1925 Poster: 'Everyone should vote; women together with men must root out the bourgeois.'

Soviet ideas of women’s liberation were progressive and bold for their time. Soviet women were working side by side with men when American women were still fighting for the right to vote. The declarations of women’s equality with men were a triumph in post-Revolutionary Russia, but the fundamental applications of these ideals were much more complicated. Women’s liberation consisted in several parts, all of which were contingent upon one another. The 1918 Family Code, based on Marxist ideas set up a system that sought to make the family a thing of the capitalist past. The years of 1917 to 1934, have been proven by history to be an experiment that failed. The conclusion was that the family is the basic unit of society, which is why almost all of these policies were eventually reversed when they went horribly amiss.

Marx’s Formula for Women’s Liberation

1) Free union: This meant that marriages were based on love and not money and that both parties were free to leave whenever they choose.
2) Women entering the workforce: Only when women began to make their own money and be active in the community could they be liberated from their role as dependents.
3) Socialization of housework and child care: Everyone would have their own personal maid/cook/nanny—the state.
4) Disintegration of the family: The confines of family would wither away once women began to enter the workforce—giving up their children to be raised in communal child care.

The 1918 Family Code
After the Bolsheviks overthrew the tsarist regime, they proceeded to overthrow the institution of family as it had heretofore been known:
1) Marriage became a civil union: this extracted the Church from the equation.
2) Divorce was made accessible for both parties: before it was virtually impossible for women to get a divorce.
3) Illegitimate children given equal rights: No child would be denied care simply because they were born out of wedlock.
4) Adoption forbidden: Envisioning socialized child care, the Bolsheviks believed that the state would be raising the children and they didn’t want orphans to be bought and used as slaves.
5) Spouses support themselves: Because both partners would be working and making their own wages, alimony and child support would become obsolete.

With the new 'free union' laws, women were no longer the property of men. This poster shows a woman leaving her oppressive husband saying, 'I'm not yours anymore...He takes me to the Soviet council to listen to Lenin'

The Family Code’s progressive ideals were ahead of the rest of Europe. Russia became the first country in Europe to make abortion legal, which it did in November of 1920. Women ended up having to use abortion more and more often as the ideals that were meant to liberate them crumbled leaving them buried beneath the rubble.

Many of the above ideals are contingent upon other ideals being manifest. For example, in order for their to be no need for the family, both parties have to be able to support themselves and their children have to be taken care of by the state. Women were expected to go to work and this would be possible considering that the children were being raised elsewhere. So much is contingent upon women’s former work being covered so that they can go work with the men. What happens when that doesn’t happen? Soviet history 101.

This is a poster encouraging peasant women to put their children into the day care to be raised by the commune. The new family policies were especially destabilizing for the more traditional peasant families.

While Russian women were some of the first in the world to work side by side with men, own their own property and so on, they became victims of the system’s fundamental flaws.

Wendy Goldman’s book Women, the State and Revolution; Soviet family policy & social life, 1917-1936 gives an in depth analysis of the statistics, studies and documents pertaining to women’s issues in Bolshevist Russia. These are a few of the realities of the woman’s lot in these years of supposed liberation according to the book:

Unemployment
With the civil war ended and the budget cuts of NEP, many of Soviet womens’ jobs were given to veterans with higher skill levels. Between 1921 and 1927 the number of unemployed women surged from 60,975 to 369,800. Furthermore, in the workplace women made only 65% of what their male counterparts made. This made women more dependent on a husband’s higher wages.

Free Unions and Divorce
The new divorce laws may have seemed liberating for the women who were making decent wages. But the fact that husbands could now come, impregnate and go as they pleased left many women in poverty. Alimony was a symbol of woman’s dependency on men, and was therefore looked down on. With the new lax ideals about sex and marriage men went around fathering children, and women went through hell to try and get alimony or child support.

Prostitution
Thus women were left without a job, without a husband and with a child to support they resorted to the most ancient female profession: prostitution.  Prostitution, which was subsiding in the early years after the revolution, flourished once again when women became the expendable employees under the NEP budget cuts.  Most of the prostitutes were women with no education or skills, whose husbands had divorced them and who were unable to find other work.  But many of these prostitutes were young girls who had grown up on the streets, who hadn’t enjoyed the material security promised them under the family code.

‘Stray Children’The civil war and famine of the early 1920’s left the socialized kitchens and child care overwhelmed. The New Economic Policy of 1921 shut down many of these socialized institutions to help the economy recover. Women were supposed to put their children in day care to be raised communally, but the day cares didn’t have enough money to feed or clothe the children. The children’s homes were flooded with orphans and conditions were often so bad that the children preferred to live on the streets. This led to the problem of bezprizornost, which could be translated at ‘stray children’. In 1922 there were an estimated 7.5 million ‘starving and dying’ children in Russia.

Abortion was made legal and accessible for women. With women being forced into the workplace to support themselves and no one to look after the kids, it makes sense that women utilized abortions as much as they did. In Moscow the number of abortions rose from 19 abortions per 100 births in 1921 to 271 abortions per 100 births in 1934. And this is just the statistic for legal abortions.

In theory, Soviet women were liberated through lofty idealogy.  All that the Bolsheviks had hoped for would have been liberating had it worked properly.  Famine, war and economic crisis meant that there was no money left to run the socialized housework and day care that was meant to free women from the hearth.  The new policies completely uprooted the peasant way of life and left the agricultural farms in a state of disaray.  Work became for women, not so much a sign of their liberation, but a reinforcement of their inferior status.  At the end of the day someone had to make the food, clean the house and take care of the children, which meant that women had double the burden and were enslaved all over again.  Soviet women’s liberation was contingent on services that the state could not provide, the result was destitution in a liberation disguise.

