Marina Rojavin, Ph.D.

Professional Interests

Russian & Ukrainian tongue-twisters, proverbs, fairy tales
The Russian Literary Anecdote
Russian & Ukrainian Cuisine

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Russian & Ukrainian tongue-twisters, proverbs, fairy tales

Tongue-twisters:
Try to pronounce skorogovorki (tongue-twisters) rapidly:

More tongue-twisters: http://baby.kulichki.net/raznoe/vi/skorogovorki.htm

Proverbs:
My favorite proverbs:     

• If you like sledding, you should like pulling the sledge.
• The work is not a wolf – it will not run to the forest  - A recommendation for my students.

Aphorisms:
My favorite aphorism: There's only one degree of freshness - the first, and it's the last
(Mikhail Bulgakov. “The Master and Margarita”, translated by M. Ginsburg)

Fairy tales:
Many colorful personages live in Russian fairy tales. The dreadful Baba Yaga who always remains fooled in the end. Koshchei Bessmertnyi (Immortal) – the malicious king who pretends to be immortal but it becomes known that his death is stored in the egg in the faraway land, and someone gets to it. The wicked Zmej Gorynych (Dragon) with many heads loses all his heads. Ivan the Fool is the smartest fellow, he rides on the stove and gives his orders. I hope you will get to know and love them as much as I do.

I continue my research related to the gender category, to Gender reform in the US, Russia and Ukraine. In particular, I collect Russian folklore and analyze temporal transformation of grammatical and semantic gender categories.

The Russian Literary Anecdote

In Russia, an anecdote as a literary genre was developing in the middle of the 18^th century. It was especially popular and widespread during Pushkin’s (Aleksandr Pushkin – the greatest Russian poet) time. At that time, noble people told each other funny or curious/mysterious stories describing various events, particularly about prominent figures in Russian culture and history. I compose my own anecdotes/sketches about persons or historical episodes that I like (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tsvetaeva, Catherine the Great, Potemkin, Peter the Great, etc.)

 The end of the beard

When tsar Ivan the Terrible ruled in Russia, all the men traditionally wore beards. The noblemen wore beards as well. The noblemen also wore high hats and coats made of fur, which they wore when they attended the Duma* and Royal dinners. The noble men with beards lived in Russia for several centuries. The beard was a symbol of an old Russia.

In the 18^th century, the young Russian tsar Peter wanted to know how people lived not only in Russia but also in other countries. He went to Holland and saw that men shaved their beards but instead had moustaches and wigs.

When Peter came from Holland to Petersburg he took scissors and started cutting noblemen beards, and he forced them to wear wigs.

Since that time, the noblemen were studying how to dance the European style; they also started wearing caftans in place of fur coats, moustache but not beards.

*Duma – kind of Parlament

Судьба

            Царь рассердился на Пушкина и послал его в Михайловское в ссылку. Михайловское – это имение отца Пушкина, около города Пскова. Поэт жил в доме один, и только его старая няня жила с ним. Недалеко в селе Тригорское жило весёлое семейство сестёр Осиповых. Почему Тригорское? Потому что три горы. О каждой горе рассказывают былины (правдивые истории). Александр Сергеевич часто ездил в Тригорское – там всегда было весело и хорошо с друзьями.       

Однако уже пришла зима. Пушкину было очень скучно и грустно, потому что он был один и давно не видел друзей. А в это время  друг Пушкина Иван Пущин жил в Петербурге. Он должен был поехать в Москву. Пущин написал в письме, что поедет в Москву. Пушкин не мог никуда ездить, но он очень хотел увидеть друга и решил тоже поехать.

            Пушкин не попрощался с друзьями из Тригорского – не было времени. Взял вещи и сказал няне, что поедет в Москву. Он вышел из дома, выехал на дорогу, а там – заяц сидит*. Пушкин поехал обратно, а там - опять заяц! Пушкин сел в повозку, доехал до кладбища, а там – поп* идёт. Наш поэт был суеверен, он не захотел ехать дальше и поехал домой.

