Canada day

[avrelia]

I’ve got to a point where I want to read/listen about US politics as little as about Russian ones. I still do – about both. And I will, of course vote in November, as opposed to “no idea when”, but I am, let’s say, miffed, that my vote in the presidential election would have little weight by itself.

Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to live in a state that will vote for a Democratic nominee, no matter whom I vote for, but also I feel that it is a stupid system more strongly than ever. And yes, if everybody decide not to vote, then the few votes would matter, and it is not an outcome we want. I feel I have to actively care about politics more that I have energy for. I am sorry, I cannot save democracy here and restore it over there. I can only sit right here, cursing them all.

In a way I am glad I cannot vote in Canadian elections now.

What I did do. I started a tiny conversation and reading club in Russian for kids. Where I collected 5-6 kids of elementary school age and reading them, talking to them and playing word games with them in Russian.
I have thoughts and I have plans, and I am happy to have them.



There are some eternal conversation among the Russian diaspora about the Russian diaspora and how bad it is – compared to other diasporas and in general. This conversation intensified in the last two years. The pivot point is of course, understandable, but it is not one reason for it. The people who prefer Russian in their daily lives while living outside of Russia are not necessarily Russians, and the definition of “A Russian person” is vague to be almost non-existent. I usually go by self-identification. You say that you are Russian, and I have no reasons to believe otherwise. It may coincide with ethnicity, history and cultural leanings, or not, it may coincide with citizenship or not. You might speak Russian well or not at all. Which of them belong to the Russian diaspora? No idea. Lots of people stopped speaking Russian after February 2022. Lots of people didn’t. Lots left their homes in Russia, Ukraine and other countries and came somewhere else, bringing with them their ideas of being Russian. Lots of people who like me didn’t think of themselves like diaspora that much, just moving from place to place, going to Russia and back, now are kind of trapped. Nothing stops me from going back to Russia except for fear that I have no idea where I would be able to return home, and now my home are unequivocally here. So… yeah. I am here, being Russian. And American. And a bit Canadian.
Thinking about being Russian in this weird world.

Comments

[eglantiere]

oh, hugs and hugs. i've put more thought into Being Russian in those last years than i did in my entire life beforehand, and i can't really say it was effort well spent. just, ech, blech.

(and uh, if you have USA passport, please don't go to motherland until this shit blows over. i'm in the some boat, and i hate it... but better safe than sorry.)

the reading club sounds amazing and i'm happy you're having it <3

[avrelia]

I don't think I should travel to Russia just yet, as everything is so random and US passport might be a liability there, but it is an excruciating feeling - maybe I am too much a coward to visit my parents? Maybe I am overthinking it all? Maybe not? Some of my friends burned all the bridges and don't question it any longer - they are not going to be welcomed in Russia. I am censoring myself just in case, and hate that I am doing it.

anyway. The reading club is two weeks old, but kids are enjoying it so far, and so I am. I hope it can grow into something interesting, but even if it stay a fun for one summer, it is still good.

[eglantiere]

there's at least one american/russian tourist lady who got arrested and jailed for like 7 years on trumped up charges, with the implications that they're collecting potential hostages in people with dual citizenship, so... no. no you aren't D:

[avrelia]

yeah, that story really unnerved me. :(

and many others here, and I guess, other places.

One thing I find really good here, in California, is that Russian-speaking communities here are very active and involved and interconnected.

"движуха" as they say.

[shadowkat]

Lovely post, thanks for sharing. It helps me to see your point of view, as an American living amongst Russian and Ukraine immigrants in NYC, and in an apartment complex. My next door neighbors are Russian Jew, and the man I saw last in the laundry room is recent immigrant from the Ukraine. And one of my co-workers is a Russian immigrant from Moscow, circa 2000.

I see the Russian language in the apartment complex, and I see it on the subway. We have so many languages, and they are all present in varying ways on subway, apartment, voter ballots, banks, etc. In a way it is very reassuring to see, but also weirdly overwhelming.

[avrelia]

you are welcome!

Yes, people now more often use "Russian-speaking" as a more precise and easy indentifyer, since it might be the only thing we really have in common with one another - Russian as a native language. And it is enough, since eccentricities, nationalities, countries of origin, races, all could be very different. There is also usually shared history and culture. Twenty years ago I could easily spot a person from USSR countries by the common fashion sense. Now - not really.

[shadowkat]

That makes sense. A Ukranian explained to me in detail once the difference between Russia and the Urkraine, and the languages. I don't all of it, but there are differences. She also talked about how beautiful her country was.

Language keeps the culture alive. The Welsh explained that to me. There are just things that make more sense in the origin language and are lost in the translation to another language.

[hamsterwoman]

but I am, let’s say, miffed, that my vote in the presidential election would have little weight by itself.

Yeah... I hear you on that.

Yay for the Russian club -- that sounds great! And I'm curious what books you're reading / word games you're playing, if you feel like sharing :)

The people who prefer Russian in their daily lives while living outside of Russia are not necessarily Russians

I used to say I was Russian as the shorthand that Americans were most likely to understand and get pretty close -- and also because it would usually come up in the context of what language I was speaking, e.g. to my kids or to my parents, which is Russian, and was definitely easier than the more accurate explanation of "Russian-speaking Jew born in what used to be the USSR and is now Ukraine". In the last 2-2.5 years I definitely find myself giving the full explanation more and the shorthand not at all...

[avrelia]

the meeting plan is about like that:
1) reading poems from various poetry books. kids give me numbers, I read a poem from that page. Now I am using the following:

Сборники Марины Бородицкой и Петра Синявского, сборник стихов Жирафу снятся облака

2) games. I have a number of games collected - the one where we have to find two rhyming words, the one where we have to think of word in a specific category on a certain letter, crosswords, etc.

3) a bit of running around for kids

4) reading a book with short funny stories. Right now it is Элла в первом классе

5) I also want to introduce some non-fiction books, but not sure how to read them yet in small bits.

[hamsterwoman]

Thank you for indulging my curiosity :) I don't recognize the short stories book, but googling Жирафу снятся облака, the cover looks familiar - I think it was a book our local library had, which I ended up reading for the first time when reading it to my kids.

I'm trying to remember what games we played in Russian with my kids, mostly courtesy of my parents and grandparents. I can remember съедобное-несъедобное as a favorite, and there was one where you had to name 5 things in a given category that was a good way to pass time waiting in a queue and the like. I was also revisiting some old posts of mine, from when my kids were in elementary school, and I was trying to play hangman with them in Russian, which was challenging for them and EXTRA challenging for me, because their spelling was atrocious XD (We also played the game that it seems like everyone but my family/my parents' friends group calls Контакт -- we play it without the "kontakt" rule, which is why it's not called that, haha -- but that's rather too involved.)

[avrelia]

Timo Parvela is a Finnish writer, and his books started being published in Russian about ten years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timo_Parvela. https://pgbooks.ru/books/authors/10834/
books about Ella are hilarious, I don't remember when I was laughing so hard while reading last.

I remember the games you mention, I played them as a kid myself. съедобное-несъедобное didn't work so far, because boys got too much into throwing a ball, not enough into thinking of the words. ;)

one of the reasons I started the whole thing - to try and increase active Russian vocabulary and talk about all kinds of things. Plus, I have collected lots of cool books in Russian, fiction and non-fiction, and I need to share them. I owe some of my best time in childhood to various old Soviet kids encyclopedias and such.