Life Lessons...

Finally! After three months in Russia I learn how to drink vodka in a civilised way without cringing at the burning sensation or retching at the taste. My lesson coming from a Russian who insisted the following steps be taken to ensure shots be enjoyed with a straight face:

1) Toast!
2) Inhale deeply and hold breathe...
2) Take the shot
3) ...breathe out slowly from the mouth
4) Food in hand, inhale through the nose, smelling the food
5) Eat the food
6) Enjoy the warm glow and never, ever mix with beer!

The food needs to be something from the traditional Russian selection of aperitifs. Fish, bread, pickles - unfortunately not the ketchup laden french fries we were left with last night - but at least the theory was right. Considering it was my last night things didn't get silly and retiring to bed at a reasonable hour I felt like I'd ended this trip on a high note.

До свидания!

The Day Job...

"Убита наших красноармейцев не 48 тысяч, а около миллиона, разве столько возращается с фронта, сколько ушло?"

There's been a lot of talk on this blog about why I'm here and what I want to achieve with all this hard work. Its very difficult to put across the excitement I enjoy from this history game. The fact that I've been lucky enough to 'play' for the best part of three months in the archives of Moscow hasn't diminished that enjoyment one bit.

If anything I'm hungrier now than I ever was. I've proven I'm capable, that the two years of hard work have paid off and I can complete original and - I hope - revealing research about the Soviet Union of Stalin.

Today was a good day. Despite the fact I'm only in Petersburg for a week I took the time on Monday to visit the former Leningrad Party archives hoping to register and review their holdings. I arrived with a lead and low expectations (just in case) yet walked away today with more material than I could hope to transcribe in the few hours afforded to me, despite over five hours of solid commitment to the reading room. I ran on adrenaline but found a few more pieces of the puzzle. The quote you see above you comes from a report sent to the heads of the Leningrad Party - Zhdanov included for those of you in the know - detailing popular responses to the signing of peace between the USSR and Finland in March 1940. It remained censored until last year. I was not the first to see the file but I hope I will be the first to use it in my work.

Its significance? It helps me show a chink in the armour of the Soviet propaganda machine. It allows me to engage with secondary literature of an established historian whose work you could pick off the shelf of a library or bookstore. It is my attempt to move one step closer to becoming a 'proper' historian'...

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

The last twenty-four hours have passed in such a blur. Still as if by magic, I am here, once again in St Petersburg, after the best part of two and half months in Moscow.

I have a lot of stories. Some of them not really publishable, but the moral of this tale is that Russia's capital is a place where 'stories' seem to regularly write themselves into your day-to-day experiences of the city.

There's some catching up to do here, having not had a regular internet connection for the interim period. I still need to post up a few bits from my last couple of days before the move over to Moscow. This week should give me chance to collect my thoughts and do just that.

Watch this space...