Email+Exchange

Hi Mr. Nikitin!

I am Kyleigh Mann from the World Literature class at Punahou. I am so excited to work with you! My Dad is Lithuanian, which I know is not Russia, but it's pretty close, and I know absolutely nothing it! And so with that in addition to my extremely limited knowledge of Europe in general, I am very interested to learn about the country you are from!

My first few questions for you include; What do you like to do in your free time? What is a symbol that you feel represents Russia? What is a music video and piece of literature that you feel represents Russia?

Thank you so much for working with us!

Kyleigh

Hi Kyleigh,

Actually, I'm fine with being called by just my first name, Igor. I'm also excited to interact with students from local school. It is very interesting that you father is Lithuanian, because I was born in the other Baltic Republic, Latvia. Back in the days, it was part of the Soviet Union, now it is independent state. So, if you tell your Dad that one of the partners in your World Literature class was born in Baltic Republic, he will probably be surprised that this world is so small :). Now back to your questions.

As for my spare time, could you please clarify your question: are you interested in how I spend free time here, in Hawaii, or in Russia? The question about Russian symbol is easy one. Usually, Russia is associated with a bear. There is a common expression - "Russian Bear" which, to greater extent, reflects our national character. They say that it is difficult to awake Russian Bear, but it is very dangerous if you did it. But don't be scared. I think, this expression became proverbial out of the history of our wars in which if attacked we used to take time to figure out what's going on and then to strike back. I guess, bear somewhat behaves in the same manner. Yet, our official state symbol is two-headed eagle. It used to reflect the fact that until 1917 Russia was a monarchy and two-headed eagle symbolized the king and queen.

As for music, I think I should to combine series of links to some videos available on YouTube so that to demonstrate some kind of recent developments from Soviet times to our days. I'll do that within next couple days. But you have to be aware that these videos will be reflecting some kind of my personal preferences. Yet, there is some layer of our music that is very famous around the world regardless of someone's personal biases. This layer is called classic music. If you saw the recent movie Black Swan, you probably already know something about this music because Black Swan is based on the ballet Swan Lake written by one of the greatest russian composers, Chaikovskiy. He also wrote ballet The NutCracker and a lot of other beautiful music. I think, the name of this composer is the first one that pups up in every conversation about Russian music.

Now about literature. We have a lot of great writers whose novels, prose and poetry are studied in all universities around the world. But if under coercion I was to pick out the only one, I would name Aleksander Pushkin. All his writings are actually representative of Russia and he is considered as the greatest Russian poet. I will try to find out if there are some English translations of his poetry and prose in our university's library and if there are, I'll do my best to send you at least pieces from some of them. Pushkin lived in 19th century. He died at the age of 38 but his legacy is enormous. Actually, he didn't just die, he was killed on the duel by the son of the French diplomat. What is also remarkable about him is the fact that he had African roots, his grandgrandfather came to Russia in 18th century from Africa. It follows then that the most famous Russian writer, our pride and honor, is, in fact, African-Russian.

By the way, what are you more interested in, classic or modern literature? And if you like, I can tell something about kind of periodization in our literature stipulated by certain metamorphoses in our history.

Best wishes and thank you for your interest in Russian culture

Igor

Hi Kyleigh,

I found pretty good translation of some Pushkin's poetry. They say that Pushkin is untranslatable but this translations seem to transfer at least the spirit of Pushkin's style. There are several verses: first russian version goes and than english one follows. Every verse is dated. On the top of the page you can see the Pushkin's portrait.

Here is the link to this site: http://www.neo-kids.ru/ archives/2765

As you can figure out from this translation, Russian literature and Russian folk music is kind of mixture of some flamboyant desires and sad feelings. Some people explain it by the fact that Russian nation combined in itself European appearance and Asian mentality. We are kind of torn apart between these two personalities inside us.

Here, as I promised some examples of Russian music:

The first one is representative of traditional folk music: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=X91yW6uajKo

The second one is representative of some songs that were on Soviet TV back in my childhood (actually you can see how official Soviet TV looked like ) : http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=wfMtyq3XWD0&feature=related

The next links they are kind of music that can be coined as contemporary, but there is also music written long time ago and still retaining its appeal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=NspaquOg5X8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=du-zWWpnZSw

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ZGTwhcuRMro&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=OM2ik2OAo8Y&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=N_a8x_Eqk48

This last one is special type of traditional russian music. We call it romance. It is under influence of Gipsy music which was always closely related to Russian culture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=KL0KNYT5MQU&feature=related

Well, hopefully, you enjoined or got some impression about Russian music. Let me know, if all links are working well.

best wishes, Igor Nikitin

Wow thank you this is so great! And I meant to ask what do you do in your free time in Russia, but I would love to hear about what you also do in your free time in Hawaii! You also asked me if I meant what do you do in your free time "here". Where are you right now if not in Russia? I would love to hear about it! I was also wondering how you learned to speak English, it sounds like you are quite proficient! How difficult do you think it would be for an English speaker to learn Russian?

