Russian state of mind

This story happened to the author of this blog, so everything written below is quite subjective.

Anyway, I went to visit friends in Berlin. And I've found a Russian store named guess how — "Russia".

Store "Russia" Stuttgarter Pl. 36, 10627 Berlin The Russian grocery store "Russia" is located in Berlin's Charlotteburg district and is open 24 hours a day.

This store looks like a machine not only of time but of space - it feels like I was thrown back to the Russian provinces, such a real country store, even 20 years ago.

Eh, nostalgia – even though I am not that old yet. Still It's such a special place - the quintessence of everything Russian, including Tetya Galya, who in the cafe nearby to the store berates our government while her husband eating shashlik with Baltika beer - still the most famous Russian beer abroad.

And then I thought, what if my friends from Berlin taste a Russian beer? What would they say?

And I was expecting the following reaction:

- "Ew, what a disgusting thing you brought us, we're in Germany, the beer heart of the world and this universe." Very often, friends, there's an opinion that Russian beer (how shall I put it gently) is awful against the background of German, Czech, British, and any foreign beer in general.

But still I’ve decided to give this experiment a chance.

So, I have chosen the basis of the basics of Russian brewing - the company Baltika

Zhigulevskoye highest grade

Baltika 7 premium

Baltika non-filtered wheat ale

Prices - about the same as the average German beer - 1.5 euros per bottle. In Russia it would cost about 1 euro, so the difference is not critical.

First we tasted Zhigulevskoye. And I was already anticipating how after the first sip my friend was going to say: "No thank you, leave it to your russian gopniks".

But no! He liked it! (And he, believe me, knows a lot about beer).

"Good lager, full-bodied. But the same German beer will cost cheaper so it makes no sense for me personally to buy this beer, but in general it is tasty". Baltika 7 received the same rating.

But then my friend was really delighted with the non-filtered wheat ale Baltika!

On February 17, 2022, there was major drama in the women's singles skating at these Winter Olympics.

Two Russian athletes won a gold and a silver medal. Everybody was expecting all three medals, but Kamila Valieva, who was predicted to win gold, couldn't handle her emotions.

All because of the recent doping scandal.

The Russian ROC team was represented by three skaters at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing: Kamila Valieva, Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova - the top three in the last Russian championships in this discipline, and all disciples of coach Eteri Tutberidze, who has already changed the face of women's skating.

All of them are already world stars, setting new records and winning gold medals, and figure skating fans around the world have even nicknamed Trusova the "Russian Rocket" for her quadruple jumps.

Doping scandal

Kamila Valieva won the team event, becoming the first woman to perform a quadruple jump at the Olympics. All eyes turned to her, marveling at her flexibility and grace, and expecting her to win a gold medal as an individual.

But the awards ceremony, scheduled for February 7, was postponed for unknown reasons, and finally a doping scandal erupted because of the test Valieva had taken in December 2021. Until the last moment, it was unclear whether the figure skater would be allowed to compete in the women's singles.

"No amount of doping is going to help an athlete jump quadruples and grace," coach Tutberidze said, commenting on the allegedly positive doping test.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport had to make an urgent decision on the case - and decided to allow Kamila to perform as an individual.

Individual results

The women's individual skating consisted of two events - a short program on February 15 and a free program on February 17. At the training Valieva, 15, began to show nervousness; it was obvious that she was emotionally and psychologically exhausted from the additional workload. However, in the short program, she showed her skills without mistakes and took first place, receiving 82.16 points.

Anna Shcherbakova took the second place and Alexandra Trusova came in third after her unsuccessful fall to Kaori Sakamoto of Japan, finishing in the fourth place.

The free skating was to determine the final points and medals. Alexandra Trusova had a superb performance and was the first skater ever to successfully complete FIVE four jumps in an Olympic event, with a record 177 points in free skating.

Reigning world champion Anna Shcherbakova also performed well, landing two quadruple jumps and coming out on top in both the short program and free skating.

Kamila Valieva, who was expected to win, fell twice and made multiple free skating mistakes. She left the ice in tears. "You refused to fight there?" said Tutberidze, greeting the athlete off the ice.

Famous Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova, who has raised several Olympic champions, thought Kamila was broken before the women's singles skating. "How can you comfort Kamila? They killed her, killed her, killed her and finally killed her. We saw that today," Tarasova said.

Anna Shcherbakova won gold, Alexandra Trusova got a silver medal and Kaori Sakamoto of Japan took bronze. Kamila Valieva was in fourth position after two programs.

Drama outside the rink

While Anna was undoubtedly happy, Alexandra Trusova was not satisfied with the silver. She couldn't handle the emotional stress and burst into tears after the final results. "I hate the sport, I will never go out on the ice again," she screamed to her coaching team. Trusova was mostly disappointed because despite all her records and jumps, she had never won gold in an adult tournament in her entire career - only silver and bronze medals.

