Whistle-Blowing Policeman Sacked

It looks like it’s time for Putin and Medvedev to put up or shut up regarding corruption in the ranks of the Russian police force.

Alexei Dymovsky, a Novorossisk police officer, recently came out with a youtube video where he makes a number of charges regarding his outfit, including false conviction and widespread corruption.

The result?  Dymovsky was fired, and an investigation was launched into his charges by the Interior Minister – an investigation that lasted about three hours before determining that their “inquiry did not confirm any of these facts.”

You can read the related article and watch the original youtube video here.  If anyone in he government seriously plans on tackling corruption, this would be the guy to rally behind.

Apropos of Lermontov

As you may have realised while reading A Hero of our Time, most of the action in the first section takes place in the now heavily contested borders of “independent” (at least according to Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) South Ossetia.  With winter coming on, and most of the mountainous passes becoming impassable, it looked as though this conflict would remain frozen (pardon the pun) at least until summer.

But now, the head of the Russian spy service has come out claiming that the Georgian military may be planning on retaking South Ossetia by force.  This, in addition to the charges leveled by top member of the Russian government that Georgian is in league with Al-Qaeda, does not bode well for the coming months.  Are we witnessing the build up of rhetorical justification for renewed conflict?

Putin the Film Director

It would seem Putin is looking to strengthen his resume beyond that of the swimmer, hunter, fighter pilot, judo master and horseback rider – try adding film director to the list.

That’s right.  Putin has thrown his hat into the domestic film scene, invoking, of all things, the history of Hollywood as an example to follow:

The Great Depression in the United States gave a very important impulse to the development of American cinematography, and made this industry super-profitable.

Putin’s main bone to pick was that “goals of economic, cultural, and humanitarian influence are not being reached.”

What exactly the Prime Minister meant by these remarks, particularly the extremely vague “humanitarian influence” remain unclear up to press time.

Russia has a “rich cinematographic heritage,” Putin continued, “but our product does not so far have a mass foreign audience.”

The Russian has of course scored a few big hits in the last few years, particularly with the success of the Day Watch / Night Watch franchise as well as Gengis Khan epic Mongol.  Is Putin advocating more in this vein of filmmaking, or might he actually be suggesting that Russia should be looking to its own Socialist Realism past in order to deliver on the “humanitarian influence”?

Miliband in Moscow

Poor David Miliband. The Britich foreign secretary can’t seem to do a whole lot right…Especially as regards Britiain-Russia relations. A Ria Novosti Article stated that relations between Miliband and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, could not be worse. The problems all stem from the infamous Alexander Litvinenko poisoning case of 2006. The British Government have been repeatedly trying to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB member and now a pro-Kremlin MP (just another one of Putin’s protective circle of friends!), who is a prime suspect in connection with the murder. This has been to no avail. The current visit to Russia was intended to clear up the souring of relations resulting from the Litvinenko case and the ensuing proceedings. However, as a BBC article puts it, Miliband was simply “snubbed” when he repeated his demands concerning the extradition and the future of Russo-British relations. Lavrov’s curt actions surely have something to do with the fact that Miliband met with numerous anti-Kremlin figures and liberal officials, include Mikhail Gorbachev, who has been so outspoken against the Kremlin of late, criticizing United Russia for their running a “managed democracy” akin to that of the former Soviet Union. It seems Britain are starting to pin hopes on a change in power at the next general election in Russia. Could this not be a rather rash move so early in the game?

More on drug abuse

I actually found this article, written by a Dutch journalist/ photographer quite at random, but it links very closely back to a previous post I made, on heroin abuse in Russia. The author documents in short the lifestyles of a few sorry young addicts, as well as those involved in their treatment. One of the amazing things is the degree to which some people seem to carry on with semi-normal lives, only dragged down by their habit; one user is a former psychology student who speaks fluent English and works as a manager for a pro-methadone campaigning organisation. There is some insight into peoples’ arguments for and against methodone clinics and needle exchange programmes, both of which are currently not in action in Russia. It makes for some shocking reading; some of the users have been addicted to home-made heroin substitutes since the age of twelve or thirteen, and one interviewee, severely disabled at the age of 28, is HIV positive and lives in a retirement home. The article also contains some interesting statistics: for example that in 1997, 5 percent of the population of St Petersburg (or in other words around 200,000 people) were hard drug users!

