Another look at the kick-sled

Falconer's Wood by Tatiana Iliina

XV

Thou fairy-land! Where formerly
Shone pungent Satire’s dauntless king,
Von Wisine, friend of liberty,
And Kniajnine, apt at copying.
The young Simeonova too there
With Ozeroff was wont to share
Applause, the people’s donative.
There our Katenine did revive
Corneille’s majestic genius,
Sarcastic Shakhovskoi brought out
His comedies, a noisy rout,
There Didelot became glorious,
There, there, beneath the side-scene’s shade
The drama of my youth was played.

Here’s a case where the next blog has been planned for quite a while and just got pushed aside. Probably because of having to scan the picture. This old photo shows Tatiana and her mother in Russia, using a kick-sled. What an awesome photo!

Those fun & funky little Finnish thingies

City on the Seven Seas

XIV

Still thirst fresh draughts of wine compels
To cool the cutlets’ seething grease,
When the sonorous Breguet tells
Of the commencement of the piece.
A critic of the stage malicious,
A slave of actresses capricious,
Oneguine was a citizen
Of the domains of the side-scene.
To the theatre he repairs
Where each young critic ready stands,
Capers applauds with clap of hands,
With hisses Cleopatra scares,
Moina recalls for this alone
That all may hear his voice’s tone.

Among all the winter activities, one of my favorites was a sport which uses a device that I have never seen in Canada. I have been looking for this ever since coming here and never found it – until yesterday when I was researching for this blog!

As usual, the main problem when looking for something I knew in Russia, is how to translate it. In this case, our name for the unit was “Finn – kee”. That’s it. Roughly translated, that word would mean “little Finnish thingies”. So-called because they were invented in Finland and no one knew what the heck else to call them.

The device is like two skis linked together, with a raised seat mounted in the center, with a way for a rider to stand at the back, with a foot on one ski or the other, and the other foot free for pushing, and handles at the top of the seat back that the person standing can hold onto. The closest thing you could relate it to would be a dogsled, if you even have an idea what that looks like.

Anyway, the Finn-kee were the most wonderful contraptions to use. They glide through the snow with ease. They are a lot of fun and great exercise. One or two people can ride at a time. They go very fast down slopes so you need to avoid steep hills. They are steered by dragging a foot, like you might steer a toboggan. It works, but there are limitations!

Where I grew up, when the river was one of the main transportation routes in winter and there weren’t many people with cars, Finn-kee were a popular means of transportation in winter. You could carry stuff on them, you could bring a passenger – they were great.

And, finally, I found out what they are called in English! …Kick-sleds!

And, there is a company in Montreal that imports them from Finland. The company is called: Go Slide.

And this is what a kick-sled looks like:

Riding a kick-sled

Ice makes you fast; stove keeps you warm

Glacier 18

XIII

‘Tis dark. He seats him in a sleigh,
“Drive on!” the cheerful cry goes forth,
His furs are powdered on the way
By the fine silver of the north.
He bends his course to Talon’s, where(8)
He knows Kaverine will repair.(9)
He enters. High the cork arose
And Comet champagne foaming flows.
Before him red roast beef is seen
And truffles, dear to youthful eyes,
Flanked by immortal Strasbourg pies,
The choicest flowers of French cuisine,
And Limburg cheese alive and old
Is seen next pine-apples of gold.

Reading the previous post, you might have gotten the idea this was a very difficult childhood. In fact, this was not the case at all. Our big old apartment house and all the land all around was like an adventure playground for me, as for all kids.

We lived right beside the river – just on the other side from the main part of town.  A few minutes from our house, the main road went by, so you could cross the river by the road bridge when going to town. Or, you could cross by a foot bridge, which was nearer to our house and more interesting in many ways.

In winter, the river always froze very hard. The river then became a main transportation route. All the people on our end of town would use the river to get to work or school. Although we were close to Leningrad, the river, and the town were surrounded by forest, so that was always part of our life, also.

