http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia... RT : Once upon a time in Russia... en RT /About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-11-1.html http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-11-1.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0300 The beginning of November for me is associated with the 1917 Russian Revolution. As a child born into a family with diverse political views, I always question lots of stuff from the history of my country. For example, I was always puzzled with the revolutionary “Newspeak” – with the words and the names that flooded the towns and villages in almost every town in the former USSR. I kept asking: “Is it really necessary to name the streets after Lenin or after the Red Army? That was not necessary, of course, but that was the order of the authorities to keep the uniformity “on the long road to Communism”. /About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-10-7.html http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-10-7.html Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:49:00 +0300 I like to watch rugby. It’s been 13 years since the moment I saw the game for the first time. And that was in the place which is famous for cold winters and vast forests – in Siberia!Read moreA few words on how rugby got that far: the game was brought to the Russian empire at the beginning of the 20th century by ship. English sailors used to teach youngsters how to play it in Odessa – a port on the Black Sea coast (it’s in Ukraine now). And the game immediately became one of the favorite pastimes of local students, along with soccer. /About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-9-9.html http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-9-9.html Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:25:26 +0300 Warm days are fading away. And all you want is to get the last portion of it in full swing. I know such a place where you can really get lost in the past and enjoy nature. But you’ll derive pleasure from it only if you love history and like trains. So go to the “Cuckoo Museum” near the city of Pereslavl.Cuckoo (in Russian – Kukushka) is a small steam locomotive used in narrow-gauge industrial railway. Its whistle sounds like a bird, so that’s why they called it that. /About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-8-14.html http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-8-14.html Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:38:29 +0300 Summertime…and you try to make your life as easy as possible. Some Russians flock to the seaside. And where do people who live close to the sea go? For most of them the best choice is way up high in the mountains (if they can afford a holiday in the peak of the tourist season, of course).I know some families near the Black Sea Resort of Sochi that practice “the highest” type of getaway. Five years ago they built a couple of huts in the meadows, close to the highest of the Caucasus’ peaks. /About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-6-15.html http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-6-15.html Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:09:22 +0300 I’m glad that the country has opened up and that we all showed that Russians are not a bunch of bears walking along the sidewalks of big cities. We have a cultural heritage to be proud of. Our grandfathers showed outmost bravery during the Great Patriotic war. I like all these things about my country – but there’s one question that drives me crazy. Why do Russians – one of the most hospitable nations in the world – insult their fellow citizens when they work in the service industry? Even though things are getting better – the shop-assistants get more polite as the new chain of stores spread all over the country – there are some “brutal” examples of people yelling at you in the stores, cafes, taxis and railway stations. /About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-5-27.html http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/Once_upon_a_time_in_Russia.../2009-5-27.html Wed, 27 May 2009 20:37:00 +0300 This is something that I hate most of all – being locked in the train when it stops and doesn’t move anywhere. In the plane you don’t feel it. A plane has never stopped mid-air with me onboard (thank God) – it moves all the time. With trains it is different – you suddenly feel solitude. Claustrophobia sets upon you. You get more and more miserable with every minute of the locked train ride.Read moreIt happened to me three times – twice it was in Central Asia, in the places where trains go to different parts of the Ferghana Valley – once the most populous place in the Soviet Union.