At the press conference, Alexandra managed to contain her emotions and did not blame her coaches or anyone else for her results. She also said that it was psychologically hard for her to be at the Olympics alone for three weeks without her mom and dogs.

Evgenia Medvedeva, who won silver at the previous Winter Olympics and also expected to win gold, comforted Trusova: "It was a great free skating, and you will have gold medals in the future," Medvedeva wrote on Instagram, adding that she has several gold medals in her career, but she is not able to repeat what Trusova can do.

The Olympic Committee had previously announced that if Valiyeva took one of the podium spots, there would be no award because of the doping scandal. "Well, at least now they won't cancel the ceremony," Valieva said after the results were announced.

Five Russian films are presented at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.

What is brought to Berlin from Russia?

A rare, almost unique case: in different programs of the show five films by Russian directors.

Brat vo vsyom

Alexander Zolotukhin's drama "Brat vo vsyom" (Brother in Everything) is in the honorary Encounters section (the purpose of which is to support new figures in cinema and the diversity of artistic expressions).

by Alexander Zolotukhin, Russia 2022, Language Russian, Subtitles: English, 80min, Colour

Zolotukhin in his new work once again turns to military themes, but concentrates on the formation of personality. The main characters, twins Andrew and Mitya, are studying to be military pilots. On the way to the goal will have to grow up and make decisions on their own.One brother is stubborn, the other is calm and reasonable. Despite their different characters, they are inseparable.

Zolotukhin examines how such temperaments manifest themselves in difficult, extreme circumstances. The film was shot at an air training camp, at an airfield with a runway. The soundtrack is classical music.

Produkty 24

In "Panorama" program - Mikhail Borodin's debut feature film "Produkty 24"

Russian Federation / Slovenia / Turkey 2022, Language: Uzbek, Russian, Subtitles: English, 106min, Colour

The film is based on a true story about modern-day slavery among migrants.

"Produkty 24" is a "direct-to-video movie": what is shown in the film is still happening.

The plot is built around the heroine, her name is Muhabbat. She lives and works in a grocery store on the outskirts of Moscow. It is one of the many small, inconspicuous retail outlets in the basement of a high-rise. Almost all the employees are migrants. Muhabbat has no money and no documents, she can't escape, but one day she manages to do so. Only it turns out that to get to freedom is easier than later to survive.

"Produkty 24" is not just about slavery and migrants and the economic and environmental crisis. It is a personal touching story about a woman, a mother, love and friendship, justice and dreams.

Just as the ancient Greeks recognised themselves in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Germans in the works of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the French in Victor Hugo, so the Russian man finds himself in Pushkin's heroes.

As Nikolai Gogol remarked, Pushkin is "a Russian man in his development, Russian nature, Russian soul, Russian language, Russian character are reflected in him with the same purity, in the same purified beauty as the landscape is reflected on the convex surface of the optical glass".

Everyone in Russia has his own Pushkin: some are interested in his tales, some enjoy his lyrics or clarity of thought expressed in prose. But at the same time he is one for all. Why?

"I am far from admiring everything I see around me; as a writer I am saddened..., many things disgust me, but I swear to you on my honor-no way in the world would I want to change my homeland, or have a different history than that of our ancestors, as God gave it to us".

Pushkin's letter to P. Y. Chaadayev 1836.

Perhaps because Pushkin's work and his life came at the time of the formation of the national culture of the New Age, when its language and its future were defined. It was Pushkin who was to complete the formation of the literary language, begun by his predecessors in the 18th century.

It was during Autumn, his favorite season, that Pushkin completed the main work on his novel in verse, Eugene Onegin. It turned out to be not only one of the most famous works of Russian literature – the novel has been translated into almost twenty languages — but also a real "encyclopaedia'' of Russian life.

I loved you once, and still, perhaps, love's yearning

Within my soul has not quite burned away.

But may it nevermore you be concerning;

I would not wish you sad in any way.

My love for you was wordless, hopeless cruelly,

Drowned now in shyness, now in jealousy,

And I loved you so tenderly, so truly,

As God grant by another you may be.

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin,

translation by Julian Henry Lowenfeld

In February 1831 Alexander Pushkin finally married Natalia Goncharova.

"I am married - and happy; my only wish is that nothing in my life has changed - I will not wait for a better one. This state is so new to me that it seems I have been reborn".

- The poet wrote to his friend, literary critic Peter Pletnev, shortly after the wedding.

In autumn 1836 Pushkin was in a depressed state: after the death of his mother, the poet conducted endless negotiations with his son-in-law on the division of the estate, tried to keep afloat publishing house, wallowing in debt.

The situation was exacerbated by a deliberately explicit and persistent courting cavalry guard Georges Dantes for Natalia Goncharova, which caused an incredible amount of the dirtiest gossip in society. "Having lost all patience," Pushkin sent Dantes' foster father "a letter in the highest degree of insult," which became the formal occasion for the duel, which took place on January 27, 1837 on the Black River.

