«Выходные в деревне» [A Weekend in the Village]
Опубликовано: 29.09.2017
This big piece of metal and stone is, «разум е ется» [naturally; of course], a «П а мятник В. И. Л е нину от труд я щихся Чел я бинска» [monument to V. I. Lenin from the workers of Chelyabinsk], standing in the very heart of the city of «Чел я бинск» [Chelyabinsk]. This city with more than a million inhabitants is located in « Ю жный Ур а л» [the South Urals] about a three hour drive on a disastrously dangerous highway from «Екатеринб у рг» [Yekaterinburg].
Actually I didn’t really spend the past «выходн ы е» [days off; ‘weekend’] «в дер е вне» [‘in a village’ – that’s locative case of the noun «дер е вня» , meaning village; the country (as opposed to the city)], but «в пос ё лке» [‘in a settlement’ – that’s also locative case, this time from the noun «пос ё лок» : village; community; settlement] about a thirty minutes drive away from the big city «Чел я бинск» . The «пос ё лок» [this noun is constructed from the imperfect/perfect verb couple «посел я ть/посел и ть» meaning to settle] I spent my weekend in is called «Полет а ево» and is where the parents of my friend «Кс е ния» [Xenia] live in a little house. This was not my first visit ‘down south’ in the Urals; I went with Xenia to visit her family there in February 2008 (which I think, and everyone will agree, seems like an eternity ago by now). Since then much has changed, not only in the life of Xenia’s family, but also in Russia in general. As I’m writing this post I keep finding myself troubled with how to start, with where to begin and how to take it from there and get to the point I would like to make today. The thing is that I’ve lived in Russia for five years, and I know that I haven’t lived in ALL of Russia, but I’ve lived in three different cities, and I consider myself pretty familiar with this country in many ways that most people aren’t. Before this weekend I felt like I held Russia in the palm of my hand, like I knew it all. After this weekend I feel like I don’t get Russia at all. Furthermore, it feels like I’m in the palm of her hand – and not the other way around. The experience of seeing the Russian countryside up-close this weekend felt to me like being thrown into cold water suddenly. «Миров о й эконом и ческий кр и зис» [the world economic crisis] has indeed hit hard on the Russian countryside – a part of this country that wasn’t doing too well to begin with. Along the roads we kept seeing both old and young people standing selling different things – « я годы» [berries], «гриб ы » [mushrooms], «в е ники» [brooms made of twigs] – and Xenia’s father commented: « Э то он и не от н е чего д е лать так сто я т. Н у жно зараб о тать хоть н е сколько рубл е й на жизнь» [“They’re not standing like because they have nothing better to do. They have to earn at least a few rubles to live on”].