            Это случилось тринадцатого декабря 1825 года. Так судьба спасла российского поэта от сибирской каторги**.

*    Acording to the Russian superstition, a hare and a priest on the road bring bad luck.

** In 1825 on December 14 the noble men (Decembrists) rose against the social system of Russia in St.-Petersburg. This coup was not successful; the participants were punished. Many Pushkin’s friends participated in this coup.  

The Fate

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin was in exile. He lived in his father's house in the Mikhailovskoe estate near town of Pskov, not far from Moscow. It was winter. He was alone and has not seen his friends for a long time - he was bored and miserable.

At the same time, a friend of Pushkin, Ivan Pushchin, who lived in St.-Petersburg, needed to go to Moscow. He wrote a letter to Aleksandr to let him know that he was going there. Pushkin was not allowed to move anywhere without a permission from police, but he wished to meet with his friend and decided to go.

Pushkin drove onto a road. Suddenly, there was a hare!* Pushkin turned back to the house. A hare again! Pushkin sat down in the carriage, drove to the cemetary! Alas! He was startled again as saw a priest walking!* Our poet was rather supersticious. He did not want to play with his fate and came back home.

            It was December the 13^th in 1824. Thus, by God's will the Russian poet was saved from Siberian hard labor camps.

*    Аcording  to Russian superstition, a hare and a priest on a road bring bad luck.

** In 1825 on December the 14^th the noble men rose against social system of Russia in St.-Petersburg. This coup was not successful; its participants were punished. Many friends of Pushkin participated in this coup.

Задача

Михаил Юрьевич Лермонтов – русский поэт и писатель – родился в селе Тарханы около города Пенза. Когда он был маленький, он жил у бабушки в селе. Потом он жил в Москве. Там, в Москве, в школе он изучал не только математику, физику, но и литературу, а также разные языки. В школе‚ кроме того‚ были уроки музыки и рисования.

            Лермонтов был очень одарённым – он играл на скрипке, пианино и флейте. Много рисовал (он был не только талантливым поэтом, но и талантливым художником). Ещё Лермонтов хорошо играл в шахматы. Математику же любил и очень хорошо знал.

Однажды – это было в Москве – Лермонтов  остался на ночь у друга, Алексея Лопухин¿. Алексей дал ему решить математÅческую задачу. Одн¿ко поэт довольно долго думал‚ решал и так и не смог её решить и пошёл спать. Ночью ему приснился  сон. Один человек‚ похожий на испанца‚пришёл к поэту и рассказал, как решить эту задачу.

Лермонтов проснулся‚ записал решение задачи, а на стене в спальне‚ в которой он спал‚ написал портрет этого человека.

Приходи завтра

Было это во времена царя Петра Алексеевича. Одна бедная вдова уважаемого чиновника долгое время ходила в Сенат с просьбой о пансионе. Но ей отказывали и при этом говорили: “Приходи‚ матушка, завтра”. А был у царя умный шут по имени Балакирев. Решила она посоветоваться с ним‚ что ей делать. Тот подумал‚ и на следующий день произошло вот что.

            Пришла женщина в чёрном платье‚ а впереди себя плакат несёт с надписью: “Приходи завтра”. Балакирев поставил её в том месте‚ где государь обычно проходит. Приезжает Пётр‚ подходит к женщине и спрашивает: “Что сие означает?”. А Балакирев отвечает: “Завтра‚ Алексеевич‚ узнаешь!” – “Сейчас хочу‚” – закричал Пётр. “Ну и что‚ что ты хочешь‚ не всё так скоро делается‚ а ты пойди к секретарю и спроси его. Если он скажет тебе “завтра”‚ тогда поймёшь‚ что к чему”. А Пётр и так понял‚ что к чему.