The bullet broke the neck of Pushkin's thigh and penetrated into the stomach. For that time such a wound was fatal, as the poet himself knew. A few days later, on February 10, Alexander Pushkin died of peritonitis.

For some decades after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 it seemed to many that the historical role of the poet is over and he should be referred to the category of the completed - classical - phenomena of literature.

There is no other poet in our history, with whom the public consciousness could so easily continue the long-overdue "heart-to-heart" conversation, so vividly "aroused" was not and is not.

February 10 is a Pushkin Memorial Day in Russia

Pushkin's family was of noble descent from Radsha and Hannibal, which gave his appearance an Arabian appearance, but at the same time he adored everything Russian.

Alexander Pushkin was hot-tempered, bullying, restless, sharp-tongued, loved jokes and had a considerable sense of inner dignity.

Despite the fact that a descendant of Hannibal could not be considered the height of physical beauty, with a height of 166.7 cm (2 inches and a half) and a very unassuming appearance, he himself loved a lot and was loved by women.

During the wedding of the 32-year-old poet with Natalya Goncharova, who was eighteen at that time, an unpleasant incident happened: the ring slipped out of the groom's hands and fell on the floor, and the candle went out to finish it all. Pushkin considered it an evil omen, very upset, but was still happy with family life, faithfully loved his beautiful wife, was faithful to her according to the memories of witnesses, as she was faithful to him.

Wife - the height of perfection was 6 cm above him, because of which the poet a little complexed and tried to keep away from his wife at balls. Her wife was not against such a husband's aloofness, she loved to dance, shine, admiring people around her and catching admiring glances, though she was impeccable in her behavior.

The poet was exceptionally efficient, overnight he could write a poem or several poems to order, but even this did not save the family from constant material need - the debts did not end.

And few people know about the poet's rare hobby: boxing. Alexander Sergeyevich was engaged in this sport and even subscribed from England a magazine devoted to it.

The poet was fluent in foreign languages: English, French, Greek, German, Spanish, Italian and Latin, he mastered Slavic languages. His library had three and a half thousand volumes of books, most of them in a foreign language.

Pushkin and Tsar Nicholas I carried on a personal correspondence, although they disapproved of each other's deeds and activities.

After the poet's death, the emperor paid all his debts, and the state maintenance was assigned to his widow and children.

Is it really like that?

Moscow ranked third on the UN-HABITAT City Prosperity Index. The Russian capital surpassed Sydney, London and Paris.

UN experts analysed the following indicators of 29 major cities around the world by evaluating settlements on the quality of the environment, access to electricity and drinking water, as well as infrastructure, beautification, social integration, quality of life and so on.

First and second place went to Singapore and Toronto. Sydney, London, Paris, Madrid, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and New York are also in the top ten.

But this raises questions for many people, both Muscovites themselves and those who constantly follow these rankings and have never seen Moscow in the top 10 before.

"Perhaps the results obtained cause some surprise and even distrust among some experts. But, in fact, we are so used to enjoying the benefits of our city that we often do not give an account of what level of development Moscow has achieved in recent years," commented Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, in his blog.

It also tops the ratings for infrastructure development and quality of life!

Infrastructure - 1 place

Moscow topped the ranking of infrastructure development, overtaking Hong Kong.

The index of infrastructure development takes into account the housing and social infrastructure, information and communication technology, urban mobility and other indicators.

Quality of life - 1 place

Moscow also took first place in the quality of life rating, which takes into account a total of 14 indicators, such as health, education, recreation, safety and others.

So, Moscow - what are its obvious PROs?

It has a public health care system (health insurance free for everyone and you don't have to pay for ambulance)

60 universities Most universities are public and have free tuition. Universities offer a ranking system of admission and a certain number of free places - everything depends on the aggregate results of the final examinations from school. Some universities have separate entrance examinations.

There are 185 museums in the city One of the highest rates among the cities in terms of leisure and cultural development

The average bill in most restaurants $15-20 One main course + a glass of wine + dessert

150 public WIFI spots (That's a lot! That's more than Rome's 88)

Transportation costs $0.68 per ticket Which is much lower than the fare in many cities, with subway trains running every two minutes and delays or delays being a rarity.

Monthly fare is $30.51

The cost of 1 litre of fuel - $0, 67

The average price of a 0.5l beer is $0.89.

Cost per Big Mac is $2.7 The Big Mac Index was introduced by The Economist as an unofficial way to measure purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies. The Big Mac PPP exchange rate between two countries is determined by dividing the price of a Big Mac in one country (in its currency) by the price of a Big Mac in the other country (in its currency). (London, Paris - $4,93)

Average price of a standard one-bedroom apartment rent is $915.73

The median price of a standard one-bedroom apartment in the city center indicates how much of your salary will be used to pay rent and is an indicator of the cost of living in the city

The homicide rate per 100,000 residents is 4.9

A lower homicide rate describes safer cities and a better quality of life. 4.9 is lower than New York City (6.4).

Unemployment rate 0.4%

The number of dollar billionaires is 82. More only in New York - there out of 92 (only by 10).