Wendy Goldman sums up this divide between the noble ideals about women’s liberation and the realities of post-revolutionary Russia:

“Unemployment, low skills, lack of social services and terrible poverty all mitigated against women’s independence from the family unit. The idea of ‘free union’ had tragic and unforeseen consequences for women as long as they were unable to support themselves and their children. The law, born out of the socialist-libertarian tradition, was painfully at odds with life. In Stel’makhovich’s own words, “The liberation of women…without an economic base guaranteeing every worker full material independence, is a myth.” (Women, the state and revolution 143)

 

 So many of the struggles and fights happening in the international community remind me of my family.  The disputes over gas between Russia and Ukraine resemble a relationship that any of us with siblings can relate to.  In this blog I will discuss my analogy of the relationship between Ukraine and Russia.  I admit that I have no clue about the complexities of the relationship but there are a few things in history and culture that might help to prove my comparison of the countries to two brothers.  By showing a few pictures of how the Russians represent Ukraine, we can see that they think of Ukraine as a land of beauty and prosperity.  Although Russia would never admit it now, they admire Ukraine like an older brother.  It’s no wonder that it has caused so much drama when Ukraine tries to sever its undeniable ties with Russia.  But Ukraine has been dominated by the Russians, the Poles, the Austrians, the Tatars, and now is an opportunity to get out and try to be their own nation. 

The monument to Prince Vladimir of Kiev who converted the Slavs, looking over the ancient Dniepr

Perhaps part of the reason that Russia is having such a hard time letting Ukraine go is because it is the source of so many Russia’s resources but also because Ukraine is essentially Russia’s older brother.  Think of your older siblings: you looked up to them, wanted their approval, and yet resented the things that they got that you didn’t. Russia is the younger brother who has the muscles, and Ukraine is the brother with the wit.  Little Brother Russia has learned much of what he knows from watching his older brother Ukraine.  Big Brother Ukraine has been around longer and is very secure in his abilities, but realizes that his little brother could beat him up.  Little Brother Russia knows he can beat Big Brother in an arm wrestle, but nevertheless admires Big Brother’s grace and charm. 

Consider Borshch.  Borshch along with many other traditional Russian dishes is also a traditional dish or Ukraine.  Ukrainian borshch is preferred by Russians because it is made with beef and bacon, whereas the traditional Russian recipe is typically made only from vegetables.  Ukraine has always had the fertile soil, the rivers and seas, the milder winters and the longer growing seasons that Russia didn’t have.  Therefore they have had the resources to devote to making their culture more and more beautiful.  Russians themselves acknowledge that the Ukrainian variants of everything from handicrafts, to cuisine or to women to be more beautiful, more elaborate and more lush.  Maybe this isn’t enough to prove how much Russia looks up to the Ukrainians, and maybe that admiration has been lost over the years, but to this day Orange Revolution or no, some of the most beloved restaurants in Moscow are Ukrainian ones. 

Ukrainian Restaurant Taras Bulba

If you ask somebody in Moscow where to go to get a good sample of traditional Russian food they are likely to tell you to go to a place called Tarac Bulba, Korchma which serves traditional Ukrainian food.  The fact that Russians, when wanting to have taste of their traditional dishes done well, go to a Ukrainian restaurant, shows that maybe the Russians recognize that their are some things the Ukrainians do better.   

The Ukraine Building at VDNKh, notice 1)the beautiful detail and elaborate design 2)The photos on top are photos I took in 2003 with arrows pointing to the name of the country represented. That name had been removed when I took the picture in 2007, but (bottom right) Armenia's building was still labeled.

There are two places in Moscow where Russia has built something in an emulation of Ukraine–both of which are amazingly beautiful.  One is the metro station in Moscow, ‘Kievskaya’.  It is by far the most adorned and decorated of all the metro stops, with chandeliers, murals, mosaics and marble carvings.  The other place is the Ukraine building at the Agricultural exhibition center in Moscow or  ВДНХ.  During USSR each republic had their own building, built in their national style in which they would showcase produce from their country.  The Ukraine building is adorned with elaborate details, and beauty and color that the other buildings lack.  With a beautiful fountain in front of it, it is the golden child of the entire park. There was a time, as we can see from these two landmarks in Moscow that Russia openly built accolades to their older brother Ukraine.  In recent years, those accolades have been hushed.  The Ukraine building is no longer labeled as the Ukraine building.  Just like Ukraine is trying to rid itself of Russia, Russia seems to want to hide any evidence of the praise it once gave to Ukraine.

Russia has the mass, the power and the muscles but when it comes to the finer details of life, Russians look to their small, older, better-looking brother.  So why, if Russia has so much power and resources, should he care that Ukraine wants to move out?  I am the youngest of 4 children.  There is a five year gap between me and my next oldest sister.  We are peas of a pod, we have the same sense of humor, we used to share clothes and go on trips together, we supported each other in hard times.  My whole identity was made on my family relationships.  So I have to admit that when my sister announced that she was getting married, that she was leaving to start her own family I felt a bit betrayed. 

In this metro station there are elaborate murals and mosaics honoring the people of Ukraine, and their sacrifices in WWII. The motifs and patterns are in the Ukrainian tradition, which the Russians obviously admired.

As I watched all of my siblings grow up, get married, and start their own families I felt forgotten and superfluous. I can understand how Russia might feel to watch their ’siblings’, countries with whom Russia’s identity has been so tied up for hundreds of years, move out and start their own lives.  But now I have so many nieces and nephews with whom I start new bonds and I see that you never lose your family roots.  The fact that your identity is so tied up in your family is what makes family feuds some of the most ruthless and destructive of all.  Just because Ukraine wants to ‘branch out’ does not uproot the past that it shares with Russia.  You can fight all you want but you can never escape your family–at times that can be a tragedy and at others a consolation.

For the Russian Orthodox Christians, Christmas or Рождество, (which is celebrated on the 7^th of January) is not the biggest holiday, but rather Easter. 

During Communism, The New Year became the day that could be considered the big winter holiday of gift giving.  This was the biggest holiday of the year, when the Russian Santa Claus, Ded Moroz would bring gifts to children who had been good in the previous year.  This holiday is still the biggest celebration in Russia.  It’s traditions closely resemble the wests: Santa, decorated tree, gift giving, etc.  It should be noted that, although many there are many superstitious/fortune-telling traditions associated with the Russian New Year, it is a secular holiday. 