The river had high banks, in places steep. One of the best things in winter was, when the time was right, the people in our area would start flooding the river bank with water. It would be a bucket brigade for several days. As the ice began to build up, some would begin sliding down the bank on rough boards. Gradually the bumps would get worn off and more water would be added. Finally the super slide would be perfected! It would be as shiny and slippery as a mirror! Then the fun would begin… sleighs, skis, skates, every type of slider imaginable would be brought into action!

You can be sure that the old stove in our apartment felt plenty warm after a happy day sliding on the river!

Lifestyles of the young Soviet artist

All the Young Dudes

XII

Handsome and rich, the neighbourhood
Lenski as a good match received,–
Such is the country custom good;
All mothers their sweet girls believed
Suitable for this semi-Russian.
He enters: rapidly discussion
Shifts, tacks about, until they prate

The sorrows of a single state.
Perchance where Dunia pours out tea
The young proprietor we find;
To Dunia then they whisper: Mind!
And a guitar produced we see,
And Heavens! warbled forth we hear:
_Come to my golden palace, dear_!(25)

[Note 25: From the lay of the _Russalka_, i.e. mermaid of the Dnieper.]

For the first 12 years of my life, I lived in an older-style Soviet apartment building. There were two proper floors of living accommodations, with four families or occupants on each. Then they decided to squeeze four more families into the attic “temporarily”. For us, temporarily turned out to be 12 years. One of the disadvantages of this place was there was no running water.

Then we were supposed to get our own 2-room apartment in a new apartment building.  When our name finally came up for one of the new construction buildings, they gave my mother a choice: we could have a 1-room  aparment exclusively to ourselves, or we could have two rooms of a 3-room communal apartment. So, we took the two rooms. Despite the shared kitchen, bathroom, entry and hallway, this new apartment was paradise for me. Among numerous advantages: no more breaking the ice out of the water bucket on the stove in the morning!

We will get into more detail on these accommodations in the near future.

A note on how this blog is written

XI

How soon he learnt to titillate
The heart of the inveterate flirt!
Desirous to annihilate
His own antagonists expert,
How bitterly he would malign,
With many a snare their pathway line!
But ye, O happy husbands, ye
With him were friends eternally:
The crafty spouse caressed him, who
By Faublas in his youth was schooled,(5)
And the suspicious veteran old,
The pompous, swaggering cuckold too,
Who floats contentedly through life,
Proud of his dinners and his wife!

[Note 5: _Les Aventures du Chevalier de Faublas_, a romance of a
loose character by Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray, b. 1760,
d. 1797, famous for his bold oration denouncing Robespierre,
Marat and Danton.]

Anyone who knows me will know right away that the words written in this blog are not directly my own words. For one thing, my ability with the English language is simply not equal to the task of writing one daily blog, let alone keeping up with several other blogs and the day-to-day demands of being a professional artist. For another thing, my partner will of course see some things differently than I do, and express things differently, also.

So, this blog, and all our blogs, are written by my partner, otherwise known as Offroad Artist. Since Offroad has lived in Russia and is well acquainted with most of my opinions and feelings and a great deal of my life story and development as a person, I have great hope that the blog will come out to be something that I will be very proud of and able to identify with. Each blog entry and any given subject may have more or less direct input from myself. Sometimes a post might be an near little translation of my thoughts… other times I might not even be aware of a subject until it appears! Either way, I have full confidence that the end result will be truthful and interesting, and capture an important slice of history from two people’s points of view.

It still strikes both my partner and I as somewhat awkward that the story is being written at least partly in the first-person. We’ll leave it like this for now but reserve the right to change it! Who knows, perhaps someday I will be able to write down my thoughts in English! Or maybe I will write in Russian and get it translated. Time will tell!