Hi Kyleigh

I like that you enjoyed some of these materials. Here, by the way, the short tour over one of the most beautiful Russian cities - Saint-Peterburg: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=tfu6W_hLFcg&feature=related

Regarding your question about my whereabouts at the moment, I'm here, in Honolulu, doing my PhD in Political Science in the UH at Manoa. So, if I have some free time, which is quite rare, I like to go the beach or just walking around. I love Hawaii, it is really beautiful place with very nice people living over here.

Thank you for your compliment on my English, but honestly I wish I was more proficient than I'm, especially in speaking where my accent immediately gives me away :). However, I think that learning English is easier than learning Russian. I sincerely admire people who managed to learn Russian. The problem is that our language is extremely gender structured which means that we have different endings in terms of gender not only for nouns, but also for verbs, adjectives, etc.. Besides, Russian informal language is quite strange: a lot of words are born and die during particular conversation. Of course, these words have something to do with their formal counterparts in official dictionaries, but it takes time to understand how they all are connected. The good news is that we don't have strict order for affirmative sentences or for questions. Pretty often the same sentence may serve for all purposes. What makes difference is the tone of your voice.

Best wishes, Igor Nikitin

Hi Igor

St. Petersburg really is beautiful! Thank you for sending me that link! I have a few more questions for you if you don't mind:

What do you do in your free time in Russia? What are some good Russian foods? How old are you? What school did you go to in Russia?

And also in a previous email, you asked if I was more interested in classic or contemporary literature, and I would actually love to hear more about both!

Kyleigh

Hi Kyleigh,

Thanks for compliment on St.Petersburg. It is really one of my favorite cities around the world. So, you are asking about my free time in Russia. You know, I don't think it differs too much from how I spend free time here, in Honolulu, because my hometown is also surrounded by ocean, and ocean, to greater extent, defines how and where we spend our free time. In this sense, our summer activities are kind of similar. The only, yet significant difference is winter which brings with itself diversity of other activities, like skiing or ice hockey or, don't be surprised, b-b-q on the nature. There is something special in going for b-b-q in winter time. We call it shashliki though, instead of b-b-q. And from here we move on to the topic of Russian food. Shashliki, as pieces of meat pricked on the sticks and roasted over open fire, is not exactly Russian invention. Traditional Russian foods are bortsh, pelmeni, pirojki, different types of salads, etc.. Bortsh is probably the most famous one. It is basically a soup with a lot of vegetables in it (beet is mandatory) and some type of meat at your choice - pork, beef, even chicken. Usually, it takes up to two hours to cook good bortsh. But trust me, it is really good. I tried to cook it for some of my American friends and one of them took the rest as lunch at her work :). Pelmeni are pieces of meat mixed with onion and some other ingredients. These pieces are folded into paste, then get frozen. To cook them, you just boil the water, put them in, and wait until they pop up on the surface. Usually, cooking takes no more than ten minutes. Much more you spend on preparing paste and meat :). Personally, I love another russian dish - "herring under coat". My Mom cooks it very well. As it follows from the name, the main ingredient is herring, but only flash of salted herring is used for this dish. First, you put the layer of pieces of herring, than layer of boiled potato, then boiled carrot, onion and, finally beet. All this gets covered by mayonnaise and left alone for couple hours to let mayonnaise to get through all layers. I can eat the whole dish of that if nobody stops me ))). Mayonnaise is kind of "coat". That's why they call it "herring under coat". As for school, I graduated from the State Far Eastern University. And my major was journalism.

Now, back to literature. You know, it is probably impossible in one letter to encompass all Russian literature. The problem is that it is extremely diverse and includes a lot of great names. Do you remember, last time we were talking about Pushkin. Pushkin was representative of so-called Golden Age of Russian literature. But he wasn't alone among those shaping this period of classic literature. Take any name and it will turn out to be world-wide known one. For example, such a writer as Fedor Dostoevskiy is studied in all art departments. Movies based on his novel "Crime and Punishment" were directed in many countries, including the USA. In this novel he brings up the topic of the limits of human will which in the 20th century became one of the basic underpinning of all revolutionary and extremist's movements. Or let's take Leo Tolstoy who wrote the novel "War and Peace". This novel was also staged in Hollywood. Tolstoy is famous for his contribution to the idea of non-violent resistance which received further development later on in doings and writings of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luter King. It is ironic, by the way, that in Russia we pronounce the name Leo as Lev, which means lion. Quite unusual name for guy who promotes the idea of peace )).