The Christmas celebration season consists of several different holidays.  The first holiday is the Feast of Saint Nicholas on December 19^th, but the two holidays that I’ll focus on are Christmas Eve or Svyata Vecheria (January 6), and Epiphany eve, and Feast of Iordan, known as Shchedriy Vecher (January 18), translated as ‘bountiful night’.  This night commemorates the baptism of Christ.

Christmas is the holiday of holidays for the western world.  We have a whole section of our culture that exists for Christmas.  Not only does every American know ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ by age 3, but these beloved Christmas hits are learned even by ESL students the world over. 

I wanted to find these cultural Christmas classics in Russian.  While I did find some songs in Russian, they were completely unfamiliar to my Russian friends.  I did find, however, a few cultural Christmas hits in Ukrainian culture.  The Ukrainians seem to have many more specific traditions associated with Christmas than the Russians.  When I was trying to find Christmas songs in Russian, the majority of what I came across were Колядки, or kolyadki and щедривки, shchedrivki.  Although no Russian whom I talked to seemed to know of any popular carols in Russian, there are several carols that are very popular and well-known among the Ukrainians.  Ukraine has maintained many of its religious holidays and still observes them.  Part of this Christmas tradition is going caroling from home to home, wishing prosperity to those you sing to.  

An example of one of these carols is the song ‘Ukrainian Bell Carol’ that is so famous in the west.  The name of this song in Ukrainian is Shchedrik.  This song as well as other Shchedrivki were traditionally sung on the Feast of the Epiphany on January 13^th.  On this night people would go door to door, wishing each other bounty (Shchedri means bountiful in Russian and Ukrainian).  The lyrics of the song in Ukrainian don’t mention bells, interestingly, but rather a swallow who sings to the head of a household of the bounties that await him.  His flocks and fields will prosper and not to mention, he has a dark-eyed and beautiful wife.  The lyrics of this song tell us that Christmas resembles more closely the pagan holiday that took place at this time of the year.

Some of these include songs such as Нова радiсть стала and Добрий вечір тобі.  The last one especially is a pop icon.  It is the most famous Christmas carol.  To demonstrate its place in pop culture I found the video below.  This is of a whole bunch of famous Ukrainian pop singers.  They are singing Добрий вечір тобі , some of the pop stars include the Eurovision popstar Ruslana, Ani Lorak, Natasha Koroleva,  Alexei Vertinsky and others.

Ruslana compiled an entire album of these beloved Ukrainian Christmas carols, sung by various pop musicians.

  Ruslana compiled an entire album of these beloved Ukrainian Christmas carols, sung by various pop musicians.  The album is entitled “Добрий вечір, тобі …”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobrij_vechir,_tobi…

If your looking for more Christmas carols sung by church choirs you can follow this link:  http://www.predanie.ru/music/Rozhdestvenskie_pesnopenija_i_kolyadki/

This site has many different choirs singing Christmas songs in both Russian and Ukrainian

The New Year is the biggest holiday in Russia and is celebrated on a level equivalent to our Christmas.  They do have Christmas in the Orthdox religion, Рождество, which takes place on January 6, but in the Orthodox religion they believe the the resurection is the event to celebrate, so Easter, Пасха, is the most celebrated religious holiday.  So if you wish a Russian “Merry Christmas” and they don’t know what you are talking about this is why.  The New Year, however comes with all the same enchantments as our Christmas.  To celebrate the New Year Russians find a Christmas tree, Елочка, and children await the presents to be brought to them by Santa Claus, Дед мороз, and there is all the same hype for the New Year as there is for our Christmas.

Because Russia epitomizes the concept of a “Winter Wonderland”, mere scenery of the snowy Russian countryside is a magical and festive depiction of the charm of Christmas.  I’ve always thought that Red Square, with the Kremlin Towers and St. Basils looked like a gingerbread land, and I always got nostalgic for Christmas time whenever I was there.  There are a few icons that are peculiar to the Russian New Year.  I found these old postcards, открытки, at sunhome.ru and they depict the very fairy-tale like magic of the winter holidays:

 Дед Мороз, Dyed Moroz, Father Frost

Can often be seen wearing the same red coat as his Western counterpart, and just as often appears in blue, which is considered one of the primary colors of the holiday. 

Instead of a sleigh driven by 8(?) reindeer, Father Frost drives one two forms of transport, both icons in Russian culture:

The Troika, Тройка, a sleigh with three(troi) horses, can be found all over in Russian literature and it holds a very tender place in many Russian’s hearts.

And the other form of transport that occupies a spot in the hearts of Russians, especially Soviets, the spaceship, летучий корабль:

The space theme seems to come up just as often as Father Frost himself in Soviet New Year depictions.  This one is one of my favorites, a hilarious combination of the old Russian traditions with the new Soviet idealogy:

Father Frost greets the astronaut with a Karavai, Каравай, or the bread and salt that is traditionally offered at celebrations.

 The other icon peculiar to the Russian holiday is Snegurochka, Снегурочка, or the Snow Maiden.  Santa Claus has awkward little elves, but Father Frost has a hot little secretary to help him with is New Year’s deliveries:

I found this postcard  which depicts a character from Russian fairy tales, Emelya, Емеля, the fool who snuggles up to the fireplace and never wants to have to leave to do anything.   He gets lucky when we catches a magic pike(fish) in the river and the pike tells him a secret phrase to say to make everything obey his will:

I haven’t quite figured out what this has to do with the New Year, but I think it has to do with hopes of luck and success and a minimum of labor.  A wish that in the New Year, may you, like Emelya, have every success and happiness, ability to get out of trouble and avoid punishment for your reckless behavior, may you have a princess fall madly in love with you, and most importantly, may you never have to leave the comforts of your warm fireplace to obtain these things.  This is the Russian’s ideal year!

По щучьему веленью, по моему хотенье, да будет успех и счастье в 2008ом  году!