Maximum income tax is 34%. The minimum is 13%.

* Following a ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency for doping violations, Russian athletes are banned from competing in the Olympic Games under their flag and anthem until December 16, 2022. Thus, just as at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, in Beijing the Russian team will perform under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). And instead of the Russian anthem, gold medals will be awarded to Russian athletes to the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 by Tchaikovsky.

In what sports and disciplines will Russian athletes compete for medals?

Figure skating

The main suppliers of gold at the Winter Games are Russian figure skaters. With the best of luck, Russia can count on 9 medals – 4 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze. Gold can be taken in women's singles skating (here can be the whole set), pairs skating and ice dancing, where there are two strong pairs from Russia, and in the team tournament. Kamila Valieva and Anna Shcherbakova are current European and world champions. Alexander Galliamov and Anastasia Mishina are current European and World champions. Viktoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov are the current European and World champions.

*Viktoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov In Men's Singles Mark Kondratyuk could be in contention for a medal. Russia’s main rivals in ice dancing will be Frenchmen Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron.

Cross-Country Skiing

Russian athletes can win 1 gold, 1 or 2 silver and 1 or 2 bronze medals.

*Alexander Bolshunov

Alexander Bolshunov is the main star for the Russians – he took three silvers and a bronze at the PyeongChang Games. Bolshunov was the first Russian to win the World Cup (twice), won the most difficult Tour de Ski, collected eight World Cup medals, including gold in the skiathlon a year ago. It's about time he put himself in contention for an Olympic gold medal.

He will be joined by two-time world champion Sergey Ustyugov. He missed out on last season because of a coronavirus, but this year the Russian has had an impressive World Cup start with three individual podiums and a good battle with Johannes Klebo in the relay.

If Alexander Terentyev heals from his micro-injury, he has a good chance to win medals up to gold in the team sprint.

*Natalia Nepryaeva

Natalia Nepryaeva, who has a bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics, silver (2021) and bronze medals at the World Championships (2019), as well as the first victory in the Tour De Ski for Russian women, will fight for medals. Together with Yulia Stupak, she can compete for a medal in the team sprint as well.

Biathlon

The team counts on 2 medals in biathlon, one of which is a gold medal. The main hope for the Russians is Alexander Loginov, Eduard Latypov and Kristina Reztsova.

*Alexander Loginov

Snowboard/Freestyle

There are going to be a great number of sets of medals in these events – 11 and 13, respectively. Russia expects 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. We hope for Dmitry Loginov in snowboarding, who has three World Cup golds under his belt in recent years and is in the top-3 of the World Cup overall standings this season. Vic Wylde, a two-time champion at the 2014 Olympics, retreated into the shadows after his triumph in Sochi, but in the last year he began to return to his former heights.

*Dmitry Loginov

The mixed cross-country skiing tournament, making its debut at the 2022 Olympics, could also bring medals. Lubov Nikitina, Pavel Krotov and Maksim Burov were first at the 2021 World Championships.

And at other competitions free stylists perform steadily, finding themselves on the podium.

Russia also has a 2021 World Champion in Big-Air - Anastasia Tatalina.

Hockey

The Russian men's hockey team is flying to Beijing to defend its Olympic title and, given that there will again be no players from the NHL, has every chance of success.

Curling

Each of us starts the day... no, not with coffee. But with a view of stories in instagram! Let's take a look at what Russians like the most!

* Virgin. You haven't promised anyone anything yet this year. Everything from last year doesn't count.

1. Horoscopes!!!

And for the past two years, one million Russian-speaking people in these stories appear in horoscopes from the gypsy Luladzha. Of course, she's no gypsy, and her horoscope is not real ... ironic and cynical, in which all coincidences are random.

But it's funny and always can relate.

Luladzha: "There are times when you write something that isn't flattering to a member of that zodiac sign, and a comment comes up: 'That's not about us!' Then others come along and say, "It's about you, you just don't notice!" That's how you have to balance the jokes and the shitting."

@lulagoroskop

2.Intellectual memes about exes and eternal douchebags

By modern standards, the account does not have many subscribers - 200 thousand, but the audience is urban, well acquainted with the unobvious work of various artists, and therefore intellectual. Nastya, the girl who leads this account, finds random interviews, slices them up, and then adds a funny caption. For example, "When my Bank sends me my balance," and Tarkovsky says, "This is no place for happiness. Or this: in response to the phrase "Describe your life," Brodsky replies: "An optimistic tragedy, it's not at all clear what it is, but in general it kind of sounds like it."

Nastya: "I don't know [why cultural memes have become popular]. Is it because everyone wants to be smarter than they are? But looking at mine specifically, people probably just like to associate themselves with these cool old guys because they really are cool guys".

@llllllll1111llllllllll

To read Part 1 click here

Vasily Vereshchagin

A battlefield artist, Vereshchagin painted what he saw with his own eyes. He visited many wars and traveled the world from India to Syria. His exhibitions in New York and London, he himself organized - often displaying there and trophies from the battlefield.

