“2016 To the New Year and the Nativity of Christ”
Literally, “Yolka” in Russian means “fir-tree”… it has no relation to Christmas at all. Ergo, the best “Englishing” of this would be “Holiday Tree”, as it mostly symbolises the secular holiday of the New Year.
BMD
Here’s a sweet little song from Dede… he’s not Santa Claus… he’s the New Year’s Wizard.
In the forest grew a Yolochka,
In the woods it grew up tall.
It grew both winter and summer,
It grew so green and tall.
The lyrics for this song date before the Revolution. Raisa Adamovna Kudashyova, née Gidroyts, was the author of many beloved holiday verses, loved over many generations. Raisa Adamovna grew up in a family of a Moscow postal official. She graduated from the M B Pussel Girls’ Gimnaziya, later working as a governess, a teacher, and a librarian. She wrote poems from her early childhood, but only dared to send one of them (entitled Rucheiku (Brook)) to Malyutka (Little One) magazine in 1896. She was only 18-years-old when the periodical published it. After that, her poems began to appear in many children’s magazines, such as Malyutka, Svetlachok (Firefly), and Podsnezhnik (Snowdrop), using pseudonyms such as “A E”,”A Er”, and” R K”. Yolochka saw its first publication by Malyutka in its 1903 holiday issue (the one right before New Year’s and Christmas). Instead of her name, it appeared under the modest alias “A E”. interestingly, it doesn’t contain a single “holiday” verse, yet it became a staple of children’s holiday celebrations.
13 December 2015
Fairy-Tale Map of Russia
Most people have GOOD memories of the Sov days. Anglo Americans get misled as they only talk to a small minority that speaks English and supports neoliberalism. They don’t know or care about the actual reality… but reality does have a way of making itself known… the Anglos, I fear, will find that out the HARD way…
BMD
People wave sparklers as they celebrate the New Year on Red Square in Moscow (Federal City of Moscow. Central Federal District) RF, 1 January 2015
Fireworks explode over St Basil Cathedral on Red Square, Moscow
New Year light show at Palace Square in St Petersburg (Federal City of St Petersburg. Northwestern Federal District) RF
Festive illuminations on Palace Square in St Petersburg
New Year fireworks at the Central Square in Vladivostok (Primorsky Krai. Far Eastern Federal District)
Festive illuminations in Vladivostok
New Year celebrations at the Central Square in Vladivostok
Fireworks in Vladivostok
New Year’s Eve in an apartment in Rostov-na-Donu (Rostov Oblast. Southern Federal District) RF
Local resident on New Year’s Eve in Rostov-na-Donu
Ice town in Kemerovo (Kemerovo Oblast. Siberian Federal District) RF
1 January 2015
ITAR-TASS
Voices from Russia 
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