This is my poster for my phonetics project for which I posted a previous blog. I submitted my 20 page paper and have(hopefully) graduated.

http://russophilia.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/native-and-non-native-accent-in-russian/
I asked the question can learners of Russian as a second language (L2) identify native and non-native accent in Russian.

I had 9 speakers: 1 was native Russian, 3 were American, 1 was Polish, 3 were Armenian, and 1 Mongolian. They recorded the following sentence:

В принципе они жили нормально в Грузии, но я считаю, что в будущем они не должны жить так далеко от нас.

I had 24 Listeners: 8 native Russians and 16 students who were studying Russian at the University.
I asked them to identify the speaker as either ‘native’  or non-native.  I defined ‘native’ as being one who grew up speaking Russian in the home with parents. 

So my study found that L2 Learners of Russian can identify foreign accent, but that identifying it in speakers from USSR satellite countries was problematic. The fact that even the Native listeners had a hard time saying whether these speakers were native or non-native suggests that there is some serious ambiguity surrounding the term ‘native speaker’ in the case of Russian.
Essentially what I proposed in my paper was that the terms ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ are insufficient in Russian. Because certain speakers (the Armenians) were considered by native listeners to
a) have no accent, were native
b) have an accent–not-native
c) have an non-native accent, but were still considered native
Strange phenomenon in light of all the previous research that has been done on foreign accent detection.
The Armenians and the Mongolian speaker fooled both the American learners of Russian(L2) and the native listeners.

I would love to know if anyone has information about the status of the Russian language during USSR.  All of my Armenian speakers considered Russian to be their second language…Many Russian listeners identified them as having a Caucausian accent, but still called them native…why is this? 

To listen to the samples you can go to my previous post:

http://russophilia.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/native-and-non-native-accent-in-russian/

What does an Armenian accent sound like? Аканье, оканье–в чем состоится?

Мне очень интересно знать есть ли такие исследование по акцентам (по-русски) разных народов СССР–(на пример, что характиризуется грузинского акцента с которым Сталин говорил?)

Thanks to those who helped with this project!  I’m very happy to have it over with.  I hope you find it interesting.

ДЖЕЙНИ ОЧЕНЬ ПРОСИТ ПОМОЩИ С ПРОЕКТОМ!

Watch/listen to the video and fill out the information below:

You can copy and paste the text below and fill out the information:

Background Information

Name

Age

Current Residence

Native language

Where you learned Russian (if non-native)

Where you have lived in Russia

Listening Section

For each speaker write whether you think they are native or non-native.  NATIVE SPEAKER MEANS THAT THEY GREW UP SPEAKING RUSSIAN IN THE HOME WITH THEIR PARENTS.

*Write native or non-native for each speaker and then write why you think that they are native or non-native.  You can write the sounds that sounded non-native, for example ‘щ’ or ‘ли’, or anything else.If you think you know where the accent comes from, then please write that too!

You can email your answers to me at janeytop1983@hotmail.com or just post them as a comment to this post.

Part 1 Speakers:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

9)

Part II Speakers:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

9)

10)

Project information:

My research project for advanced phonetics and phonology is on whether L2 learners of Russian can perceive native or non-native accent in Russian. 

The subjects are speakers are from various countries, some of whom speaker  Russian as a first language  and some who speak Russian as a second language.

Listeners are comprised of native Russian speakers, and non-native Russian learners, as well as some who know no Russian.  The Russian learners vary in respect to their educational background in Russian, time spent in the country, and comprehension levels. 

Listeners are asked to fill out a questionaire about their experience with Russian.  There are two sections: the first, where they judge native or non-native based on a sentence.  The second, where they judge native or non-native based on a phrase.

I’ve been super busy with school and don’t have time to do much blogging.  In the meantime I’ll just post one of my essays for my 19th century Russian literature class.  If you haven’t read Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’, or in Russian ‘Шинель’ I would recommend it absolutely.  Not only because Gogol is brilliant but also so that you can better appreciate my essay. 

Akakii Akakiievich’s Fall From Grace

In the Overcoat the story of Akakii Akakiievich’s demise is reminiscent of an Old Testament tale of the birth of mankind.  According to the book of Genesis, human mortality came to be when Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and was cast out from the blissful Garden of Eden.  Both Adam’s and Akakii’s fallen state is the result of their fixation on a simple object, a piece of fruit and an overcoat.  These objects replace their simple, pious work with lust, pride and egocentricity.  In addition to these sins, these objects bring knowledge of and vulnerability to good and evil, and thus the irreversible loss of blissful oblivion. 

        The tragedy of Akakii Akakiievich and Adam is not only that their partaking of these objects resulted in death and dejection, but also their irreversible eviction from a state of innocence.  In this pre-fallen state, Adam and Akakii are both completely fulfilled and content. In Eden Adam’s work was to ‘fill the earth and subdue it’, and he was given by God, every kind of seed for fruit and vegetables, dominion over the animals, and finally a helpmeet, Eve. (Genesis 1:28)  Like Adam, Akakii lives and tills the land of his own little Eden, the ‘diversified and pleasant world’ of transcribing.  (205)  Within their respective “Edens” Adam and Akakii’s devotion, focus and love is doing their appointed work. And everything harmoniously enables them to do so. 

        In addition to the fulfillment in work, the gardens shield both Adam and Akakii from the nakedness of their simple lives. The bible tells us that in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed.  (Genesis 3:1) Nakedness is shameful only when it is exposed to the world outside of oneself.  Akakii’s nakedness is in his lowly rank, his pitiful complexion and unfortunate name, and he, like Adam, is oblivious to it. He is so unaware to the world outside himself that as he wanders through the streets garbage falls on to his hat, debris gets stuck to his coat, and it’s only when he collides with a horse that he realizes that ‘he was not in the middle of script, but, rather in the middle of the roadway.’ (206) 

        The cessation of this edenic incubation is brought about by ‘sundry calamities’, calamities brought about by a petty sin of lust and pride.  The fruit for Adam, and the overcoat for Akakii become objects of lust that ultimately divert them from their humble work.  Although initially they are hesitant to step outside the comforts of oblivion, they both become enticed by how this object can elevate them.  The snake sells his fruit by telling how it will make its partaker ‘like the gods, knowing good and evil.’ (Genesis 3:5)

Petrovich the tailor, similarly, fills Akakii’s simple mind with lofty ideas about a beautiful coat done ‘in the way it’s all the fashion now.’ (213)  The heroes’ attempts to elevate themselves result in an ironic fall.  They begin to desire above and beyond what their Edens provide and, in a way, they grow out of their incubator, and therefore cannot return to it.  These objects brought, as was promised, knowledge of good and evil, and thus, a new level of accountability and vulnerability.  

