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Day: 29 May 2011

Moscow: A Walking Method for Winter

Even before I came to live in England I was told that in winter the entire country would lose its nerve. “We’re too soft, we Brits“, someone told me. “We cannot live under the snow“.

The first time I heard this was in 2000, and already by 2004 I had been able to see that this was indeed so. Not unlike Russia, there were streets in Greater Manchester that were so sloppy that you probably wouldn’t manage walking or driving up and down even in good weather, never mind in the terrifying mix of snow, ice, and frost.

Eventually, in January 2010 the temperature dropped to minus 17 in Manchester, and one day there was so much snow that the entire city was indeed disabled: no buses left the terminals.

In Moscow where the temperature dropped to minus 27 in February 2011, and where we had a lot of snow (to celebrate my homecoming, no less), people merely brace themselves when they listen to the weather forecast. Then they clean their coats made of fur or sheepskin, get out an extra pair of socks, a thick hat (possibly the famous ushanka), and a good pair of gloves. It is normal to be cabbage-like in winter, to wear many layers, but as long as you can move and speak, it’s OK. Needless to say, buses drive as usual.

But then you also need to walk, so how can you walk safely and securely, without also compromising on the image people see? It wouldn’t be nice or comfortable to always balance with your arms and body, would it?

We owe the tip illustrated by this photo to an unknown Russian lady behind whom I happened to walk earlier this year, when it was cold and snowy in Moscow (as always in winter). You don’t need any fancy walking sticks or crutches. All you need is a pair of skiing sticks. And given how much Russian people love winter sports, it’s great to use the skiing sticks even when you’re not skiing.

Now that the summer is just around the corner, and it’s already getting very hot (yes, it may go up to plus 38 in the shade), I will keep my eyes peeled for tips on walking in the blazing sun.

Joan Baez – Natalia

August 25th will see the 43rd anniversary of the 1968 Red Square Demonstration against the suppression of Prague Spring. Although 8 people took part in it, only 7 were thrown in prisons and lunatic asylums. Among them was Natalya Gorbanevskaya who turned 75 on 26 May. Having recently given birth, she wasn’t tried with all other participants. She used the “free time” to narrate the history of events that was published abroad as Red Square at Noon. However, in December 1969 she was arrested and spent next few years in the psychiatric prison, until February 1972. Soon after her release Gorbanevskaya emigrated and has since been living in Paris.

Gorbanevskaya graduated from the Philological Faculty of the Leningrad University in 1964 and worked as a technical editor and translator. She also wrote beautiful, lyrical poetry that was very sparingly published in the Soviet literary journals. This is how Yury Kublanovsky describes Gorbanevskaya’s poetry:

The originality of Gorbanevskaya’s poetry – and with the years, in emigration, this tendency has increased – lies in the fact that most of her poems do not develop in a linear way: introduction; development; resolution. Economical, lapidary, her texts go straight to the heart of the matter, apparently devoid of a framework. Metaphorically speaking, one might say that she constructs not “houses”, but “nests”. In her lyrical heroine there is indeed something of the tireless builder of nests: ever busy . . . And the reader suddenly feels that it is a privilege to be a contemporary of this indefatigably intrepid worker, tough, at times even harsh. There’s a certain phonetic, rhythmic, imagistic complexity that is more a sign of something organic than a defect. (read the full review).

A selection of Natalya Gorbanevskaya’s poems is displayed at Arlindo Correia website, with English translation. And in 1976 the famous policial activist and singer Joan Baez dedicated a song to Natalya, to the lyrics by Shusha Guppy, a distinguished female writer, editor, and performer of Persian and Western music. The political demonstrants of the once terrifying Soviet Union were like a gleam of hope for people’s rights activists and those who believed in the individual’s power. As the Czechs said, because of those 7 people who sat in the Red Square in 1968 they could no longer think bad about Russians.

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