After my last post, one of my cousins got nostalgic for her old Bukvar and thought she’d try to buy one online. She found one on Amazon, to the tune of $2,450. My heart is breaking that I didn’t have the fortitude to do anything more useful with mine than mark it all up for a future blog post. I thought I’d share some of […]
12 things I learned about Soviet childhood from my Bukvar Continue Reading
I wrote a bit last time about one of my ‘immigrant identity crisis’ vignettes that I shared at the Limmud retreat. But it started with an assignment, to bring an artifact, or object, from home about our Russian-Jewish heritage. When you and your childhood home are separated by over 3,000km, digging up an acceptable artifact – Was it interesting enough? Too trite? Russian enough? Too
Russian Bukvar for beginners – How I almost didn’t learn Russian Continue Reading
Park yourself at a dinner table of Russians, and inevitably, as the eating part winds down and the drinks are doing their thing, someone says “And the kompot?” Everyone laughs uproariously (except you, the Canadian-raised outlier) and the kompot rarely, rarely ever appears. It’s a line from an old Soviet movie. And, since it’s also a line from every Russian dinner ever, it’s funny whether
Operatsiya Y: A Soviet movie flashback. With kompot! Continue Reading
I was writing a post about how the internet is keeping the USSR alive – or at least, its “stuff,” like posters and old medals – but I got distracted by this poster, so instead you get to read about Alexander Rodchenko and constructivism. Question: Was this poster as familiar to its original, Soviet audience, as it is today? Answer: Please jump in on the comments
What we really mean when we copy Soviet constructivism from Alexander Rodchenko Continue Reading
While we were in St. Petersburg, we went on a private tour of the Imperial Porcelain Factory (formerly the Lomonosov Factory), and got to see some Soviet propaganda porcelain for the first time. I didn’t know such a thing even existed – I always thought propaganda was largely “limited” to media. That is, posters, movies, radio and TV. But really, nothing says “this moment brought
Soviet Propaganda Porcelain: Inside the Imperial Porcelain Factory Continue Reading
I grew up in a country that is pathologically allergic to patriotism. I don’t think I need to tell you about the country I was born in and patriotism. Which, among other things, translated into a lot of statues and monuments. Broken Lenins and Stalins are part of our stock downfall-of-an-empire imagery, so I didn’t expect to find many during our trip. But in many places,
Vestiges of Empire – Tracking Lenin statues through Russia and Ukraine Continue Reading
You might have heard something about Israeli President Shimon Peres and the Jewish museum in Moscow? It’s just opened and Peres was among the important so-and-so’s in attendance. At some point in the proceedings, overcome with emotions dredged up from childhood, he opened his mouth and and the following came out: “My mother sang to me in Russian, and at the entrance to this museum, memories of
An A-Z of Russian hospitality to Jews: A history of Russian antisemitism Continue Reading
Every time you tell a joke, a dictator gets a little weaker. If you grew up in any household of former eastern European emigres, then you’re probably familiar with the very particular form of Soviet black humour. There is no North American equivalent to the anekdot. Aside from the jokes that periodically make the rounds in elementary schools (and, I suppose, knock-knock jokes), there isn’t the
A joke to die for: Old communists telling Soviet jokes Continue Reading