6 June 2016. Day of the Russian Language

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Why is 6 June the Day of the Russian Language? It’s A S Pushkin‘s birthday… Aleksandr Sergeyevich was the “father” of the modern Russian literary language. What could be simpler?

BMD

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Christmas Appeal of G A Zyuganov: “Good Fortune in Your Endeavours, Love and Concord for Our Families”

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On the eve of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, as has been our tradition for over a millennium in the Russian vastness, we gather together with our parents, children, and grandchildren. The joyful celebration of the Christmas holiday is a long tradition amongst out families. That’s because, firstly, our children are our heirs and successors, we wish them all the best… good health, success in school, a happy and joyful childhood. All of us, not only children and parents, but also us weather-beaten elders, await a miracle in these bright days, a gift from fate, perhaps, a better life. Wishing each other happiness and new accomplishments, we remember the past year. For all of us, it wasn’t only the beginning of a year that saw an ingathering of the Russian World, of which we’re rightly proud, but also a time of hardship and anxiety. Therefore, we begin a new year in our lives and in the life of our vast country, wishing peace and higher justice.

The West is the eternal enemy of the Slavs; they bring confrontation and strife to our fraternal peoples. They kill our close blood-kin in internecine war, in the heart of the Russian World. In the fraternal Ukraine, in Novorossiya, was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning (Gospel according to St Matthew, 2.18). The forces of evil gang up on us, seeking to destroy our historical memory, to impose their will upon us, to subjugate us to “Herodian” laws and regulations. This isn’t the first time that we’ve faced such a challenge; every other time, we overcame our foes due to the resistance and self-sacrifice of our peoples, to our indestructible faith in justice, and to our trust in the triumph of good.

Are arguments between Europe and us new?

Have Russians forgotten their victories?

Or, is some of it due to us?

Slanderers of Russia

A S Pushkin

The great Pushkin asked this question, not doubting that Russia would defend its dignity and would fight back against enemies and slanderers. Trust me; it’ll be the same this time.

The Russian land arises

The Slavic streams merge in a Russian Sea

This is so because not only do we share a common past, but also I’m sure that we share a common future. Our great sovereign state, stretching from the Far North to the Far East, from the tundra to the desert to the Tavride, received from destiny great treasures, real “Gifts of the Magi”… fertile land, boundless forests, deep rivers, and fathomless lakes, along with inexhaustible reservoirs of “black and blue gold”. This wealth haunts those who assert their right to world domination, who don’t want Russia to have such resources, so, the forces of darkness bare their teeth against us, resorting to any means and methods of pressure.

What is this, is this call arrogant?

A call to battle still raging?

Or, the voice of envy embarrassed,

The impotence of evil impulse?

M Yu Lermontov

This is a question asked by another famous Russian poet, the soldier Mikhail Lermontov. Yes, it’s a challenge and a call to battle, against the voice of envy and resentment against the Russian state, but the finally-awakened unbroken will of the people will prevail. “The evil impulse” would be “powerless” if the huge resources of our country belonged to its people… those who plough the fields, tend our forests, mine the ore, refine the metal, and heal and teach our children. This is justice, and we must base our laws on such justice. Only then, would our true national interest triumph, not the greed of those who serve “Unrighteous Mammon”, those whom the Lord called “unfaithful stewards”. Justice can only come from those who deserve the people’s trust, from wise people with responsibility, from people both visionary and pragmatic in action.

I’m sure that our resistance and perseverance will defeat the forces of evil, along with our fraternal aspiration to unite in the name of the shining ideals that our fathers and grandfathers gave their lives for in the Great Patriotic War (we’ll celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory in the coming year). Seven decades ago, we defended our freedom and our blood redeemed Europe’s freedom, honour, and peace (A S Pushkin, Slanderers of Russia). This is what our enemies are trying to make us forget and erase from history, in the name of so-called “national development”. However, the memory of those who gave their lives for the Great Victory is imperishable in our hearts. We revere the names of our heroes and we remember their podvig, we carefully preserve the monuments of their glory and we unite as one to celebrate Day of the Great Victory, recognizing the “hidden meaning” (I A Ilyin) of the war as a struggle of our people for a distinct spiritual identity.

During this Nativity feast, I wish you good health, fulfilment of your desires, good fortune in your endeavours, love and concord for our families, joy and fun for our kids, confidence in the future for our mothers, courage and fortitude for our men, peace and prosperity for all peoples of the world, as we aspire to embody the life-giving light of truth, goodness, and justice.

To the Feast!

To the Nativity of Christ!

6 January 2015

G A Zyuganov

Head of the KPRF faction in the RF Gosduma

Chairman of the TsK KPRF

KPRF.ru

KPRF official website

http://kprf.ru/party-live/cknews/137998.html

Editor:

Note well that Comrade Zyuganov quotes the Gospel and uses scriptural allusions throughout this epistle. The last phrase (“the life-giving light of truth, goodness, and justice”) is an almost word-for-word gloss from the Tropar to the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. He even quotes I A Ilyin, one of the ideologues of the White Movement. That is, Comrade Zyuganov recognises the Harmony of the Russian World, the Integrity of Holy Rus, and the Unity of Russian History. All those who rip down statues of Lenin rip down Truth and replace it with Lies. V I Lenin was a FACT… all must admit this. Note well that Anglo Americans believe that “history is bunk”… we Russians know otherwise, and Comrade Zyuganov articulates it wonderfully.