Living in an impression of a forest

X

Ambassador to the Queen by Tatiana Iliina

How well he played the greenhorn’s part
To cheat the inexperienced fair,
Sometimes by pleasing flattery’s art,
Sometimes by ready-made despair;
The feeble moment would espy
Of tender years the modesty
Conquer by passion and address,
Await the long-delayed caress.
Avowal then ’twas time to pray,
Attentive to the heart’s first beating,
Follow up love–a secret meeting
Arrange without the least delay–
Then, then–well, in some solitude
Lessons to give he understood!

I was told once by the mother of an English sculptor how she had discussed with her son about how the landscape of the English Midlands: the rolling hills, fields, woods and villages must have affected his development as an artist and sculptor. The thought never crossed my mind about how topography might affect the development of Soviet artists until after I moved here to Canada.

For today’s post, I want to just speak about topography, specifically the layout of urban environments. When you look at maps, cities in the west and in Russia look about the same. Grids of streets, parks, subway stations, bridges and so forth.  There is a major difference though, even though it is probably not apparent until you actually live, at least for a few days, in a Russian apartment. Soviet planners (I assume) had some pretty good ideas.

The apartment buildings were usually built in loose clusters, often away from the large streets. Then, instead of sidewalks and asphalt, the buildings are surrounded by random common spaces, mostly filled with trees. There is rarely a piece of land that is exclusive to a certain building. Although there is always a street somewhere, touching maybe one side of any given building, the overall impression is that you are in some kind of urban park or forest.  The places you usually need  to go, such as the Metro, bakery, market, school, children’s playground or grocery store, are most often faster and easier to get to by cutting through various randomly placed courtyards and parks than by taking streets.

Oh yes! Forget about lawns! There is very little grass cutting at all in Russian cities. The effect of  giving one a feeling of being closer to nature is always enhanced by this. Soviet planners must have figured they had the cold war won with this stroke alone! A central planner calculating the cost and effort of mowing all the lawns in North America on a weekly basis would have fallen off his chair realizing the “savings” the U.S.S.R. was realizing by not cutting grass!

I am sure that the population density in Russian cities is as great as anywhere else, but the layout of the cities has much going for it. There is something very pleasant and calming, even inspirational, about living in an impression of a forest, walking on a path to get places and picking lilacs to your heart’s content!

900-Day Seige etched on the memory of every Leningrader

IX

Astral Artform by Tatiana Iliina

How soon he learnt deception’s art,
Hope to conceal and jealousy,
False confidence or doubt to impart,
Sombre or glad in turn to be,
Haughty appear, subservient,
Obsequious or indifferent!
What languor would his silence show,
How full of fire his speech would glow!
How artless was the note which spoke
Of love again, and yet again;
How deftly could he transport feign!
How bright and tender was his look,
Modest yet daring! And a tear
Would at the proper time appear

Growing up in St. Petersburg, (or Leningrad as it was known then) in the ’60s, there were a few specific “monumental” facts that transcended all across society. Some of these facts were shared with all Soviet citizens. For example, the fact that Yuri Gagarin, who became the first person to travel into space in 1961, was quite simply the greatest hero who ever lived on the planet. Others were more regional and one of the most awe-inspiring of all, for any child, was the great story of the 900-day seige of Leningrad during the Second World War. We called it the “Blokada.”

It only took the German army 2-1/2 months to reach Leningrad after attacking the U.S.S.R. Using their “blitzkrieg” tactics, they outflanked the Red Army and by September, 1941, Leningrad was almost completely surrounded, by the Germans from the southwest and Finns from the northwest.

The Germans did not want to spare the time or resources that would have been needed to capture the city, so they laid seige, expecting the Russians to surrender soon enough.

So, Leningrad’s population of nearly three million civilians spent most of the next three years under siege. It is impossible to imagine the suffering. Rations were limited to 125 grams of bread per person per day at the lowest point. An estimated 600-800,000 people perished in the seige, either from starvation or from the German bombardment.

What saved the city was that the Germans had not succeeded in cutting off St. Petersburg from Lake Ladoga, to the northeast. Hundreds of thousands were able to use this as an escape route, while hundreds of thousands of those who remained were kept alive by some meager food supplies smuggled across the ice.