        These objects of lust were enticing for a good reason.  We learn that the fruit which the snake beguiled Eve to eat was ‘good for food and…pleasant to the eyes.’ (Genesis 3:7)  Akakii, too, ‘was a gainer on two points: for one, the overcoat was warm, for the other, it was a fine thing.’(217)  As Adam and Akaki obtain the object of their lust ‘their eyes were opened and they perceived that they were naked.’  (Genesis 3:8) Akakii becomes suddenly aware not only of the outside world, but of his nakedness in it. The opinion and ridicule of his coworkers that Akakii was once been oblivious to is replaced by an sense of vulnerability and pride in their presence.  When his coworkers congratulate him and praise his coat, ‘he could merely smile, and in a short time became actually embarrassed.’ (217) 

         The fine print in the appeal of the fruit was that eating it would cause death-mortality.  Mortality is a state of enmity with nature’s cruelty, the gravitation to the passions of the flesh and the relentless pull of death.  The fruit and blossoms that so readily bloomed in the garden would turn to thorns and thistles.  When Adam fell from the garden he falls in among the hostilities of earth’s nature as well as human’s nature, and must fight to survive.  God casts him out with this curse: ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread until thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken, for earth thou art and to earth thou shalt return.’ (Genesis 3:20) 

        Akakii too is afflicted by Adam’s curse. Snug in his new overcoat, Akakii ventures into mortality with his new knowledge of good and evil, and becomes aware of pleasures that he had never known before.  His soup suddenly gives him delicious pleasure, and he allows himself to loaf a bit after dinner instead of doing work.  On the way to mingle with society, Akakii amuses himself with a mildly salacious depiction of a woman revealing her whole leg.  These pleasures, although once ‘utterly unfamiliar’ to Akakii, were a product of mortality-his new vulnerability to carnal pleasures for which ‘everyone preserves a certain instinct.’ (218) 

        But the knowledge and sensitivity to good is always inextricably bound to the knowledge and sensitivity to evil.  The fruit was in fact delicious but hard to digest.  The very lust and desire that brought Akakii to the overcoat becomes like the cursed earth, bearing hostile thorns and thistles.  Thieves steal his coat, a crime for which he can find no justice.  And, after losing his beloved overcoat, he is utterly helpless and dejected, unable to combat the harshness of the Petersburg winter.  By the sweat of his face he labors to survive in an ominous world and to recover his overcoat, but to no avail.  In his death, Akakii, like Adam, returns to the earth and to the existence from which he came to life: ‘a being protected by none, endeared to no one, of no interest to anyone.’ (227) 

        These tragedies of fallen heroes haunt us and leave us desperately searching for reason behind it all.  Akakii’s pitiful tale of woe is a microcosm of the greater implications of the fall. He labors for this goal by the sweat of his face, and in doing so finds new levels of joy and purpose, only to have his hard work be destroyed by thorns and thistles of evil.  Adam was the father of mortality, and after many years of toil and suffering, dies leaving behind posterity to toil and suffer. The parallels of Adam and Akakii’s tales are seen in their bliss, their lust, their loss, and in their death.  For thousands of years readers of Genesis have been grappling with the same questions that the Overcoat poses: ‘Is the knowledge of good and evil worth the cost of the fall?’ And the greatest trait that these tales share is the absence of answers.

Works Cited:

I thought maybe you would want this just to know which translation of the Old Testament I used. 

Gogol, Nikolai Vasilyevich. “The Overcoat”. The Portable Nineteenth Century Russian Reader. Ed. George Gibian. New York: Penguin Books, 1993

The Septuagint Bible:

March, E.C. “English Translation of the Greek Septuagint Bible

The Translation of the Greek Old Testament Scriptures, Including the Apocrypha.

Compiled from the Translation by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton 1851”. The Septuagint Bible Online. Oct 19. 2008<http://ecmarsh.com/lxx-kjv/genesis/gen_001.htm>

Finally, after weeks of searching, reading all different documents in English and in Russian, I’ve managed to come up with another article on Slavic Mythology.  This has been difficult because 1) there is so little information on Slavic Mythology and 2) What information there is, is replete with contradictions and ambiguity. Slavic Mythology is full of ties to its original Indo-European roots, as well as Finno-Urgic, Iranian and others.  This might be part of why it is so hard to track. It must be noted, that unlike the Greeks, for instance, the Slavs didn’t have a writing system to record these oral traditions.  Only through Christianity did the Slavs get a writing system, and by then paganism had been outlawed and mingled with Christian beliefs.  

Little scholarly research has been done in Russian, let alone in English.  In doing my research I realized just how little information there is out there in English, and so I decided I would post what I have learned, however meager and inadequate it may be.  

My previous post on Slavic Mythology and Etymology http://russophilia.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/etymology-and-slavic-mythology/ gives some more information and I hope to keep these coming.  I thought, however, that the creation myth, although it varies from Slavic tribe to tribe, is a good place to start.

The white bird, Gamayun, is a prophetic bird of wisdom. This is the audio version of the book.

The Slavic Creation Myth, is the most elusive of them all.  I couldn’t find anything in English.  So I decided to buckle down and just start translating what I could find.  The following is predominantly for a book called  Песни птицы Гамаюн, or Songs of the Bird Gamayun, a book about the mythological creation and saga of the Slavs.  As far as I can understand, the book’s author is unknown, and it is told in the style of children’s bedtime stories.  This book is among the required repertoire studied in 6^th grade literature in Russia.  So I felt it was a valid enough source to quote.  

