Monday, February 2, 2009

A Bit of Shame on Account of My National Ignorance.

Dear friends,
remember this lady? The one I referred to as a "depressed bitch" in my previous post? It has been brought to my attention that this was very very wrong on my part. Apparently, she's a city hero. She was in the Leningrad blockade. On top of this, she was a friend of my great- grandfather's. It seems that it's time to do a bit of penance for the name-calling and general ignorance, so I'm going to go ahead and do an entire post on her.

Her name was Olga Berggolts. She had a pretty fucked-up life. First, two of her daughters died. Then, her husband was arrested and killed as part of the "Great Purge." She herself was arrested on account of her husband having been falsely accused of something, and spent 7 months getting her ass beaten in prison, where they actually managed to beat her into having a miscarriage. (fucking soviet bastards!). For some reason that I don't understand, she then joined the communist party in 1940.

Then came the Leningrad blockade. This woman spent all 900 days of it in the city. She got on the radio, and encouraged and inspired the beaten, starving citizenry of the city to persevere by daily giving speeches and reading her poetry. Because first and foremost, she was a poet. She later became a recipient of several communist high honer medals, and has even had a small planet named after her. Basically, this lady really was a hero. And she was also beautiful. So here's one of her poems about the blockade, and a picture. So now, we all know who the depressed bitch on the wall is.

А город был в дремучий убран иней.
Уездные сугробы, тишина.
   Не отыскать в снегах трамвайных линий,
одних полозьев жалоба слышна.

Скрипят, скрипят по Невскому полозья:

на детских сапках, узеньких, смешных,
в кастрюльках воду голубую возят,
дрова и скарб, умерших и больных.

Так с декабря кочуют горожане, --
за много верст, в густой туманной мгле,
в глуши слепых обледеневших зданий
отыскивая угол потеплей.

Вот женщина ведет куда-то мужа:

седая полумаска на лице,


в руках бидончик -- это суп на ужин...-
Свистят снаряды, свирепеет стужа.
Товарищи, мы в огненном кольце!

А девушка с лицом заиндевелым,
упрямо стиснув почерневший рот,
завернутое в одеяло тело
на Охтенское кладбище везет.

Везет, качаясь, -- к вечеру добраться б...
Глаза бесстрастно смотрят в темноту.
Скинь шапку, гражданин.
Провозят ленинградца.


погибшего на боевом посту.

Скрипят полозья в городе, скрипят...
Как многих нам уже не досчитаться!
Но мы не плачем: правду говорят,
что слезы вымерзли у ленинградцев.

Нет, мы не плачем. Слез для сердца мало.
Нам ненависть заплакать не дает.

Нам ненависть залогом жизни стала:
объединяет, греет и веде
т.

О том, чтоб не прощала, не щадила,
чтоб мстила, мстила, мстила, как могу,
ко мне взывает братская могила
на охтенском, на правом берегу.

See? I'm not just here to be funny. I'm also here to shit on our national heroes. Oh, and to inform. Always to inform.

3 comments:

Anonim said...

how's the job search ? what's new with the crisis in Russia? is it getting better at all or is it still getting worse? what do people say/expect?

Plusha said...

Man, I still haven't applied myself to the jobsearch wholeheartedly just yet. Probably will next week. But I've been informed that my salary here is only guaranteed for another two months, so I've got two months to find another job. The crisis is going about as well as it can here. People getting fired, prices going up, ruble going down in value lightning fast. Some people seem to be under the mistaken impression that the crisis will be over in a year. Fools! They don't get that it's only really going to fully start in about a year. That's about it.

Anonim said...

http://market-ticker.org/archives/775-Its-A-D,-Not-An-R-Folks.html