And this is only small part of only the Golden Age. As you can assume, there was also Silver Age, then Soviet period, and, finally post-Soviet one. What is common for all these periods, and for all great russian poets and writers is that all of them expressed a little bit more than just writing genius. All of them were sensitive to the pulse of people's life, they lived through that, they were struggling over torturing understanding of impossibility of change during their life, they loved and hated the country simultaneously, the best of them always appeared as some kind of prophets and conscience of the nation. As poet Fedor Tutchev said:"You wouldn't understand Russia just using the intellect / You couldn't measure her using the common scale / She has a special kind of grace / You can only believe in her."

They were afraid of by authorities and a lot of them were chased by authorities at all times. In one word, as some of them said: "The Poet in Russia is more than just a Poet". I would like to continue this topic in future, but today I want to conclude with verse from Tutchev, I mentioned above. I also found it in Internet. Short introduction will help you to understand what was special about this poet. By the way, the translator of this verse is Nabokov, another Russian writer who immigrated to the USA in the beginning of last century and wrote very famous novel "Lolita" which was to become one of the most known symbols of erotic genre.

"Silentium! is an archetypal poem by Tyutchev. Written in 1830, it is remarkable for its rhythm crafted so as to make reading in silence easier than aloud. Like so many of his poems, its images are anthropomorphic and pulsing with pantheism. As one Russian critic put it, "the temporal epochs of human life, its past and its present fluctuate and vacillate in equal measure: the unstoppable current of time erodes the outline of the present." ^

Speak not, lie hidden, and conceal the way you dream, the things you feel. Deep in your spirit let them rise akin to stars in crystal skies that set before the night is blurred: delight in them and speak no word. How can a heart expression find? How should another know your mind? Will he discern what quickens you? A thought, once uttered, is untrue. Dimmed is the fountainhead when stirred: drink at the source and speak no word. Live in your inner self alone within your soul a world has grown, the magic of veiled thoughts that might be blinded by the outer light, drowned in the noise of day, unheard... take in their song and speak no word.

trans. by Vladimir Nabokov

Hi Igor,

I was also wondering; what is the economic situation of Russia right now?Is the symbol of the bear representative of Russia being a very passive country until forced to fight, and when they do, are they are as ferocious as a bear? Thank you so much for all of this good, detailed information! I will definitely check out these authors!

One thing that symbolizes Hawaii to me is the Manoa Valley, where I live and where my school is located. Manoa is special to me because it is basically the center of my life here on Oahu. Monday to Friday, I go to school and then go home, all within Manoa. After school I go on runs through Manoa, and on the weekends as well. Although the weekends I get out a little more.

I wrote a haiku about running in Manoa because it is significant to me, I don't run much outside of Manoa because outside of the valley is a lot of city and I don't like running through all the car fumes. I love going on runs in the morning, as soon as there's enough light out, because it feels like the world is quiet and I can just run by myself, almost like I'm alone in the world. The valley is especially beautiful in the morning at this time because there are still clouds lingering at the tops and the sun is just coming up, and even the atmosphere is refreshing because all the grass is covered in dew. You can't even avoid all the wet grass because there are basically no sidewalks in Manoa. I attached a couple of pictures of the valley.

Mist blankets green

Sunlight creeps over valley

Dew seeps into shoe

Kyleigh

Wow! The language you use in describing Manoa Valley sounds like poetry itself. I can feel your passion for this place and I can vividly imagine this because UH is also located in this valley. I think that what keeps beautiful places around the world as beautiful as they are is exactly this passion of people who think of them as part of their life, the source of their spirit and of inspiration. It is really great! Thanks for sharing these thoughts with me.

As for Russian bear, yes, you are right - the behavior of the wild bear is also kind of similar. Unless you don't represent any threat to it, it may well let you go, but once it considers you as some kind of intruder, it gets ferocious and pursues you even beyond its own territory. In real history, you can trace such similarities in Russian wars with Napoleon's France in 1812 and with Hitler's Germany in 1941-45. Napoleon invaded Russia and managed even to seize Moscow. But in few months after that his army had to flee to France. Russians pursued his army till Paris and, in their turn, seized the capital of France. As for the history of the WWII, you probably know, that in 1941, in couple months, Hitler seized almost all western and southern territories of Russia. His army was in walking distance from Moscow. However, Russians stroke back and in 1945 seized the capital of Germany, Berlin.

