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...

Next stop Moscow...

...Wish me luck!

I'll hopefully share a little about the journey once I get there!

...одну картошку, пожалуйста...

Finally! My little treat in St Petersburg, the wonders that are - literally speaking - 'little potatoes' from the kitchens of 'Север' can be purchased by yours truly with proper Russian conjugation.

Sick and tired of getting it wrong, I asked the very nice young lady behind the counter of its Nevsky Prospect branch. She seemed puzzled by my request at first but eventually twigged.

одна картошка,
две картошки,
...
пять картошкой,

...and just make things even more complicated, you have to put it in the 'accusative' case if you want to request one from said, nice lady behind the counter. "одну картошку, пожалуйста"

Sending in the big guns...

Unfortunately this write up is coming about three months after the event - filling gaps from my absence in Moscow - but I thought there were a few worthwhile words / photos to include still.

Despite the absence of any T-34 tanks, I'd recommend losing a few hours in the vaulted corridors of the artillery museum. Its a pretty comprehensive history, everything from the early days of cannons - including some pretty impressive contraptions that never quite took off in the same way...discus firing gun anyone? - through to the nuclear age and rockets that look like they should never have fitted in through the front door.

For my own research interests it was nice to finally find a token reference to the Winter War in one of the last rooms dedicated to the engineers corps. The exhibitions seems to have survived intact from the Soviet period, praising the exploits of its heroes and giving great attention to the successful undermining of White Finnish defences and the notorious 'Mannerheim Line'.

Enjoy the photos. For you animal lovers out there you might want to avoid the cabinets housing stuffed dogs strapped to explosives. They were trained to run under German tanks. I'm assuming those on display died a less dramatic death, otherwise it must have been a hell of job piecing them together again.

P.S - I almost forgot. For those of you want to experience a throwback to the Soviet days of the 'Stoloviaya' kitchen canteen you'll find one in the museum. Its menu is a little better than we get among the Moscow archives but you mind find a taste for them.

"Время летит!"

Besides providing a useful reminder for which of the verbal pairing corresponds to the uni-directional version of 'to fly' (...don't ask!) todays subject is probably more familiar to native English speakers as 'Time flies".

The reason for acknowledging this is a comment made my teacher today that turned out to be an unexpected compliment on the progress I've made since first coming to St Petersburg last April. Being as it was last April, the fact that she thought it must have been two, maybe three years since I was first here is either a reflection on how slow time travels when she's teaching me or, as it turned out, a realisation that my Russian has progressed quicker than she'd anticipated.

A victory then! And one I was determined to prove as not just a fluke aided by my talking to a teacher trained to communicate with any foreigner who happens to have a rudimentary grasp of the langauge...

Undecided about where exactly to go for my 'practical lesson' I wandered over to my old haunt, the 'Museum of Political History of Russia'. (Note to self: Must take a photo of this place for the blog!) The sun was shining after an overcast start to the day - we seem to be on a good run again this week after a few early wet days - but I was happy to spend a couple of hours inside. The front entrance is still being renovated so follow the arrows to the side door.

What started as a quick question posed to the cashier - pre-prepared and repeated in a rather strange inner monologue during the journey - about whether the museum had any material on the Soviet-Finnish War became a full blown conversation with various members of staff about what resources I might find in the city! And I understand most of it! And they understood me!

Needless to say there was nothing available at the musuem and no dedicated exhibitions they could think of, but regardless, I did what I came to do and got my fix of 'conversation'. Not only that but to be able to talk about my work, my research interests and what I hope to achieve in Russia over the next few months was a real bonus and will hopefully set me up for my travels in Moscow.

Anyway, plenty more work to be done and I think tomorrow I need to pick another likely candidate and go speak to the curators there. Maybe the Secret Police branch of the State History Museum again or the artillery museum which I'm still yet to visit. Watch this space...