 Like many other Indo-European mythology, Slavic mythology contains a story about a golden egg.  There are several famous fairy tales about this Golden Egg, but as far as it playing a huge role in the creation, I couldn’t find any evidence.  In the above mentioned book, the creation begins with a golden egg in which is the supreme god Rod.  It was Rod he would be in charge of creating the visible earth.  As is reflected in the words родить, родитель, природа Rod was the parent of life on earth. 

The quotes are from the book, Songs of the Bird Gamayun.  The rest is a summary of the story of this book mixed with other information that I’ve gathered.  I couldn’t find any English translation of this, so you’ll have to forgive me for my amateur translations.

 ”There once was a Golden egg wrapped in dark nothingness and in that egg was the father of all mankind, Rod.  Rod breaks out of the Golden Egg, and immediately creates himself a helpmeet-this is Mother Lada, goddess of love.  And with this love he breaks through the darkness. He cuts his umbilical cord with a rainbow and straight away gets to work separating the oceans and seas from the skies.”

 Following that he separates light from darkness and truth from deceit.  He divides the world into 3 parts: Правь, Prav’, which is the place for gods.  As the name indicates it is a place for truth and right.  (Pravda-truth)  The visible world he called Явь, Yav’, that is, that which является (Yavlyat’sya-to be, appear).  The lower world was the underworld called навь, Nav’.  This was the place for the deceased. 

 ”Next, Rod bore Mother Earth, who immediately disappears into the depths of the ocean where she is kept for a while. 

And the sun was made from [Rod's] face-from the heavenly god! The father of the gods!

And the shining moon from his chest…

The dense stars from his eyes…

The bright sunrise from his eyebrows…

The dark nights from his thoughts…

Powerful winds from his breath…

Rain and snow and hail from his tears…

And his voice became thunder and lightning…”

 Rod then creates a son and breathes life into him. 

Vasnetsov's painting of Svarog

This is Svarog, who will be in charge of the rest of the details of earth’s creation.  To make him best suited for the job he gives him four heads so that he can see all ends of the earth.  He is the mighty кузнец, or god of the forge, the blacksmith of earth’s existence.  First and foremost, he paves a specific path for the sun to follow around the earth, thus creating night and day.  The alternation of the sun with the moon gets the ocean making waves and foam, and, feeling satisfied with his organizational skills, realizes something’s missing…Mother Earth!

 In the distance he notices a little grey duck swimming above a dark hole in the water.  He asks the duck if she has seen Mother Earth.  The duck says that she’s down at the bottom of the ocean.  Svarog asks the duck to go get her.  The duck disappears and returns a year later saying that it couldn’t hold it’s breath any longer and asks for help in retrieving Mother Earth from the ocean’s abyss.  So Svarog calls for Rod’s help, who then blows a mighty wind, stirring up the ocean, and the duck dives back down.  2 years pass and the duck returns saying, “I got closer this time but still ran out of breath.”  So Svarog calls upon Rod, who brings a storm upon the ocean and shoots lightning into the duck.  The duck dives down and is gone for 3 years.  After 3 years the duck returns with a branch in her mouth.  Svarog takes the branch, rubbing it in his palms begins to command the forces of the world:  “Make warmth, Sun! Light up, Moon! Blow, Wind!  We must save Mother Earth, our nurturer.”  All the elements come together, the wind blew the branch from Svarog’s hands.  As it fell into the ocean, the sun shone, heating the ocean, as the water evaporated the Moist Mother Earth appeared at the surface, and the moon quickly cooled her down. 

Now that the earth had risen to the surface, Svarog creates 3 underworld kingdoms.  So that the earth doesn’t fall back in the deep ocean, Svarog creates a great and mighty snake, Юша, Yusha, whose fate is to hold Mother Earth above water.  If the snake moves the earth will quake. 

 You can find the Russian text of Песни птицы Гамаюн here: http://www.dazzle.ru/spec/ppg/ppg.shtml

 More to come…that is, if I can find more.

Everyone Loves a Movement

Living in the United States these days you might have noticed an obsession with all things ‘green’.  What once might have been Irish pride has turned into a ‘movement’ towards ‘environmentally friendly living’.  This movement has permeated all aspects of our life.  No television show, newspaper column, politician, or advertisement is complete without giving us their take on ‘green living’. Everybody seems to have ideas as to which water bottles are better to drink from and so on…And new and conflicting theories have swept all of us into a big whirl wind.  We are taking in these theories and trying to live according, hoping to build a ‘green’ utopia.

Even Sun Chips has a stance on this issue

Now imagine that this new movement’s doctrine also included something about how copulation was an alternative energy source and would help cut back on your electricity costs.  Yeah, you could imagine how many people’s ears would perk up when that commercial aired.  Even the right-wing conservatives would become aware ‘active’ ‘green’ activists.

Alright, so there you have an idea of the frenzy that the ‘sex question’ had in the NEP-era society.  It was all the hype, all the rage and every wanted to know what this new movement meant for their lifestyles and their future. Like the ‘green’ movement.  The ‘sex question’ was all over the media, all over politics and all over everyday interactions. What better way to get otherwise apathetic citizens interested in revolutionary doctrine than to talk about sex?

There was a feeling of openness in the air in the Soviet 1920’s.  Imagination, discussion and experimentation were a critical part of forming the ‘New’ post-Revolutionary society. Not only the economy and government had been uprooted, but the basic unit of society-family had been also.  

        The ‘sex question’, половой вопрос, was referred to by Marx and Engels, but it was one of the leading Revolutionary feminists, Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai who got the sex riddle rolling.  Her theories were the ‘attention getters’ of the sex obsession and most subsequent doctrines were attempts to dismiss or uphold her theories.  As citizens tried to follow and implement these theories, they found no answers, only confusion, distraction and ambiguity.  Soviet society, subsequently was trampled beneath the raging ‘sex movement’.  