By the way, every province and every city in Russia have their own symbols. In my hometown, Vladivostok, the official symbol is tiger. Americans call it Siberian tigers but the matter of fact is that these tigers live in the Far East of Russia, not in Siberia, and my province is their main habitat. We even celebrate the Day of Tiger every year. Last Fall, Russia held the conference whose delegates were discussing the problems attached to the natural habitat of the tigers. As far as I know, one of the delegates was Leonardo de Caprio (if write his name right). He donated million dollars to support the population of the siberian tigers.

As for Russian economy, it is interesting issue. Russia is endowed with huge natural resources, particularly with oil. On the one hand, it guarantees some kind of stability when either such or such recourses are always demanded on the world market even during the crisis. On the other hand, it creates certain disincentives for innovations when people at power might think, well, we got a lot of resources which we can always sell, so there is no rush for some urgent measures in terms of modernization or innovations. As a result, a lot of brilliant ideas are left unrealized or bearers of these ideas move to other countries, like the USA where they can realize their creative potential.This, in turn, produces certain stagnation and dependence on the fluctuations in oil's prices. Such a dependence might create socio-economic patterns different from the world trends. For example, Russia may well feel comfortable during the world recession if there is still demand for oil, or the other way around, to experience downturns when the world economy goes up but the demand for oil, for some reasons, goes down. The latter example is probably hypothetical, but I'm using it to explain how it is difficult to measure situation in Russia through commonsense approach. Yet, I can say that Russia, likewise the USA, is definitely not on the upturn these days. Hopefully, it helps.

Best wishes,

Igor Nikitin

Hi Kyleigh,

 I was asked to send you a picture of mine. In attachment, there is some I took last summer in Russia.

 Best wishes,  Igor Nikitin

Hi Igor,

Thank you for the picture that will definitely go up on the website! I have a few more questions for you that might be a little challenging.

What gift do you think Russia gives to the world? Do you think that poem "Silentium" you sent me is a pretty popular poem that most Russians can identify with? Does this have something to do with the government? How much of an effect does the tight control of the government have on the prolific artworks produced by Russian artists? What are some cultural differences you have found between Russia and Hawaii? Do you feel that the bear may represent Russia in any other ways rather than their reactions to other countries in wartime situations?

Kyleigh

Hi Kyleigh,

 You are right, your questions are getting more challenging, but I like it because it shows your genuine interest in Russia and Russian culture. You know, when you use the word 'gift', you probably unwittingly touch upon the subject which is at the heart of all Russian philosophical writings starting from 19th century onwards. In each of this writings, the main question is what Russia is about and what is the historical mission of the Russian nation. Some of the writers say that Russia somehow is to save the world when it is close to collapse. Some later writers say that we already accomplished this mission when we defeated fascism in 1945. Some modern writers in half-joking manner say that our mission is to preserve huge territory with natural resources for humankind and die out to give way others. To certain extent, the latter sounds like truth because our population has been sharply declining over last two decades. Personally, I think that all these contemplations stem from our dual nature. The matter of fact is that for 300 years in past we lived under Mongolian power. We mixed with asians genetically but preserved the european appearance. And this duality - european appearance and asian mentality - constantly causes us wandering who we are and what we are for the rest of the world. Frankly speaking, I don't have answer to this question. I think, our nation is gifted with a lot of talents, but we are not able to manage these talents in reasonable and understandable way. We might be first in space exploration but fall behind advanced countries in economic performance. We might be both very generous and empathetic but at the same time all of sudden brutally aggressive. It is something about 'enigma of the Russian soul' which is so often discussed in Western literature but never explained in any intelligible manner.

 As for that poetry, I think that much more appropriate would be to use any piece of poetry by Pushkin if to assert certain self-identification of the most Russians. As for the author of that poem, Fedor Tutchev, every Russian knows couple lines from his another poem:

"You wouldn't understand Russia just using the intellect / You couldn't measure her using the common scale / She has a special kind of grace / You can only believe in her."

I sent you these lines before, didn't I?

As for government control over art, no, it is not any longer as it was back in Soviet times. Modern government cannot control and cannot restrict art in any explicit way. It may support certain artists who are in line with government's policies - through media or with direct investments, or it may ignore those who are kind of firebrands of the public opinion. But it cannot prosecute artists on political grounds.