Although my parents were not from St. Petersburg,  everyone who grew up in St. Petersburg at that time knew many many people who had suffered through the “Blokada”. Stories of people eating boiled leather for soup, animal glue, roots or patties made out of grasses abounded. The heroism of the people of Leningrad was celebrated across the entire Soviet Union but much more so, of course, locally. In the central city square, opposite the Moscow Station, the words “Leningrad Hero City” were written in giant neon letters on top of a building. The effect of the Blokada on a young artist growing up in Soviet Leningrad is hard to estimate. Perhaps someone of my age who grew up in London would have had a similar experience.

The Soviet Union was the world!

VIII

Extravaganza by Tatiana Iliina

But upon all that Eugene knew
I have no leisure here to dwell,
But say he was a genius who
In one thing really did excel.
It occupied him from a boy,
A labour, torment, yet a joy,
It whiled his idle hours away
And wholly occupied his day–
The amatory science warm,
Which Ovid once immortalized,
For which the poet agonized
Laid down his life of sun and storm
On the steppes of Moldavia lone,
Far from his Italy–his own.(4)

[Note 4: Referring to Tomi, the reputed place of exile of Ovid.
Pushkin, then residing in Bessarabia, was in the same predicament
as his predecessor in song, though he certainly did not plead
guilty to the fact, since he remarks in his ode to Ovid:
To exile self-consigned,
With self, society, existence, discontent,
I visit in these days, with melancholy mind,
The country whereunto a mournful age thee sent.

Ovid thus enumerates the causes which brought about his banishment:

"Perdiderint quum me duo crimina, carmen et error,
Alterius facti culpa silenda mihi est."
Ovidii Nasonis Tristium, lib. ii. 207.]

It should be remembered that the text that these passages are taken from was not intended for Soviet students. You might have your own take on such lines as, “every fourth doctor in the world is a Soviet doctor.” Whatever your opinion might be of this material – you can rest assured of one thing: this is not what was taught to Soviet children or students.

We did not compare the Soviet Union with the world. The Soviet Union was the world!

In the Soviet Union each person has an opportunity to improve his knowledge and develop his abilities and talents. World-famous Soviet singers and musicians began their careers in one of the muscal schools or amateur circles of the country’s 129,000 workers’ clubs.

They do not all become professional actors or musicians, but each can study the branch of art which is to his liking. Each year there are contests of amateur performers where workers, students, collective farmers and office workers perform. The Soviet people enjoy the facilities of more than 500 theatres and close to 1,000 museums. Writers, actors and scholars help all who wish to learn more about the treasures of world culture. To this end there are 10,000 people’s universities of culture in the country, attended by more than 2 million people annually; 120,000 lecturers in science and the arts are employed by these universities.

Culture and art, available to all in the U.S.S.R., make life more interesting and help the Soviet people develop their best qualities while strengthening the bonds of friendship among the nations.

I haven’t checked the facts on these chapters. It may be helpful for you to know that the definition of such terms as “doctor” and “engineer” are different in the west and in the former Soviet Union. In fact, that would be a super interesting comparison – if I can find a source for this information, I will share it with you in the near future.

Science “and” Culture ~ what’s included in this grocery basket?

VII

Real Rebecca by Tatiana Iliina

For empty sound the rascal swore he
Existence would not make a curse,
Knew not an iamb from a choree,
Although we read him heaps of verse.
Homer, Theocritus, he jeered,
But Adam Smith to read appeared,
And at economy was great;
That is, he could elucidate
How empires store of wealth unfold,
How flourish, why and wherefore less
If the raw product they possess
The medium is required of gold.
The father scarcely understands
His son and mortgages his lands.

Continuing from yesterday’s post, we come to the chapter entitled “Science and Culture Flourish in the U.S.S.R.” Again, this is offered only as a piece of background flavour. I would be quite disappointed in myself if people were to draw too many conclusions from this material!