But his "Apotheosis of War" is an exception, a subject entirely invented by him. On the frame the artist wrote: "Dedicated to all the great conquerors - past, present and future."

Karl Bryullov

Was one of the best portrait painters of his time. He painted ceremonial and chamber portraits of Russian aristocracy, went to receptions with the emperor, and was acquainted with Pushkin. But all this was after twelve years in Italy: for six of these years Bryullov worked on his monumental work "The Last Day of Pompeii". The artist received a grand prize at the Paris exhibition and recognition in Europe and Russia.

Ivan Kramskoy

It has not yet been established who the young woman depicted in the portrait of the ideologue of Russian Itinerantism is. The artist chose to preserve the intrigue and did not reveal her identity even in the diaries and notes discovered after his death. Today one of the most emblematic portraits in Russian painting is called the "Russian Mona Lisa"

Konstantin Korovin

A vivid representative of "Russian Impressionism," Korovin was inspired by Paris and painted many of his best landscapes there. Not surprisingly, he had great success in France: there he became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and received gold and silver medals for his works.

But after the revolution in his homeland, the artist decided to flee the country of the Soviets - the policy of the new government, he gravitated. In 1922 he received permission to leave - for medical treatment and a personal exhibition - but never returned. He stayed, of course, in Paris.

Isaac Levitan

Levitan was in love with the Russian countryside and became a master of the "mood landscape" - for this he was eventually given the title of academician. But the way to this for a Jewish artist was long: some of Levitan's teachers thought that a Jew should not touch the Russian landscape, it was the destiny of native Russian artists. Because of his Jewishness, he was also expelled from the capital by tsarist decree.

Yuri Pimenov

Pimenov faithfully served the policies of the Communist Party in the arts. He painted idyllic pictures of Soviet life and heroized factory and factory workers during the darkest times of Stalin's purges. His "New Moscow" is one of the best examples of socialist realism: a woman, as a symbol of the new era, rides through a blooming Moscow. It is supposed to be about an equally bright and beautiful future.

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

He was the son of a shoemaker who wanted to paint icons. Although he did not succeed in icon painting, his Messiah in the form of a young man on a red horse brought him worldwide fame. Created a few years before the Russian Revolution, this painting is considered prophetic and has many interpretations. According to one version, the horse is Russia, which in the 20th century awaited a "red" fate.

Today is the 26th anniversary of Brodsky's death.

Joseph Brodsky (24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996)

Joseph Brodsky was born in 1940, in Leningrad, and began writing poetry when he was eighteen. Anna Akhmatova soon recognized in the young poet the most gifted lyric voice of his generation.

From March 1964 until November 1965, Brodsky lived in exile in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia; he had been sentenced to five years in exile at hard labor for "social parasitism," but did not serve out his term.

On June 4, 1972, Joseph Brodsky became an involuntary exile from his native country.

After brief stays in Vienna and London, he came to the United States. He has been Poet-in-Residence and Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, Queens College, Smith College, Columbia University, and Cambridge University in England.

Brodsky passionately loved Venice. He came here seventeen times and always in winter.

He wrote a postcard essay to this city, "Watermark".

Brodsky's short book is an autobiographical essay, a kind of poetry in prose, recounting Brodsky's relationship with Venice. In about half a hundred short chapters, each devoted to a different episode from the author's visits to the city (or his thoughts), he describes its atmosphere. "It is all written in short, closed passages, where in each passage one picture or one feeling is described. And these are pictures either from his various impressions of Venice (where he visited every winter) or his ideas of Venice as they were before emigration. People connected with Venice in one way or another (there, in Italy or in Russia) and people with whom he may not have seen in Venice himself, but who, before him, without him, besides him, had been to Venice, or wrote about Venice.

Joseph Brodsky died in New York on the night of January 28. According to medical experts, his heart stopped suddenly - a heart attack, the fifth in a row. Brodsky's first burial was temporary - the body in a coffin lined with zinc was placed in a crypt at the Church of the Holy Trinity on the banks of the Hudson.

According to the poet's widow Maria (née Sozzani, an Italian aristocrat with Russian roots): "The idea of a funeral in Venice was suggested by a friend. It was the city that, apart from St. Petersburg, Joseph loved most of all.

On June 21, 1997, Brodsky's body was reburied in the San Michele cemetery.

On the back of the monument is an inscription in Latin - a line from the ancient Roman poet Propertius' elegy, which means: "With death not all things end."

On Brodsky's grave visitors leave poems, letters, pebbles, photographs, pencils, and cigarettes - as we know, Joseph was a heavy smoker.

Postscriptum

What a pity, that what your existance has become for me,

is not the same as

what my existance has become for you.

...And again, on an empty lot

I'm launching into the wire cosmos

my copper penny, decorated with the emblem,

in a desperate attempt to glorify

the moment of the link...Alas,

all that a man, who isn't able to replace the world

with himself, can generally do

Is to rotate the chipped disk of a payphone

Like a table during a seance,

Until a ghost responds with an echo

Mikhail Baryshnikov – who is he and why has the image of a typical Russian in exile become entrenched?