Now couple words about our cultural differences, really couple words because to go into details would mean to write the whole essay )). Yes, we are very different in that Hawaii managed to preserve something peculiar to their culture, certain rhythm and style of life, basic traditions and basic conduct of behavior. It is really amazing taking into account hundred years of American influence. Unfortunately, we weren't so careful in watching out for our traditions and definitely lost a lot during this transition to market economy for last 20 years. In my opinion, we lost even more than we did during 70 years of the Soviet power. We are trying to mimic the West while the West itself is torn apart by its own contradictions. Hawaii in this sense are wiser and don't forget about their roots. So, if you want to describe our differences you can allude to basically the same differences as between Hawaii and the mainland. At the same, I'd like to note that there are some similarities. I can feel it from my personal experience. For example, I feel relaxed and comfortable when I'm talking to locals. I feel the same sincerity as we, Russians, put in conversation. I can give you a simple example of what I mean by saying this. In Russia, when we ask 'How are you?', we are really interested in your answer, not simply say 'Hi'. When we smile at certain person, we also show real interest in that person, not just follow some conduct of public behavior. Here, in Hawaii, on the level of local communities I feel the same sincerity. Unfortunately, it is not always the case on the more general level of the American society which used to be part of my confusion when I first came to the USA )).

Finally, about bear. Yes, it is not only about wartime. It is also about some kind of slow rhythm of our life, same kind of calmness of force if it is the expression. The state of tranquility when we think that we don't have to do any sharp moves cos if something serious happens, we would be always able to fix it in such or such way. Like a bear who is walking slowly on its own and seems to care about nothing. One can find a lot of proverbs in Russian language describing these nationally peculiar features of our life. For example, 'It takes ages for Russians to harness a horse, but they ride it very fast", or "The work is not a wolf, it is not going to flee to the wood' (which means, you don't have to work too hard cos there is always something to do), or 'People will make fun of you if you are to hasty', or 'Don't try to wake up the sleeping Russian bear', etc..

Is it of any help?

Best wishes,

Igor

Hi Igor,

Yes, thank you so much for taking your time to answer these questions so thoroughly! It has been a tremendous help, provided very interesting information, and is greatly appreciated! I have a few more though sparked by your last email. (This will be one of the last emails with tough questions I think)

What are some of the family values in Russian society? Could you pick just one work of literature that you believe best represents Russia? (It's ok if it's not perfect, I just need one to analyze) Do you think that Russia gives the world any gifts that aren't material? (Ex: peace, perseverance, hope, courage,...) Could you elaborate on what ways Russia might have lost some it's culture through, as you said; "the transition into the market economy"? And in what ways do you feel Russia is trying to mimic the West?

As I was researching about cultural differences between America and Russia, I came across this website: http://www.hello-online.ru/ content.php?contid=740. If you have the time, it might be something interesting to check out, and if you do look at it, maybe you could tell me what you think about it's accuracy.

Kyleigh

--

Hi Kyleigh,

You are going to be an expert in Russia :). I checked that website and I can just repeat after the teacher that it is private opinion of the small group of students from the same university. We cannot count on them as representatives of Russia, but, just as their teacher, I can agree or disagree with some opinions. For example, I have different opinion on the case of promotion. While nepotism is still definitely working in governmental sector, private sector relies upon real skills, not friendly or some other ties. Business is worried about making money, it cannot hire someone who doesn't bring in any money. At the same time I agree on the juxtaposition of Russian communalism and American individualism. But it is exactly what we are losing as our cultural background these days. And I was talking about this last time. Russia becomes more Westernized, more consumerist, more individualist society. I'm not sure that this is good. When you ask about some non-material gifts Russia gave to the world, I think such a gift or gifts are associated with a values of a communal society. Compassion, for example, or hospitality, or sense of mutual aid. Community, family were always on the first place in Russian society. If some person got in serious trouble, we would use to say to her or to him, 'Don't worry, the whole world will help you". But under word 'world' we meant local community, not world as such. It was and luckily still is in our tradition to take care about the elder members of you families. To send some old person to some home for elderly people while his/her relatives are alive and fine is considered as a bad thing.

As for just one book which represents Russia, I have to firmly say, it is almost impossible task. Russian literature is considered as Russian as something whole. It is difficult to split piece of that and to say this is more Russian than that one. So, whatever is my choice, it is the matter of personal preferences. I keep in mind two books just in case you don't find the first one, you can try to find the second. So, the first one is "Crime and Punishment" by Fedor Dostoevsky. The second one is "Master and Margarita" by Michail Bulgakov. Honestly, the second one is my favorite book, but it is very difficult to read for those who are not Russians because it involves a lot of specific Russian humor and details.

Best wishes, Igor