Day: 20 September 2006

Soaps can teach very many things to those who watch them (I’m not among those, so I must be unbearably ignorant). They can also highlight various issues, and so both Coronation Street and Emmerdale have each got their own ‘gay in the village’, and Emmerdale has recently highlighted the problem of euthanasia.

However, some soaps go really multicultural. Neighbours, which is made in Australia and shown daily on BBC1, is now incorporating members of the Russian community (these, however, are not played by Russian actors).

There is a girl ‘from Belarus’, who’s got a strikingly Asian look. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not stating this is impossible altogether. I’m simply saying: it’s striking.

Better still, there is this female character ‘from Russia’ whose name is Mishka. ‘Mishka‘ is Russian for ‘a little bear‘. There is NO WAY it can be a female name. It can be a short form of the name Michael (Mikhail in Russian), but never a full name in its own right. As for a feminine equivalent to a masculine form of the name, in the West it is possible to meet a woman called Michaela, but not in Russia.

I don’t want to guess why Neighbours editors came up with this exact name, although I’ve got an inkling it may have to do with the 1980 Olympics, which mascot, as you know, was a teddy bear (it can also be called ‘mishka‘). So, the connection could of course be that the woman’s parents were feeling patriotic and called their baby after the mascot. The only problem with this interpretation is that the female character looks at least 49 and there is no way she could’ve been born in 1980.

9/11 this year wasn’t just the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States five years ago. It was also the date when I flew from Moscow to Manchester three years ago. I haven’t been to Russia since then, and it looks like I won’t have a chance to go until after January 2007 (don’t worry :-), it’s simply more convenient this way). Naturally, in these three years many things have happened, some were thrilling, some were fine, some I could do without, but all in all it was very important time for me.

One of the outcomes of those three years is the new label I’m starting on this blog. I might change its name down the line, but at this moment it’s gonna be called ‘On Russia’ and will be dedicated to correcting various misconceptions regarding Russia and its culture, as well as to posting comments on Russian literature, cinema, music, arts, etc.

Under this label you won’t find any comments on politics, except for some historical notes perhaps, if I find those appropriate. My intention is not to command people to think about my country in a certain way. Apart from being a sort of outlet for my growing nostalgia, this label’s aim is to simply tell about Russia something that only a native citizen (+historian+writer+linguist) can tell. At the same time, my intention is to correct some really striking misconceptions, which sometimes stem from the lack of knowledge (for which there may be no-one to blame) or from wrong interpretations (for which the interpreter is to blame). I would like to think that my posts will be engaging and enlightening enough, although I don’t invest any unrealistic hopes in this.

If there is anything I would urge you to do it is to ask me questions or to comment on my posts under this label. My posts will predominantly be based on the media reports and on my talks with people, but since this blog exists on the world-wide web, it’s being read world-wide, so if you’ve got a comment or a question, feel free to send them to me.

One final thing, just in case if someone ever gets a feeling of my being patronising. I already said my intention is not to tell people what to think. But the simple fact is: there are very many Russians who know English, but very few English/British/English-speaking people who know Russian. So first and foremost I’m a translator who wants to be faithful to their original milieu but is aware of the inevitable losses or changes during the process of relocation of a text into a different milieu. And because some changes have a resonating effect, this label has come into being.