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И снилась ей долина Дагестана...
And she dreamed of a gorge in Dagestan... from the poem "Dream" by M. Lermontov
The poem is about a young Russian officer lying dying of a wound in the remote Caucasus who dreams of his girlfriend back home who instead of enjoying the brilliant party she is at is sadly daydreaming that someone she knows is lying dead in the distant war.
Lermontov fought in the war the Russian Empire waged to conqueror the Caucasus, against the ancestors of the very people who'd love to disrupt the Olympics. A romantic in the middle of the age of Romanticism Lermontov did not die in battle. Instead like the other great Russian poet of his age, Pushkin, he was killed in a senseless duel with another Russian.
With the time difference as I write this, the opening ceremonies in Sochi are probably well under way. When I was teaching Russian back in the 1970s I had a couple of students whose goal in studying Russian was to get jobs interpreting at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. The US boycott of those Olympics ended those dreams with a thud. I wonder what those former students of mine are thinking today.
I've never been in Sochi or even close. The woman who taught me Russian visited there back before I met her. Sochi used to be *the* spot for a summer vacation for those able to afford it back in the days of the USSR. Like everything in the USSR in the old days, Sochi was a bit seedy and worse for wear from the perspective of a westerner. No doubt the true aim of holding the Olympics there is to turn the area into a year-round international resort. Can't blame them for trying. When my professor was there she met a (then) world famous, Olympic Champion, pole vaulter. He was still considered part of the Soviet elite though it was clear from what he told my professor his athletic career was almost over and he was beginning to worry about his future. The other incident that struck her was that when she was at some festive get-together in Sochi she had been talking with an eager young Russian for a time, when he suddenly asked if she were Jewish. She wasn't, but given the anti-Semitism of USSR in those days and the fact the fellow was not Jewish himself, it did creep her out a bit. I can imagine some young American athlete today by chance meeting a local and being asked if they were gay.
And she dreamed of a gorge in Dagestan... from the poem "Dream" by M. Lermontov
The poem is about a young Russian officer lying dying of a wound in the remote Caucasus who dreams of his girlfriend back home who instead of enjoying the brilliant party she is at is sadly daydreaming that someone she knows is lying dead in the distant war.
Lermontov fought in the war the Russian Empire waged to conqueror the Caucasus, against the ancestors of the very people who'd love to disrupt the Olympics. A romantic in the middle of the age of Romanticism Lermontov did not die in battle. Instead like the other great Russian poet of his age, Pushkin, he was killed in a senseless duel with another Russian.
With the time difference as I write this, the opening ceremonies in Sochi are probably well under way. When I was teaching Russian back in the 1970s I had a couple of students whose goal in studying Russian was to get jobs interpreting at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. The US boycott of those Olympics ended those dreams with a thud. I wonder what those former students of mine are thinking today.
I've never been in Sochi or even close. The woman who taught me Russian visited there back before I met her. Sochi used to be *the* spot for a summer vacation for those able to afford it back in the days of the USSR. Like everything in the USSR in the old days, Sochi was a bit seedy and worse for wear from the perspective of a westerner. No doubt the true aim of holding the Olympics there is to turn the area into a year-round international resort. Can't blame them for trying. When my professor was there she met a (then) world famous, Olympic Champion, pole vaulter. He was still considered part of the Soviet elite though it was clear from what he told my professor his athletic career was almost over and he was beginning to worry about his future. The other incident that struck her was that when she was at some festive get-together in Sochi she had been talking with an eager young Russian for a time, when he suddenly asked if she were Jewish. She wasn't, but given the anti-Semitism of USSR in those days and the fact the fellow was not Jewish himself, it did creep her out a bit. I can imagine some young American athlete today by chance meeting a local and being asked if they were gay.