            Пошёл Пётр в Сенат и грозно спрашивает секретаря: “О чём просит эта женщина?” Тот испугался и сказал: “Она уже давно ходит‚ но не было времени об этом доложить Вашему Величеству”.

            Что произошло потом?.. Не трудно догадаться.

Russian & Ukrainian Cuisine

Russians and Ukrainians always paid a lot of attention to their food. They had a reputation of experts in cuisine. For that reason, Russian Tsars invited foreign chefs, which they perceived as experts, to serve at the royal court. Russian Tsar Peter the Great was famous for many things, and one of them - assembles with ceremonial dinners. Russian writers who in many cases belonged to the higher society wrote fascinating pieces celebrating food in their works.

Rolls with raisins

Before the October Revolution, there was a very popular bakery in Moscow. Ivan Philippov – the owner and founder of the bakery  – was a famous person because his delicious pastries, pies, cakes, etc. were well known and people all around Moscow liked them. The bakery was always full of customers – from students to old workers to officials to rich flashily dressed women. They all ate fried pirozhki* stuffed with meat, rice, mushrooms, farmer cheese, raisins, and jam. People went to bakery to have a breakfast and felt happy after eating two fresh pirozhki. The most famous products were kalachi**, saiki***, and dark bread of high quality.

Every day they sent dark bread, kalachi and saiki to the Tsar’s Court in St.Peterrsburg, every day they delivered hot saikas to Moscow General-Governor Zakrevskii for his morning tea. All people were afraid of that governor for his sternness. One day, when having his breakfast he started screaming: “How disgusting! Bring that baker to me!” Although they didn’t understand what was going on, governor’s servants dragged scared-to-death Philippov to the boss.

 - “Hei! This is a cockroach in the roll, isn’t it? Ha?” – asked governor.

 - “N-n-o, Your Excellency. It is very clear that it’s just… a raisin!” – Philippov quickly reached saika and ate it in a moment.

 -  “You are lying! The saiki with raisins do not exist. Get out, bastard!”

Philippov ran to the bakery, dropped handful of raisins into dough for saiki. In an hour, he treated Zakrevsii with more fresh rolls with raisins. In a day, entire Moscow enjoyed saiki with raisins.

*pirozhok (sing.) – small pie     

**kalach (sing.)  – kind of white bread/loaf of ring form

***saika  (sing.) – kind of sweet roll

(Based on Moscow and Muscovites by Vladimir Giliarovskii)

Buckwheat

            The uncle of Alexandr Sergeevich Pushkin, Vasilii L’vovich was a great gourmet. He liked to eat a lot and was a culinary expert. In his house, French dishes were especially good. He used to admire all French things. The real reason he loved them was that, in the beginning of the 19-th century, everything French was in fashion. Noble people spoke French, they dressed and danced in a French style, and they ate in a French way. Nobody could even guess that Vasilii L’vovich mostly suffered from refined French dishes, while he loved Russian buckwheat more than anything else in the world.

            The whole St. Petersburg visited Vasilii L’vovich for dinner. Everyone knew that the food would be new, inventive, and delicious. For example, just yesterday, the chef Blez finally made fish the French style. An innkeeper himself personally told Vasilii L’vovich the recipe. The fish was different, but it really didn’t matter. The important roles were played by the vinegar, salt and pepper. The sauce was the core ingredient. All guests praised the fish.

             Everything was fine. But…

            In the year of 1812, the war began. Napoleon Bonaparte began war with Russia. Everyone became a patriot. All noblemen hid the French suits, forgot French dances, and turned to Russian food. What is more, everyone stopped coming to Vasilii L’vovich for dinner! In addition, poor Vasilii L’vovich could not convince anyone that he liked and still likes buckwheat: with milk and butter or with mushrooms and onions, with prunes and sugar, with bacon and dill, as a stuff for pancakes or pies.

(Based on Pushkin by Yu. Tynianov)

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