“The Soviet Union is called the country which reads more than any other in the world. Indeed, the U.S.S.R. takes first place in the world in the number of books it publishes. A total of 72 million Soviet people study full- or part-time. There include not only children and young people; anyone who wishes to can further his education by taking a correspondence course, or attending a institutes of higher education. The state provides extra-paid vacations of from 30 to 45 days a year for those who both study and work. Every fourth student in the world is a Soviet student, every fourth doctor is a Soviet doctor, while the U.S.S.R. has more engineers than any other country in the world.

“World-famous scientist and graduates of Soviet institutes and universities. Soviet physicists were the first in the world to make the mighty atom work for peace, not for destruction. Soviet doctors have done away with such terrible diseases as polio, smallpox and cholera in the U.S.S.R. Soviet physicists and mathematicians have designed computers that solve complex problems at speeds incomprehensible to the human mind. Soviet chemists have created substances unknown in nature: synthetic fibres, synthetic diamonds, etc.

“The great achievements of Soviet scientists in space research are known the world over. The Soviet Union launched the first artificial earth satellite. It was the first nation to send a man to outer space. A Soviet cosmonaut was the first to venture into space after leaving his spaceship. Soviet spacecraft were the first to land on the moon and on Venus. Each space flight means new achievements, and each new flight enriches world science by new discoveries. The great army of Soviet scientists comprises a quarter of all the scientists of the world. No important scientific conference takes place without the participation of Soviet scientists, whose aim is to make nature serve man more fully, to ease his work, to rid humanity of disease and increase man’s life span. There is still much for Soviet scientists to do. In the U.S.S.R. they have every opportunity to realise their boldest dreams and plans.”

There you have it.  The lion’s share of the chapter on flourishing science and culture in the Soviet Union has precious little to say about culture. Tomorrow we will see the rest of the chapter.

The Soviet Union a textbook case

VI

Priory Woods by Tatiana Iliina

Latin is just now not in vogue,
But if the truth I must relate,
Oneguine knew enough, the rogue
A mild quotation to translate,
A little Juvenal to spout,
With “vale” finish off a note;
Two verses he could recollect
Of the Aeneid, but incorrect.
In history he took no pleasure,
The dusty chronicles of earth
For him were but of little worth,
Yet still of anecdotes a treasure
Within his memory there lay,
From Romulus unto our day.

Continuing the chapter on how culture thrived in the Soviet Union taken from an elementary textbook…

The country needed educated people to develop industry and agriculture, build machines and educate the children. Hundreds of technical schools and institutes were opened in the country, where workers and peasants could receive special training and higher education.

But teaching people to read and write and building new schools and institutes was not enough. Libraries, clubhouses and theatres were needed, and there was a great demand for films and books.

The Lenin Library, the largest in the country, was built in Moscow. Here, readers can order any book, magazine or newspaper published in the U.S.S.R, as well as those published in foreign countries. New libraries, clubhouses and theatres went up in the most remote corners of the country. Books were published in 111 languages of the peoples of the U.S.S.R.

Such wonderful writers and poets as Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky and others inspired the Soviet people to greater and braver deeds.

The Soviet people were building, working and studying. Tremendous changes took place in the country in less than 20 years. There were hardly any illiterate people left. The country now had a great army of teachers, doctors, engineers and scientists. Newspapers and books, radio and electricityhad reached out to the farthermost corners of the land. This was another great victory of the Soviet people.

There is a great temptation to let this stand with little comment. After all, since I am devoting an entire blog, projected to continue probably for years, to the general topic of Soviet culture, it would be difficult to concisely say anything “in reply” to the sweeping generalizations contained in the textbook.

I might give a little more background, though. The textbook in question has 150 pages and 60 chapters. This was Chapter 48, entitled “Culture Flourishes in the U.S.S.R.,” but I would have thought it more accurate to include “education” in the title.  Now I notice there is actually another chapter concerning culture. It is Chapter 57, entitled, “Science and Culture Flourish in the U.S.S.R.” I will look into this tomorrow.