 Kollontai’s overflowing ‘glass of water’

Kollontai with a fellow 'comrade'

 One of the more common phrases heard when talking about sex and the Bolsheviks is the ‘glass of water’ theory.  This phrase is a misquoted reference to one of the theories of Kollontai.  Kollontai was to the Bolshevik feminists what Betty Friedan was to the feminists of the 60’s. Kollontai encouraged women to take control of their lives, free themselves from the chains of the hearth and be masters of their sexuality. She felt that marriage and the need for ‘love’ were bourgeois and distracted one from true revolutionary productivity.  It was her words,that became (somewhat twisted) the popular creed of the ‘sex movement’ activists:

“The sexual act must be seen not as something shameful and sinful but as something which is as natural as the other needs of a healthy organism-such  as hunger and thirst.”

 Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Relations  http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/theses-morality.htm

 It must be noted here, that Kollontai was just one Bolshevik theorist.  Although her ‘glass of water’ theory was a hit with the people, it was vehemently opposed by many other theorists of the Revolution, Lenin included.

 The Communal Water Jug: Free, Communal Love

 Kollontai was first and foremost an advocated for women’s liberation.  Kollontai specifically encouraged women to become ‘new women’, women of the revolution, stalwart and unshaken by passions and petty feelings of love and jealousy.  The ‘new woman’ should be equal to man in all ways, including in libido and stamina.  Women, together with men should build communism, and not just stay home while their husbands build it. She agreed with Marx and Engels that monogamy and marriage were harmful to ‘the commune’-the basic unit of Communist society.  She writes,

“The stronger the ties between the members of the collective, as a whole, the less the need to reinforce marital relations.”

And she gave the collective a few pointers about how good communist relationships should be:

 ”All sexual relationships must be based on mutual inclination, love, infatuation or passion, and in no case on financial or material motivations.”  The bourgeois marriage, therefore, which was typically a sort of ‘economic arrangement’, was strictly prohibited, as opposed to passion-driven adultery, for instance. 

For some couples, one night stands turn into two night stands, then into year-long posts.  This gives the seeds of love and devotion a place to take root. Such a couple, according to Kollontai, could still be good communists so long as they didn’t let their exclusive love for one another become more important than their love and duty to the collective. Marriage creates a sort of property and property creates jealousy, greed, and selfishness:

 ”A jealous and proprietary attitude to the person loved must be replaced by a comradely understanding of the other and an acceptance of his or her freedom.”

"The Sex Question" Left: Every woman should do her part Right: Every man can and should satisfy his sexual needs

 A communist wife is first and foremost, a communist with a duty to the collective.  Her life, her body and her love are public property and will be utilized in building Communism, however the commune sees fit.  The wife, who once might have accused her husband of checking out her friend’s backside, will put aside her jealousy and recognize that they are all comrades.  Afterall, her friend’s backside is one of the marvelous structures of communism and, therefore, all three should celebrate the glories of Communism together.  

Like for the hippies of Woodstock, in Kollontai’s idealized communist society indiscriminate sexual relationships would build a ‘free love’ utopia.  When two people (or more I suppose) unite sexually they create a bond, a thread which connects them. And from the literal weaving of bodies, Kollontai proclaims, the great tapestry of Communism will be woven:

 “…The more such threads connecting soul to soul, heart to heart, and mind to mind – the more strongly will the spirit of solidarity be inculcated and the easier it will be to attain the ideals of the working class-comradeship and unity.”

 ”Make Way for Winged Eros” (1923) As quoted in Richard Stites, The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism and Bolshevism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp. 346-91.  http://www.worc.ac.uk/CHIC/suffrage/document/sexrevoa.htm

Building Communism is all the foreplay these comrades need

 For those of you who got sucked into this blog thinking it was going to be something pornographic or kinky, here’s my kinky bit of advice, straight from the wisdom of the Bolsheviks.  Some of you may have tried playing ‘master and servant’ to spice up your sex life, but here’s smokin hot idea for role play, maybe as something special for Valentines day:

 “Financially independent and thirsty comrades, openly and unabashedly weaving a communist rug”

 Oh yeah baby…

 Next post: Why Lenin wouldn’t put his lips anywhere near Kollontai’s greasy ‘glass’…

Me in the misty, magical Russian scenery that I will always cherish

One of my Russian friends(raised in S. America, graduated from Moscow State University), after reading my blog about ‘free love’ in Russia, felt the tone was condescending and accusatory.  And I realize it probably did come across as mocking.  It’s tricky for Americans to talk about Russia and vice versa.  It seems like all we know how to do is bitch and bash on one another.  The concept of ‘trash talking’ is a uniquely American form of politics and I don’t want in any way to have my writing be considered such.  I should know better.  Russians and Americans alike are very stubborn when it comes to their self-image and it’s hard to get them to see one another more openly.  My friend made a good point that this sort of ‘eye-rolling’ at other countries, and this ethnocentrism is what has dug America’s foreign policy into a lonely, ignorant pit.  

I remember being so annoyed with the other Americans in my classes at Moscow State University.  They came to Russia, pumped full of facts that their college professors put in their heads, thinking that they knew everything about Russia.  They wanted to learn Russian so that they could better show the Russians just how screwed up they really are.  This always broke my heart.  I came to Russia and fell immediately in love with it, not knowing why.  I felt like a little child at the feet of a great hero, I wanted to learn everything that I could from this wonderful and wise place.  Don’t get me wrong, life was hard in Russia, but it was so worth it.  Those other students are now working for National Security and the CIA, and here I am with nothing but a part-time clerical job and a deep passion for all things Russian.  And if there is anything I had wanted from writing this blog, it was to help Americans better understand Russia, and why I love it so. 

This friend pointed out that our generation needs to start a new trend of international relations.  Ridicule and criticism have obviously not been very effective as a form of foreign policy.  If history teaches us anything, it’s that we should learn from it.  A generation with the reference and resources that we have has no excuse for impudence or ignorance.  

