina Israeli
>
>
>
> Can I just add that calculating fractions of blood percentages and using
> terms like "octoroon" sounds very racist and it would make a lot more
sense
> just to say that Pushkin was descended from an African slave. Sarah Hurst
>
> Agreed, the term is archaic and implies derision. Was just forwarding
along
> the PBS quote for discussion.
>
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/pushkingenealogy
> .html Tom Nicholson
>
>
>
> I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that Red Square isn't red, and
never
> was. --Loren
>
>
>
> True, or that St. Basil's was originally painted white, and remained so
for
> quite a while before it became as colorful as it is today. Devin Connolly
>
>
>
> Russia produces some 12% of the world's aluminum, controls 20% of the
world
> gem stone market, contains a third of the world's unmined diamonds, about
a
> quarter (maybe more) of the world's unmined gold, and supplies 8% of the
> world's uranium needs.
>
> More info on that sort of thing here:
> http://www.sras.org/library_resource_export_russia
>
> You might also mention something about the fact that Russia is #3 in
> software outsourcing, was also #3 in IPOs (by money raised) in the first
> half of 2007, and Moscow is this year's hottest location for opening new
> retail locations in Europe (and St. Pete is number #2).
>
> In less glittering news, Russia is #2 in the production of email SPAM (the
> US is still #1) and #1 in the production of Malware (harmful programs like
> viruses).
>
> Oh, and the wall around Red Square looks pretty red to me and reds or red
> hues are the dominant motif there - the real story is the fact that "red"
> and "beautiful" used to be the same word in Russian.
>
> Josh Wilson Asst. Director The School of Russian and Asian Studies
> Editor-in-Chief
>
> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies www.sras.org
> <outbind://25/www.sras.org> jwilson at sras.org
>
>
>
> Someone sent this to me off-list. And Christmas is after the New Year.
> Another thing I learned during a semester trip to then the USSR, from a US
> diplomat, was that Moscow and (then) Leningrad were the third- and fourth-
> largest cities in Europe, after London and Paris (resp.). That really
caught
> my attention at the time. Someone correct me if I was misinformed. --Loren
>
>
>
> More things you (probably) didn't know about Russia: Russia originated:
>
> the first multi-engine airplane
>
> the first flight over the North Pole
>
> the first fleet of strategic bombers
>
> the use of airplanes to promote diplomacy the idea of employing airplanes
to
> conduct terrorist attacks.
>
>
>
> Alina Israeli wrote: 7. Russia covers 11 time zones.
>
> These include: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, Iron,
> ancient, middle, early modern, modern, and postmodern, ...all at the same
> time....David L. Cooper
>
>
>
> I read somewhere that Tsarskoe Selo, around the turn of the last century,
> was the first fully electrified city in the world. It was a middle-class
> suburb with a commuter train taking people into St Pete for white collar
> jobs. It was international in character, with a synagogue, protestant
> churches, and a Catholic church, I believe. Jules Levin
>
>
>
> Before 2004, when the Chita-Khabarovsk "Highway" was officially opened,
you
> could not drive from Moscow to Vladivostok. And even now it's not paved
the
> entire way. Emily Saunders
>
>
>
> The immensity of Siberia means that if you stand on the coast of the US
> state of Maine, you are closer to Moscow than your colleague standing on
the
> eastern coast of Siberia.
>
> Within this immense landmass lies the world's deepest (1,620 metres) fresh
> water lake. Lake Baikal holds some 20% of the world's surface fresh water
-
> if drained, it would take the water of all five US-Canadian Great Lakes
> (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior) to refill it. Over 300
rivers
> and streams flow into Baikal, but only one (the Angara) flows out from the
> lake. William Kerr
>
>
>
> Not to mention Russia gave us the periodic table of elements, the concept
of
> classical (psychological) conditioning, the first satellite, first
> artificial heart, and the AK-47. More on this here:
>
> <http://www.sras.org/science_in_russia_and_the_soviet_union>
> http://www.sras.org/science_in_russia_and_the_soviet_union Josh Wilson
>
>
>
> Not to mention the best WW II battle tank--the T-34. Jules Levin
>
>
>
> Ekaterina II wasn't Russian...Katarina Peitlova-Tocci
>
>
>
> The largest fresh water lake on the planet, with its own unique species of
> flora and fauna John Langran www.ruslan.co.uk
> <outbind://25/www.ruslan.co.uk>
>
>
>
> The Russian Empire (just like today's Russian Federation) was a
multi-ethnic
> and multi-religious country. A synagogue, Protestant and Catholic churches
> did not make Tsarskoe Selo "international" - native subjects of the Empire
> were probably the people who mainly attended them. Felix Corley
>
>
>
> The immensity of Siberia means that if you stand on the coast of the US
> state of Maine, you are closer to Moscow than your colleague standing on
the
> eastern coast of Siberia.
>
> Within this immense landmass lies the world's deepest (1,620 metres) fresh
> water lake. Lake Baikal holds some 20% of the world's surface fresh water
-
> if drained, it would take the water of all five US-Canadian Great Lakes
> (Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior) to refill it. Over 300
rivers
> and streams flow into Baikal, but only one (the Angara) flows out from the
> lake. William Kerr
>
> Koc Universitesi Istanbul
>
>
>
>
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