Our Russian World is in pain… Gennady Andreyevich points it up well, but also gives us the hope of a better world after it’s over. The Cross and the Red Banner… the struggle is done and finished. BOTH have won… fancy that…

BMD

Festival of Slavic Culture Embraces New Format

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Choir in rehearsal for this event… even though the pro-zapadnik Portal-Credo.ru reposted it, it didn’t originate with them… they’re not original enough to create such, truth be told

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The Festival of Slavic Culture will occur on 24 May, featuring 200 events that will take place in 70 oblasts all over Russia. The Festival of Slavic Culture honours the brothers Ss Kirill and Mefody, the inventors of the Cyrillic alphabet and Christian missionaries. The Church ranks them as равноапостольный (ravnoapostolny: Equal-to-the-Apostles). As before, Moscow will be the focus of the celebrations.

Vladimir Legoida, head of the MP Information Department, said, “This year, the Festival will follow an informal format; it’ll be an event on an unprecedented scale, featuring many events in one day. From year to year, we’ve been doing our best to see to it that the festival strikes a personal note with everyone who happens to attend. Our purpose is to ensure that Kirill and Mefody are household names amongst ordinary people”.

Scholars believe that in the time of Kirill and Mefody, the 9th century AD, Slavs had no difficulty understanding each other. Experts state that Slavic people believed that they spoke the same language, as they shared the same system of sounds. The two brothers developed this system into an alphabet, to translate Greek religious texts into Slavonic. The Cyrillic alphabet became a foundation for creating alphabets for other Slavic languages.

Street signs in Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, and Macedonian at the Moscow festival will remind visitors of this fact. Many of the festival’s events have the purpose of popularising the Russian language. Moscow professors will give public lectures on Russian, whilst famous performers will read excerpts from Russian classic literature near the statues of Aleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, and Marina Tsvetaeva. Some 30 choirs, comprising at least 3,000 singers, will gather in Red Square for festival’s closing event… a gala concert entitled The Most Loved Songs. The choirs will perform church anthems, along with a large number of folk and pop songs, all to the accompaniment of a combined orchestra. Those willing to join the professionals will be able to follow the songs on large screens installed all over Moscow.

Sofia Apfelbaum of the Ministry of Culture (Minkultury), said, “Moscow has never seen such a large-scale cultural celebration before. We hope that this experiment will be successful. The songs are popular and known by many people. The gala’s repertoire was picked specifically for the purpose of bringing all people together so that the crowd in Red Square could sing along with the performers and so that everyone would know that Russians have a specific cultural standard”.

Fr Pavel Shcherbachyov of the MP Patriarchal Council for Culture, said, “A harmonious combination of the secular and religious adds a particular flavour to the festival. Even though spirituality in the religious sense of the word played no role in Russian society for a long time, these songs’ lyrics reflect the traditions of previous centuries. If we analysed the words of these songs, we’d discover that they reflect the traditions of the past, when there was an alloy of culture and religion”.

The song marathon in Moscow will end with the performance of Glory, Glory, Mother Russia! by Mikhail Glinka (the closing chorus of the opera Жизнь за царя (Zhizn za tsarya: A Life for the Tsar)), followed by a spectacular fireworks display.

23 May 2013

Yelena Andrusenko

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_05_23/Slav-culture-festival-embraces-new-format/

Editor’s Note:

It was also Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev‘s name-day…

на многая лета!

BMD

29 September 2012. A Photo Essay. Just Another Russian Urban Neighbourhood… Cheryomushki Raion in Moscow

Recycling bins for glass, metal, paper, and plastic

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Please! No animals allowed on the lawns!

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A bust of the poet Mikhail Lermontov

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Moscow is broken up into Raions (districts), which are part of larger units called Okrugs (which for unfathomable reasons, is always left in the Russian… they’re the equivalent of New York City boroughs). There are twelve Okrugs with 125 constituent raions. Cheryomushki Raion is in the Southwestern Administrative Okrug, the HQ of Gazprom is here. The Metro runs through the raion, using Profosoyuznaya, Novye Cheryomushki, and Kaluzhskaya (north to south, #6 Kaluzhno-Rizhskaya Line, it’s orange on the Metro map) stations on the western side. All riders have to travel north, towards the city centre, to transfer to other lines. On the eastern side, the Metro uses Nakhimovsky Prospekt and Sevastopolskaya stations (north to south, on the #9 Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line, it’s grey on the Metro map). Riders can transfer to the #11 Kakhovskaya Line (it’s blue-green on the Metro map) at Sevastopolskaya station. For all other transfers, riders have to travel north, towards the city centre. Cheryomushki Raion is a fairly-modern district, most buildings are postwar construction.