Baryshnikov is well known to the Western world as Alexander Petrovsky, Cary's "final" boyfriend from the last season of "Sex and the City". Baryshnikov in the series appeared not only in the role of an intelligent man and a talented artist, but that same Russian, who always kisses the lady's hand and takes her to the best restaurants with a horse-drawn carriage, but in return demands unconditional love.

But who is Baryshnikov in a real life and is he really the best incarnation of a Russian in the Western world?

„The more injuries you get, the smarter you get.“

He has been called the greatest ballet dancer of the last century. He is one of the chosen Russians who influenced the fate of world ballet. His emigration was a gain for the United States - the media started talking about how the country could now rightfully be called the ballet power of the world. His admirers simply called him Misha, while critics declared that Baryshnikov was the only Russian in the United States with 100 percent recognizability.

Baryshnikov was born January 27, 1948, in Riga.

Since childhood, Mikhail Baryshnikov dreamed of performing on stage, but the problem was his short stature - the dancer is 168 cm tall and weighs 65 kg.

His mother committed suicide when Mikhail was 12 years old.

A few years later, Baryshnikov moved to Leningrad, where he began choreographing and very quickly made it to the famous Mariinsky Theater. Baryshnikov instantly became famous.

In 1973, the artist was allowed to organize a creative evening and choose his own repertoire. He invited contemporary choreographers to stage one-act ballet dances. At the evening the dancer performed "Prodigal Son", "Divertissement", "Daphnis and Chloe" - this was the pinnacle of his work in Russia.

„Children being left, it's not always like books of Charles Dickens. When you lose your parents in childhood, it's a fact of life, and, you know, human beings are extraordinary powerful survivors. My mother commit suicide. I was lucky it was not in front of me. O. K.? Which is truth, and Father was confused, and we never had any relationship, serious relationship. I never knew my father, in a way. But what? It's made me different? No, I mean. I blame for every fuckups in my life my parents? No. [Pause] I got lucky. I fell in love with dance.“

(in the interview for The New Yorker)

In the summer of 1974, Mikhail Baryshnikov did not return from his Canadian tour and became a non-returnee. The artist asked for political asylum, although the decision to stay in the West was difficult for him.

Baryshnikov was immediately invited to join the American Ballet Theatre company, where he became the company's premiere and then director.

His next step was modern, which is as highly regarded in America as classical ballet. And here he surpassed himself, showing a new level of male dance, infusing it with aesthetics and beauty. His solo ballets are monologue-confessions in which the transience of life, the inevitability of death, and reflections on creativity come to the fore.

The vivid temperament of the artist could not help but have an impact on Mikhail's private life. He was credited with affairs not only with his partners on stage, such as Gelsie Kirkland, but also with the most brilliant representatives of the cinema and show business - Sharon Stone and Isabella Rossellini. The dancer himself was reserved in conversations with reporters on personal subjects, for which he was even nicknamed the man in the box.

Mikhail has always been a lover of a busy social life - he could often be found at Studio54 in New York, as well as in the top restaurants of Paris, where he was friends with the local social elite, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, as she mentioned in her diaries.

His life in America did not resemble the sufferings of an emigrant. Mikhail Baryshnikov personally knew Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Diana, and was friends with Joseph Brodsky. He owns the popular Russian restaurant Samovar, located on Central Street in New York, in the house where Frank Sinatra used to live, and there were jazz clubs all around. In Baryshnikov's restaurant one could often also hear his friend Joseph Brodsky singing to the accompaniment of the dancer himself. Friends liked to perform Russian romances for their friends.

In August 2017, Baryshnikov was included in Forbes' top 100 influential Russians of the century.

Russian indeed?

As the dancer told an American Times reporter in one of his interviews, during his childhood years in Latvia he felt like an outsider. Baryshnikov attributes this to the personality of his father, who served in the Soviet army, which allegedly occupied Latvia according to those views.

I did not feel comfortable in Russia either, where I was perceived as a provincial Latvian, always looking like a Westerner.

And yet it was the USSR that opened the door to his brilliant career, gave him an education, a punchy character, intelligence and charisma - and by doing so he conquered the world.

Today Russia celebrates Student Day!

And a real Russian student is a lazy student.

That's why there are a million superstitions in Russia for students in case of exams. They say that if you do it right, you can even learn nothing.

Don't wash your hair before the exam And don't shave (well, for those who have something to shave). This omen has a "scientific" explanation: the teacher can not recognize you in your new appearance, and will not believe that you were sitting in his lectures.

Sleep with books Put under the pillow all that you studied for this exam. Lecture notes, book and notebooks. It is believed that this way the knowledge will definitely get into the student's brain.

Secret spell “Khalyava Pridi” Favorite thing to do! At midnight, you must climb out the window, waving your open transcript (marksheet) and shout “Khalyava Pridi” which means "Freebie, come".

