«What if I told you everything you know to be true is wrong?» As this famous Matrix-inspired meme goes, what if I told you that Ivan the Terrible was not actually all that terrible? There are several terms, phrases, and historical Russian concepts that are used erroneously in the English language. So, I chose the … Continue reading Ivan the Terrible? You’re Using These Russian Terms Wrong
Americans are immersed in a culture that is steeped with war dramas. If there is not a real war to depict, it is common to create a drama from a “what if?” style of fantasy. In that regard, American cinema is well-supplied with movies about Russia, the Soviet Union, the Cold War and possible alternate histories.
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Do these titles look familiar?
There was a wonderful concert in Russia’s capital, on Moscow’s Red Square with international opera stars and the Mariinsky Orchestra for the opening ceremony, held on the 13th of June 2018.
Many more concerts followed in the 11 cities, where the football matches were held: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Sochi and Rostov-on-Don. The brilliant opening ceremony on Moscow’s Red Square was a sound and light show, attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, FIFA head Gianni Infantino and thousands of people.
For some 15 months now, all echelons of the American news media have been reporting an allegation that “the Russians” interfered in the US presidential election of 2016. The reason why is rather clear: The Democrats and the political and media establishment (which explains why some reputedly conservative outlets also drum this theme) did not want Donald Trump to win, and the fact that the American people managed to escape the media’s control enough to elect him is an unexplainable travesty which must be corrected.
One can understand a great deal about culture by examining language.
An important case study is the Russian word нормальный (normal’nyy). The word shares the Latin root-word normalis with the English word ‘normal’. Sadly, the modern use of ‘нормальный’ in Russia has parted ways with its English counterpart.
In Russia нормальный is used to describe a situation, individual or condition that is healthy, sane, functional, proper and/or good.
