In part 1 of this series of blog entries I wrote about why I thought children adopted from Russian should be familiar with Russian fairy and folk tales. In part 2 I wrote about some of the iconic figures from the Russian epic poems (bylina). In this entry I'm going to discuss characters from the Russian pagan tradition: the fairy tales.

Here's where we have my favorite evildoer, Baba Yaga, who I posted... more

In my last post I talked about American icons and folkheroes that pretty much every child who's grown up in America knows or has heard of before. In this post I said I'd write about Russian folk heroes or iconic figures that most Russian children know about.

Problem is, I'm not Russian, so I don't really know who or what is part of the national conciousness.

According to Wikipedia, these are the Russian mythical heroes: Ilya Muromets,... more

As Americans we have some common cultural icons. Some were real people, some not, but chances are in elementary school we all heard tales of the old American folk heroes: Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett, Casey at the Bat, John Henry, and Brer Rabbit come to mind (hmm...I'm having trouble thinking of female folk heroes...anyone have any suggestions? Does Betsey Ross count?)

Then there are our "founding fathers," who were real people, of course, but around which have grown a certain mythology. George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson are... more

If you haven't had a chance to check out this blog yet, I highly recommend The Accidental Russophile for anyone who has yet to travel to Russia (or who's been there and wants to read more).

It's the blog of Wally Shedd, an American engineer who has professional and personal ties to Russia. He apparently does contract work there quite often and he is engaged (perhaps married, at this point) to a Russian woman.

The blog is immense, as he's quite a prolific writer and he updates it often. I'll give you some highlights as I see them.

First is this post on food. In his January... more

Since yesterday was our country's birthday and Little J's birthday was last week, this is probably as good a time as any to talk about birthday celebrations in Russia.

A year or so ago I bought a book called Celebrating Birthdays in Russia, by Cheryl Enderlein. This is a book that appears to have been written for the library market and despite the promise of the title I don't find it very illuminating - so don't rush out and buy it. I will, however,... more

I am going to a barbeque tonight to celebrate the 4th of July. No doubt we will have traditional BBQ foods - hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, etc. I am bringing the devilled eggs, natch. It's my specialty as a born-again Southerner. (How many devilled egg plates do you have? That's a sign of how much of a southern lady you are..."

Anyhoo, although there will be no Russians at this party beside my son, the concept of BBQ is not at all strange in Russia. The Russians have a very special kind of BBQ, actually: Shashlik.

Shashlik is a kebob with origins in the Middle East,... more

Yesterday I stumbled upon a fascinating website called Moscow Life. It's a subset of the Friends and Partners website, which I'll have to talk about another day, but which is a collection of sites devoted to Russian-American cross-cultural exploration! I'm really excited about it.

Anyway, back to Moscow Life. This site features nine years (1995... more

So - yesterday I posted about our overabundance of plums. In my search far and wide for some way to use them all up I have come across this recipe for Plum Butter. Strictly speaking this is not a Russian recipe, but it is a Polish recipe, but since Poland and Russia have so many elements of their cuisine in common I think it's fair enough to post it here.

I'm hoping I can make this with the type of plums that are on our tree. I have no idea what kind they are. They sure aren't the kind you buy at the store, nor are they damson. I've looked all over the 'net but haven't found a thing. I guess... more

At our new house we have inherited an ancient and incredibly prolific plum tree. We weren't really sure when it would start to drop its fruit but now that it has begun there's no doubt: we've probably got 50 pounds of fruit growing on that tree and not enough mouths to eat all that it's giving us.

I asked the former owner what to do with all the fruit. She said that this particular kind of plum is not good for preserves, since its fruit is very watery, but I could make jelly or other recipes with them, provided I cook fast. We've already discovered that we either need to eat them... more

Check this story out in the Moscow News: Russia War Hero Tells Her Secret. It's about 92-year old Alexandra Rashchupkina, who disguised herself as a man and entered the military so she could serve her country during WWII. She wanted to enlist but she was told she'd be better off at home...but she didn't let that stop her. She cut her hair, told the officers her name was Alexander, and joined up.

Wild.

Talks are continuing... more