After that, you must close the credit card and never open it until after the exam.

5 cents brings you luck Before you go to the exam, you must put a five cent coin in the shoe under the heel. This omen is more likely to come from the student days of our parents. It was believed that a "5 cent" under the heel would guarantee a 5 at the exam which is the highest grade.

To be scolded

During the exam, one of your friends or family (or both at the same time) must always scold you. If not with the gross words, then at least more or less censorious and widely known. That's when you'll be remembered! Whether the omen works or not, it is hard to say, but it gives a lot of pleasure to the scolding party.

What do you think the first thing foreigners do when they come to Russia for work or permanent residence?

Learn the language?

No! They start a blog and talk about what Russia is really like!

Let's see what expats write about, trying to adjust to the unfamiliar way of life in Russia.

The Interculturalist Writes About the Things He Never Did Until He Lived in Russia

Wore slippers at home. In Russia there’s a whole slipper culture.  When guests arrive at your home, they take off their shoes and you’re supposed to supply them with slippers.  When you get home, you take off your own shoes and put on slippers.  I adopted this habit because A) I always took my shoes/boots off when I came home because they were usually filthy, B) my flat was cold, C) the floors in my flat weren’t of the highest quality and D) slippers really are comfortable!  I’ve even had this habit carry over now that I’ve returned to the United States and I can’t imagine walking in my house barefoot or wearing only socks.

Danced all night.

In the United States, bars and clubs usually close around 2AM but in Russia they stay open until 6AM.  So it wasn’t uncommon to have a night out with friends that meant staying up all night and returning home around 7AM

Ate at McDonald’s.

I don’t if there are any significant differences between McDonald’s in the United States and the ones in Russia but, in my opinion, the food at the ones in Russia tastes better.  It seems to have more flavor and is not as greasy or sickening.  I don’t eat McDonald’s when I’m in the US but doing so didn’t seem quite so bad while living in Russia.  Maybe it wasn’t even healthier, but it definitely tasted better and also gave a level of comfort and familiarity, despite the small differences in taste.

Drank tea.

Like most people, I’d always associated tea with England.  I had no idea that Russians drank so much tea.  While I rarely drank tea on my own, it was something of a social activity at work and I soon found myself mindlessly drinking cup after cup of tea throughout the work day.  At home I never drank tea but always kept some on hand in case I had Russian friends visiting.

Accepted cheating as a normal form of behaviour. 

In this context I’m talking about students cheating on tests although I’ve heard that cheating in relationships is also quite common.  As a teacher I was told to expect my students to cheat and this was part of the culture.  They weren’t cheating, they were helping their friends.  The first time I saw students blatantly cheating, I was shocked.  But as time went by I got used to it and came to expect it.

Had two front doors. 

No, there weren’t two separate entrances to my flat.  There was one entrance with two doors.  There’s a lovely picture here.  So strange and I don’t know if it was for security reasons or maybe to keep heat inside the flat.

Ate caviar when it wasn’t a special occasion.  

Many people associate caviar with Russia but also with special occasions.  It’s often thought that eating caviar and drinking champagne (or vodka) is the height of sophistication.  But in Russia caviar can be eaten any time and is often served on pancakes (blini) or on bread with butter.

The opening of the Bolshoi Theatre took place on January 18, 1825.

The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, located in the center of the capital, on Theatre Square, is one of the symbols of Russia and the brilliant skill of its artists. It's talented performers, vocalists and ballet dancers, composers and conductors, and choreographers are known throughout the world.

World premieres of operas by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Arensky have taken place here. The great Rachmaninoff conducted here.

Interesting facts about the Bolshoi Theatre.

Originally, the Bolshoi Theatre was called Petrovsky.

The first building of the theatre was never completed - it burned down as a result of a fire, so the construction had to start again.

The current building of the Bolshoi Theatre is the fourth in number and was erected in 1835. The second and third buildings suffered the same fate as the first - they burned to the ground.

For the whole time of its existence, the Bolshoi Theatre has staged over 800 different performances.

The first Bolshoi Theatre troupe included only 43 people.

There was a Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg, too. It opened four years after its Moscow counterpart, but in 1886 it was closed.

Despite the fact that St. Petersburg was the capital of the Russian Empire for a long time, the Russian monarchs often attended performances at the Bolshoi Theatre, although they had to travel more than 800 kilometers for that.

During World War II, the Bolshoi Theatre building was camouflaged as an ordinary apartment building in order to save it from targeted bombing. Nevertheless, in 1941 one bomb did hit the building.

One of the most recognizable details of its interior are the chandeliers. During the Second World War, they survived only by miracle, as they were removed and transported to safety just one day before the building was hit by an aerial bomb, the only one in the entire war. It didn't destroy the structure, but the chandeliers still would hardly have survived its impact.

