Hello everybody, I hope life is treating you well or at least not too harshly. I write this to say that starting from 4th November my activity here will diminish because I start Russian language course at University. After trying to see if I could get along with Spanish, I understood it's not the language for me, never was but prejudices against Russia (just because Putler is a shitty person along with the politicians around him, it doesn't mean you have to shit on a culture I genuinely love, and don't equate a government with its people) and positive biases towards Spanish in my family made me make the wrong decision. Not to mention that only a few percentage of students pass her stupid exam with low grades, while in Russian most of people are able to pass it with great results.
So now I had enough of a teacher who clearly doesn't want to do her job the proper way (correct the entire test, don't let a stupid compute correct the grammar and if it's correct then you correct the rest; one can have a weak grammar but still be able to communicate, remember guys language is communication, not rules). I've already studied Cyrillic alphabet 10 years ago because it was a period in which I was studying Romanov dynasty and Peter the Great in particular (I have two biographies about him), and I was interested in Russian history in general. I also have a 1970s book a dear friend of mine gifted me about AK-74 in Russian. Perfect to practice my reading skills and learn some words. Another amazing friend of mine gave me all necessary material to start studying it before the course starts. I also want to mention how many times she complained that English Literature 2 teacher got the biggest classroom and she had to choose a smaller one; excuse me, buuuut English is a language chosen by majority of students of my University so it's more than natural that course require a bigger room...plus don't talk shit about that teacher, she is an angel, awesome as person and fantastic as teacher. She gave me and made me love English literature even more than I already did.
I can't wait for it to start! I already discovered I love Slavic languages since in first year I enrolled Serbo-Croatian course and this language gave me such satisfaction. Now it's a bit rusted due to other exams that kept me away from practicing but I still love it. Speaking of Russian language in future I will share some photos of photos of Leningrad during Soviet period my father's Russian ex-girlfriend took, I also have some rubles from 1920s circa. In the meantime I want to share a gift this talented woman gave to my father and I keep in my room:
See you next time, wonderful people!
ShadenLines
An interesting blog entry indeed. While I agree that a nation's government =/= its people, I must add that a government--along with everything else about a country--is a product of its culture &, to some extent, its location & geography. Putin isn't much of a surprise when you remember that Slavic countries in general, & Russia in particular, don't have democratic traditions like Britain & the US do. While I probably haven't studied their history as much as you have, I've looked into it enough to know that in Russia, mercilessly autocratic rulers are par for the course. Putin is basically a 21st-century tsar.
ShangXian
I agree about it and Russia is an interesting case of a conquered country that adsorbed traditions and forma mentis of their colonizers (I'm referring to the Mongol conquest of Russia), it's usually the opposite (think about Rome who adsorbed Greek culture, the famous sentence from Horace's Epistles "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit" sums it quite well). Sometimes my heart breaks when I think how Russia could have evolved for the better of its people when I look at how Novgorod was back in 12-13th century. Even before the Hansa League, the city had its early foreign ties (the Gotland town of Visby is a prime example back in 1080). In 1136 the city dismissed their prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, marking the beginning of the Novgorod Republic. Ofc princely office was never abolished and powerful princes, such as Alexander Nevsky, could assert their will in the city regardless of what Novgorodians said, but one of the most important local figures in Novgorod was the posadnik, or mayor, an official elected by the public assembly (called the Veche) from among the city's boyars, or aristocracy.
The tysyatsky ("thousandman") originally the head of the town militia but later a commercial and judicial official, was also elected by the Veche. Another important local official was the Archbishop of Novgorod who shared power with the boyars.] Archbishops were elected by the Veche or by the drawing of lots, and after their election, were sent to the metropolitan for consecration. In the 13th century, Novgorod, while not a member of the Hanseatic League, was the easternmost kontor, or entrepôt, of the league, being the source of enormous quantities of luxury (sable, ermine, fox, marmot) and non-luxury furs (squirrel pelts)----> this book explains well the fur trade in Medieval times: Janet Martin, Treasure of the Land of Darkness: the Fur Trade and its Significance for Medieval Russia. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
Not to mention that the city thrived culturally. A large number of birch bark letters have been unearthed in excavations, perhaps suggesting widespread literacy. It was in Novgorod that the Novgorod Codex, the oldest Slavic book written north of Bulgaria, and the oldest inscription in a Finnic language (Birch bark letter no. 292) were unearthed. Some of the most ancient Russian chronicles (Novgorod First Chronicle) were written in the scriptorium of the archbishops who also promoted iconography and patronized church construction. The Novgorod merchant Sadko became a popular hero of Russian folklore.
The city was never conquered by the Mongols during the Mongol invasion of Rus (marshlands helped it XD). Ok but it's better that I stop or I will start writing a long ass textwall, lol
All of this just to say that this city is a nice alternate universe in which Rus, and then Russia could have evolved if Mongol invasion never occurred (ofc there are other factors but this one is quite important in the collective memory of the Russian people).
p.s. Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit means "Greece conquered [by the Romans] defeated the fierce winner".