There’s a famous little poem that describes what this blog should be about, but what I lost sight of:

Умом Россию не понять,
Аршином общим не измерить:
У ней особенная стать -
В Россию можно только верить.

This painting by Bilibin is still a scene you might find today in the Russian countryside

Which means, in short, if you want to get to the real Russia, you’ve got to put aside your informative books and start learning about her with your heart. 

In a place as vast as Russia, my experience there was so miniscule.  But if you spend even just 1 day in Russia, and you do it with an open heart, the real Russia comes pouring in. 

These are some of the ways in which Russia flooded my heart:

10.  The Chivalry of Russian Men: I know they have the stereotype of being sloppy chauvanist drunkards, but I find them very attractive.  The Russian men I dated were so attentive to my needs, so chivalrous.  If ever I was out walking with a Russian man and I was holding something, he would always, always, always offer to carry it for me.  You walk into a place and they’ll always try and find a place for you to sit and if it’s dirty they’ll clean it off with their handkerchief.  I was so shocked and touched by this.  On the second date with one of my American boyfriends, the bill came and he said, “Alright, this one’s on me, if you’ll just leave the tip”  This would be disgraceful for a Russian man.

Sweet little old Russian man fishing in the Moscow river

9.  Russians have learned how to do without.  I sat at the table one night with one of those Russian guys I was dating and we both realized that we couldn’t even begin to comprehend how the other had lived.  I couldn’t comprehend that most of his life growing up he had to wear the same pair of pants every day, or that all his family had to eat was potatoes for a year straight.  He couldn’t comprehend what it would be like to just go to the store and buy something just because it was on sale, or to be able to go shopping for FUN. 

8.  Russians cherish things.  A $5 can of caviar(a beloved, reasonably priced food by the Russians)becomes a feast, a reason to invite friends over for tea.  When you’ve gone so long having nothing, everything feels like a bonus, like manna from heaven.

7.  They cherish each other.  Now you wouldn’t know just from walking around on the street in grumpy old Moscow, but Russians have the biggest hearts of anyone.  They make the most loyal and thoughtful friends.  They will never ever forget you.  They know how to take care of one another, and they do.  My Russian girlfriends were so affectionate and caring and my guy friends were so thoughtful and reliable.

6. Russians put their heart into it.  Maybe it’s because of years having a government you couldn’t trust, having a future you couldn’t trust or feeling constant fear, but when Russians find a safe place to open up their heart, it all surges out.  The heart to heart talks begin immediately and never return to small talk.  Russians have faced so many hard times and I am sure that what has gotten them through is how much they need and rely on one another.  You pour your heart out to one another and then you make fun of your situation a bit and then you prepare each other to go back out into the cold and dreary world.  There is no way I would have made it through the miserable winter if it weren’t for all of those warm, wonderful times with my dear friends. 

5.  Russian hospitality.  Cliche? maybe but cliches come to be because they’re just so darn true.  I always told my expat friends in Moscow: If you don’t completely love Russia yet it’s because you haven’t been inside her homes.  There is nothing like being a guest at a Russian house.  They put their whole hearts and even borrow some heart from friends in order to be able to make you know how welcome you are.  They will give you anything, and they often do.  This is not just a show.  If it were just a show they wouldn’t insist that you have more, more, more.  It is a delight and an honor for Russians to host someone.  This is deeply rooted in that rich, Russian soul, they do it with pride and love.  You can taste it in the food, there is no better meal than a ’skromniy’ meal made just for you by a babushka. 

4.  Russian humor.  They may seem very serious, but Russian know very well how to laugh at very desperate situations.  It was the dark humor, the pathetic and kind of funny situations of Chekhov’s short stories that first drew me to Russia.  It’s what attracts so many people to Russian literature. They have learned how to take control of their situation…by laughing at it.  And this laughter, too, is a delicacy–manna  from heaven.

With one of my first and best Russian friends

3.  They only make fun of themselves. If someone walked into an American high school with clothes that were outdated, they’d be mocked and alienated immediately.  Americans like to just mock people for no good reason, and this hurts and isolates everyone.  Never ever did I hear a Russian make a snide remark about someone on the metro who was having a bad hair day.  Never ever did my Russian girlfriends talk crap about our other friends behind their back.  The only ridicule I ever heard from Russians was about things that they felt needed to be fixed, and they’d say it to your face, giving you a chance to address the issue.  I will take harsh, but true comments like, “you’re gaining weight”, any day over the petty back-stabbing that happens in American circles.

2.  Russians are humble…in a uniquely Russian way.  “Never underestimate the Russian people’s ability to suffer”.  -Winston Churchill.  Russians know how to suffer and they do so with such grace and sweet humility.  This is the Russians’ strength and their weakness.  I remember being so shocked when I got home from Russia and I was waiting for my luggage and the conveyor belt broke.  The whole line of people who were waiting starting throwing a fit and yelling at the workers, we were waiting for maybe 5 minutes.  This scene would have never happened among Russians.  Russians don’t have the sense of entitlement which I think is something that comes with an American birth certificate. 

1.  I believe in Russia. The most important historical information that you should take with you to Russia, is an understanding of everything these people have been through.  The Russians don’t throw fits and make demands, so it’s easy to forget that life has been pretty rough for them for quite a while now.  I remember looking at the people as I went down the long escalators and trying to comprehend: these are the people who lived through the collapse, these people lived under Stalin, these people had loved ones in the Gulags.  I wanted to hear everyone’s stories.  For as wise as so many Russian writers were, there is no one wiser than the citizen who lives through the troubles, never thinking that they’re making history.  The Russians are wise and humble and resiliant, and I believe there is so much to be learned from them.  But you can’t do it through reading about communism, or discussing the ‘Slav question’.  I love making clever remarks about this or that contradiction in Russian society, I love pointing out idiosyncracies.  But the Russia that I love most is the Russia that doesn’t make for the most enticing blog titles. 

Nesterov

But that’s okay, because everything I’ve learned from Russia is something so precious to me, and I don’t expect you to be able to understand it with your mind…