The chandelier over the historic Bolshoi stage weighs about 2.3 tons. It consists of more than 20,000 crystal crystals, which themselves weigh about 260 kilograms. At a height of 8.5 meters the chandelier has a diameter of 6.5 meters.

The Bolshoi Theatre building is on the Russian 100 rubles bill

Actors of the Bolshoi Theatre from time to time tour Russia and other countries of the world, so famous performances can be seen not only in Russia's most famous theatre, but also in other places.

The names are not traditionally translated into other languages. Therefore, in English, for example, it would be correct to say "Bolshoi Theatre" instead of using the words "Big" or "Large" - the literal meaning of word Bolshoi.

Today its theatrical troupe includes more than a thousand artists from different countries.

How much one pays for the ticket in 2021-22:

First place in the ranking of the most expensive performances was taken by the opera The Queen of Spades, the part of Herman in which is performed by the Azerbaijani singer Yusif Eyvazov.

"They don't shoot like this anymore" - they say with nostalgia about Soviet comedies. These tapes have been popular for decades: the familiar characters with their incredible adventures still make adults and children laugh.

Perhaps it's hard for a person unfamiliar with Russian history, the Soviet way of life or the cultural code of the Soviet man to understand how Lukashin from "The Irony of Fate" could have mistaken St. Petersburg for Moscow, arrived at the address "at home" and wandered into his (spoiler - someone else's) apartment without noticing the catch.

Or How can one understand where in a simple Soviet apartment - Three tape recorders, three foreign film cameras, three cigarette cases domestic, suede jacket ... Three... Or why caviar, eggplant caviar, is a delicacy, but you can eat black and red caviar with spoons.

Similarly, it is difficult to understand the wordplay and subtle humor of Soviet comedies. - Are you a son of a bitch, an impostor, squandering the government lands?! You can't spare any parishes!

In these and many other phrases there will always be references to the history or culture of our state. And it is put in a joke... it's almost impossible to get by a person from abroad.

But, anyone who really wants to understand Russia even a little bit should watch these comedies at least because we have half the country talking in phrases from these comedies - yes, literally every day.

You'll find out that "I'll tear your jaws out and poke your blinkers out" is... a joke, not a threat. And that "Student, Komsomol girl, athlete, and just plain pretty!" shouldn't offend your political beliefs in any way.

In short, just to understand Russia a little closer, be sure to watch these comedies.

1. Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession ) - 1973

The story begins in Moscow in 1973, where engineer Alexander "Shurik" Timofeyev is working on a time machine in his apartment. By chance, he sends Ivan Vasilievich Bunsha (Yuri Yakovlev), the superintendent of his building, and Georgy Miloslavsky, a burglar, back in time to the time of Ivan IV the Terrible. The pair are forced to disguise themselves: Bunsha disguises himself as Ivan IV (the Tsar), while Miloslavsky disguises himself as the Prince of the same name. At the same time, the real Ivan IV (also played by Yuri Yakovlev) uses the same machine to get into Shurik's apartment, he has to deal with modern life while Shurik tries to fix the machine to get everyone back to their places in time. 2. The Diamond Arm - 1969

Diamond Arm has become a cult Russian film, and many Russian contemporaries consider it one of the best comedies of all time.

3. Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures - 1965

The story is about the adventures of Shurik (alternate spelling - Shurik), a naive and nerdy Soviet student who often gets into ridiculous situations, but always very neatly finds a way out.

4. Kidnapping, Caucasian Style - 1967

The kind but naive ethnography student Shurik, known from previous films as a student at the Polytechnic Institute, goes to the Caucasus to study the ancient customs and traditions of the locals, including the local "myths, legends, and toasts." At the beginning of the film, Shurik is riding down a mountain road in the Caucasus on a donkey. Suddenly a young woman named Nina walks along the road. "A college student, an athlete, a Komsomol girl, and finally a beauty."

5. Gentlemen of Fortune - 1971

The film tells the story of an affable kindergarten director named Troshkin, who looks a lot like a violent criminal nicknamed Docent (Docent, literally docent) who stole Alexander the Great's helmet at an archeological dig.

The Docent and his gang are caught by the police, but the Docent is in a different prison than his comrades. Since Troshkin looks identical to Docent, the police send him undercover to the real criminals in prison to get information about the stolen helmet. He must pass himself off as the real criminal Docent, so to be convincing, Troshkin, an educated and good-natured man, has to learn the lingo and manners of criminals.

6. Office Romance - 1977

The action takes place in Moscow in 1976. Anatoly Yefremovich Novoseltsev, an awkward single father of two sons, works in a statistical bureau. His boss is Ludmila Prokofyevna Kalugina, a stern, lonely woman in her 30s, nicknamed "our hag" by her subordinates. Novoseltsev dreams of a promotion and a raise, but is timid to talk to his boss about it. She can not dream at all or it just seems so…

7. The Irony of Fate - 1976

A Soviet romantic comedy film directed by Eldar Ryazanov.

The key plot of the film is the dull monotony of the public architecture of the Brezhnev era, which allowed this theme to develop.