A glimpse into the Russia of the 1980s- Порушка- Параня

The Queen of Spades on film

Here is the link to the first part of Igor Masslennikov’s 1982 adaption of The Queen of Spades to film. It’s remarkably true to the script, in Russian with English subtitles. I highly recommend a viewing…

The Murky World of Russian Football

Soviet and Russian soccer, the nation’s favourite past-time, has been long riddled by state interference. The nation’ s professional leagues have long been the subject of bizarre stories. In Soviet times each club, the overwhelming majority of whom were based in Moscow, were affiliated with some arm of the state- Dinamo of the KGB, CSKA of the Army, Lokomotiv of the railways and  Spartak of the Kolkhoz to name the main contenders. In the 1930s a rivalry was struck up between Spartak, seen as a representative of the people and named after Sparta, led by their founder the perenially state harrassed Nikolai Starotsin, and Dynamo under the patronage of the football crazy KGB head Felix Dzerzhinsky. In 1936 they were to meet in an eagerly anticipated exhibition on an incredible artificial surface in Red Square in front of Stalin himself. Fearing violence before the game, Dinamo pulled out at the last minute, but Spartak went ahead and fielded two sides for the crowd. After 40 minutes however, The Great Friend of All Athletes seemed to be growing tired of the spectacle laid before him, and the players unanimously agreed, that the best thing for their collective safeties was to pack it in.

Following the independence of the Russian Federation the leagues were and still are plagued by betting scandals, but they seem to be somewhat stabilising, if only at the professional level. That was until, in recent weeks first division side FC MVD (literally “Ministry of the Interior Football Club”) were disbanded after a scandal in which it was alleged a million dollars of state funds were embezzled by the hierarchy at the ministry to run the football club. The team had seen a recent rise in fortunes as the senior police official Nikolai Ovchinnikov took it as a personal mission to see the team succeed. Despite an embarrassing defeat in the summer to a convicts’ XI, that had been going well. Fortunately for FC MVD, it appears the allegations were false, but the damage is already done. Stripped of their league status they must rebuild again. Few in Russian sporting circles however, are sad to see the back of another state run football franchise.

How to Translate a Text

I recently put together a list of suggestions for my students in the Russian-English Translation Course for Native Speakers.  Since it covers principles that may be useful for anyone working with English and Russian, I thought I would post them here, as well.  Please let me know in the comments sections if you have anything to add – or modify.

1. Always read through a text first, do your research, and only then start translating. A good 500-word translation should take you 3-5 hours.

2. Worry more about the meaning of a sentence than each individual word. Of course, accuracy is important, but the most important thing is that a native speaker of English (and not Russian) will be able to understand your work.

3. The acid test is to give your translation to a friend, and see if he/she understands every sentence.  Even if you are a native speaker of English, your knowledge of the language and text will warp your perception of your own work.

4. Be especially careful about Russian syntax (word order)! Try to think in English terms at all times: Subject – Verb – Direct Object – Independent Clause. Remember that Russian is MUCH more flexible with word order. Russian also likes to feature phrases like: С московскими начальниками, одуревшими от славословий Сталину, говорить вовсе не о чем. When translating this sentence you would have to change around the word order entirely.

5. ru.wikipedia.org is your friend. Your very, very good friend.

6. translate.google.com is not your friend. He will betray you.

7. When in doubt, avoid the comma.

8. Translation is difficult because a word in one language has many different meanings depending upon its context. The primary dictionary definition (like “rest” for otdykh) will not always be the most appropriate choice.

9. Remember, as a translator you constantly have to make choices – translating is often a task requiring creation.

10. Here is a great article on the difficulties in translating (literature).

11. Finally, here is a webpage that features the three main systems for transliteration into English. I have suggested the first one, the Library of Congress system, but you can use any of the three, as long as you are consistent.

The Night Witches

The BBC has a fascinating audio slideshow up on the “Night Witches,” which was the German name for the all-women flying squadrons during WWII.  The slide show is complete with a little Soviet marching music.  The link is up here.