Back
to Slavica home page
© 2002 by Eloise M. Boyle and Genevra Gerhart. All rights reserved.
These are essays on how Russian culture finds its life in the language, and how the Russian language finds its life in the culture. To know another country's culture, one has to know the language of that culture, or serious misunderstandings can arise. A famous example of this occurred in the 1950's, when the American public, already suspicious of the Soviet Union, was whipped into an anti-Soviet frenzy by a remark made by Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev said, "My vas pokhoronim", which was translated in the United States as "We will bury you," and this led to even more dire Cold War tension. The actual translation of the sentence is something like, "We will say funeral rites over you," in other words, we Soviet Communists will be around long after you capitalists have lived out your time. One sentence, one mistranslation, years of misunderstanding.
If language is more than words, is in fact a symbolic process wherein the speaker and listener are each engaged in sharing both that which is spoken and that which is simply assumed as in evidence by both, then a non-native, in order to truly participate in conversation, must learn the basic symbols (assumptions) that are the givens of communication For there is a body of information that "everyone knows" and refers to, even if it is a little fuzzy on the edges.
In 1996 nine people agreed to take a particular part in a major project. The aim was to write down Russian common knowledge in Arts and Letters very broadly conceived, and specifically as evidenced in the language. It must be emphasized that the knowledge of a specialist is not the information presented here. We looked for the information most educated Russians have about their world, and their attitudes toward it. What emerged is common knowledge, that is, the knowledge about the world expected of an educated Russian -- a linguistic definition that applies both to the people and the culture in which they live. If the American must know "Play it again, Sam" and "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," in addition to "To be, or not to be," what must the standard literate Russian know? What proverbs are regularly used? Which fables are referred to? What takes the place of Jack and the Beanstalk? We in the United States have definite mental (and sound) pictures of the Middle West, the Southwest, the Northeast, the South. How does the Russian divide Russia, and how are the divisions characterized? The intent is not to show the full range of possible information on a topic, but rather the limits of expected knowledge, what one must know to understand the culture. This project was too large to be accomplished by one or two human beings, and so this group was formed to try a major attempt at the impossible. The authors included in this volume used research, personal insight, conversation, cajoling, argument, in short all the tools at their disposal to come up with the impressive amount of information you now hold in your hands. The editors of this work are eternally indebted to all our fine writers for their efforts on your behalf.
The method of research varied from author to author, but one approach was supposed to be common to all: numerous Russians of various generations were interviewed, and the authors solicited Russian opinion about what is generally familiar to most people. Sasha Prokhorov (Science) took his efforts to (among other places) both a beach in Russia and a train station in Moscow, where he asked people from all walks of life about their knowledge of scientific facts and myths. But to discover what is obvious, or accepted, or understood by another group of people is not so easy as it might seem, therefore this book is an approximation: sometimes more information than is necessary is presented, sometimes less. All but four of the authors are not native speakers of Russian, and there exists an obvious gap in our knowledge. We need not apologize. This is a first attempt. There will be omissions of truth and commissions of error.
The Accompanying CD-ROM
A CD-ROM accompanies the book. It contains entire quotations read in Russian by Russians, as well as innumerable pictures to render the visual context of the language, and music that reveals something of the Russian psyche. Used together, the book and the CD-ROM arm the reader with the background necessary to follow Russian conversations. When you finally laugh at the same jokes the Russians find amusing, when a painting recalls to your mind a fact of history or passage of literature, when a song stirs up melancholy in your soul, you will know you have absorbed Russian common knowledge. The CD also incorporates the list of sources for both the book and the CD.
Before trying out the CD-ROM for the first time, the reader is advised to read Appendix 5 on using the CD. In order to get started on the book, however, it is enough to note that illustrations and sound clips included on the CD are labeled in the margins of the books via mnemonic icons.
On Transliteration from the Russian
We tried diligently to follow what seemed a reasonable plan: the basic system for transliterating would be the Library of Congress (LC) system (see Appendixes) since the major use of this book would be at universities. However, the chapter on Geography would use the Board of Geographic Names (BGN) system, partly because its use is more logical there, and partly as a demonstration of how the two differ. And finally, we agreed that famous names that have become part of English would remain there, for example, Tolstoy, not Tolstoi, and the like.
Back
to TRC home page