Re: Pushkin Dacha, Tsarskoye Selo

[Antonio_P.Caballer]

Hello Joanna,

The dacha is that of the photograph. I suppose the confussion comes because the painting focusses the view in the other house. Kitaeva´s house is to the left, the house in the corner. The only difference with its present condition is that the porche is closed by windows.

[pushkina]

Hello Joanna,

The dacha is that of the photograph. I suppose the confussion comes because the painting focusses the view in the other house. Kitaeva´s house is to the left, the house in the corner. The only difference with its present condition is that the porche is closed by windows.

is this the house?  i love its corner position.

[ChristineM]

That' it, Pushkina.

tsaria

[Mike]

It was Pushkin's favorite summer pastime to sit at the verandah wearing an unbuttoned shirt (which was considered next to nude at that time), eat gooseberry confiture with cold water and politely greet - in immaculate French of course - the passing-by ladies.

[pushkina]

i just love that man.  acting so scandalously but writing like an angel.

BTW, i'm trying to source a quote of lermontov's, puskin's great disciple:

"Can one ever forget one’s Motherland, even for a moment?"

is it from his poem rodina?  does anyone know?  mike?

[Mike]

I don't remember such a line. The Rodina (Motherland) starts with "I love my motherland, but strange is my love...", and finishes with "Till midnight I'm ready to look at a village dance, with its tramping and whistles and drunken peasants's chat".

[pushkina]

konstantin konstantinovich had a silver box with that line engraved on it, the box was filled with earth from strelna, where he had been born.

my grandfather who came from ethiopia, had a cloth sack with earth from his village; my father had a similar sack filled with earth from where he was born.  when i came to australia, i brought a ziplock bag of california soil.  i thought it would be nice to mix them all and inscribe a box for my daughter with the lermontov.  but i'd like to know which poem it really is.

i think alexsandr sergeiyevich would have approved...

[Mike]

my grandfather who came from ethiopia...

So you may have common ancestors with Pushkin?

[pushkina]

So you may have common ancestors with Pushkin?

i rather doubt it; altho' somee russians have told me that his great grandfather was jewish, there is no discussion that i have seen so far that could allow for pushkin to have been beta israel.

but i haven't seen all the russian language discussion and literature (of which i am sure there is much.)

i come by the nickname pushkina after a sort of nasty run-in at a gastronom in brighton beach with soem russians who couldn't understand why a chernyozhopy like me could speak russian.a woman decided i had to be related to pushkin. "vuy pushkina?" she asked. i looked grandly down my nose at her and remained silent.  and the legend was born: since that day to my russian friends, i am pushkina.

[Mike]

Like all good stories, yours is a mixture of fun and sadness. I'm glad that you've had enough sense of humor to view it this way.

You're apparently aware that there is a large community of Ethiopians in Israel. While most of them came from a rural background, some were well educated - including in Soviet universities. The stories of such guys whose perfect Russian came as a BIG surprise for their neighbors, fellow bus travellers etc., have already become a part of the Israeli folklore.

[pushkina]

Like all good stories, yours is a mixture of fun and sadness. I'm glad that you've had enough sense of humor to view it this way.

thanks, i'll have to remember the lovely and elegant way you've put that.

link=board=tsarskoetown;num=1102974720;start=0#11 date=01/12/05 at 06:18:27]You're apparently aware that there is a large community of Ethiopians in Israel. While most of them came from a rural background, some were well educated - including in Soviet universities. The stories of such guys whose perfect Russian came as a BIG surprise for their neighbors, fellow bus travellers etc., have already become a part of the Israeli folklore.[/quote]

hoorah for my beta israel brethren!

i hadn't heard that about russian speaking beta israel.  boy, i would LOVE to have seen the faces of some of those folks from odessa, not one generation removed from benya krik, and faced with a black speaker of pure russian.  i had one guy tell me that blac people are/were genetically unable to speak russian, it is so sublimely intellegent.

so i asked him about alexsandr sergeyvich pushkin, who, some say created modern russian;  i suppose he did it becasue he was too stupid to speak whatever came before.

that was fun.

[pushkina]

Like all good stories, yours is a mixture of fun and sadness. I'm glad that you've had enough sense of humor to view it this way.

thanks, i'll have to remember the lovely and elegant way you've put that.

You're apparently aware that there is a large community of Ethiopians in Israel. While most of them came from a rural background, some were well educated - including in Soviet universities. The stories of such guys whose perfect Russian came as a BIG surprise for their neighbors, fellow bus travellers etc., have already become a part of the Israeli folklore.

hoorah for my beta israel brethren!

i hadn't heard that about russian speaking beta israel.  boy, i would LOVE to have seen the faces of some of those folks from odessa, not one generation removed from benya krik, and faced with a black speaker of pure russian.  i had one guy tell me that blac people are/were genetically unable to speak russian, it is so sublimely intellegent.

so i asked him about alexsandr sergeyvich pushkin, who, some say created modern russian;  i suppose he did it becasue he was too stupid to speak whatever came before.

that was fun.

[Helen_Azar]

Has anyone visited the Pushkin Dacha in Tsarskoye Selo?

Hi Joanna,

I had visited the museum/dacha about a month ago and bought a few books about it. If you have any questions about it, I can try to answer them. Since my last trip to Russia, I have become a big Pushkin fan!

[Helen_Azar]

I happen to have the portrait of Pushkin's great-grandfather, Alexei Fedorovich Pushkin: