meaning of " ochered' "

[Margarita Orlova]

Oh, come on, "former Soviet" guys! All that happened before you and I  
were born!

I had no occasions to stay in lines for bread or something of that same  
importance. There were nothing much to stay in line for, neither in  
Rzhev, "Tverskoj/Kalininskoj oblasti", nor in Alma-Ata, where i have  
spent most of my life. Maybe that is why I cannot remember much  
viciousness in lines. It seems the viciousness was more typical for  
Moscovites and their unknown servants, the "limita".

However, staying in lines was the best source of news and rumors  
available at that time (almost like newspapers nowadays, with a lot of  
"chernukha"), so I met all sorts of people there and learned a great  
deal about "the real life" from them. And, no, I do not have any  
nostalgia for the Soviet lines:), but for me, especially as a child,  
they were an important source of cultural knowledge.

Margarita A Orlova
Graduate Student in Linguistics, SJSU
PhD in Russian
http://rent-a-mind.com/margarita/


On Monday, January 14, 2008, at 07:21  AM, Alexandra Smith wrote:

> Quoting Olga Meerson <meersono at GEORGETOWN.EDU>:
>
>> The most famous ochered' I know from Russian culture is described in   
>> Akhmatova's Requiem. --
>
> I entirely agree with Olga's comment regards the wrong usage of fun in  
> relation to the representations of OCHERED' in many narratives found  
> in Soviet literature. Another example that deals with trauma od  
> Stalinism and ochered' is Lidiya Chukovskaya's short novel SOFIA  
> PETROVNA (sometimes known as Opustelyj dom). It resonates well with  
> Akhmatova's text and has some graphic details related to people  
> waiting outside the prison in Leningrad to be told about the  
> whereabouts of the arrested members of their families...
> And Andrei Voznesenskij's 1959 poem "Kassirsha" (Nemykh obschitali,  
> nemye vopili..." might be also viewed as part of the tradition that  
> links traumatic experiences to OCHERED' presented in the poem as a  
> community of traumatised individuals.--
>
> КАССИРША
> Немых обсчитали.
> Немые вопили.
> Медяшек медали
> влипали в опилки.
>
> И гневным протестом,
> что все это сказки,
> кассирша, как тесто,
> вздымалась из кассы.
>
> И сразу по залам,
> сыркам, патиссонам,
> пахнуло слезами,
> как будто озоном.
>
> О, слез этих запах
> в мычащей ораве.
> Два были без шапок.
> Их руки орали.
>
> А третий с беконом
> подобием мата
> ревел, как Бетховен,
> земно и лохмато!
>
> В стекло барабаня,
> ладони ломая,
> орала судьба моя
> глухонемая!
>
> Кассирша, осклабясь,
> косилась на солнце
> и ленинский абрис
> искала
>        в полсотне.
>
> Но не было Ленина.
>
> Она была
>       фальшью...
> Была бакалея.
> В ней люди и фарши.
> 1959
>
> All best,
> Sasha Smith
>
>
>
> ------------
> Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
> Lecturer in Russian
> School of European Languages and Cultures
> The University of Edinburgh
> David Hume Tower
> George Square
> Edinburgh EX8 9JX
> UK
>
> tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
> fax: +44- (0)131- 650-3604
> e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk
>
>
>
>
> --  
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>
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