Not to be understood
Russians themselves say Умом Россию не понять: the mind cannot comprehend Russia. These are the words (and the title) of a
poem (1866) by
Fyodor Tyutchev (in Russian
Фёдор Тютчев):
Умом Россию не понять,
Аршином общим не измерить:
У ней особенная стать –
В Россию можно только верить.
This lady recites it in 13 seconds. You probably won’t need to turn the volume up.
верить: believe
In Russia (Россия, which in this case is Россию due to a grammatical case), you can only believe, as the last line says. Watching is also fun and can be done without understanding. Here’s some great material: Russia compilations that fittingly use Умом Россию не понять as their motto.
For those who still haven’t had enough: YouTube has an entire series of Умом Россию не понять clips. Click here, here, and here for more.
See also OPINION: Why you can’t get enough of those bizarre videos from Russia, where you can read, among other things: ‘This was the promise held out by these compilations and listicles: a crazy, “Wild Wild East” that offered thrills and freedoms that the West had long forsaken on the road to stability and prosperity.’ (Josh Nadeau, Russia Beyond 2019)
More
Country
The Netherlands holds a unique place in the Russian imagination. This is how our country, and we, are viewed through Russian eyes.
An interview becomes legendary when it gets its own page on
Wikipedia. On February 6, 2024, Tucker Carlson spoke with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. The report (127 minutes) offers a good, or at least broad, opportunity to hear the Russian perspective on the war against Ukraine.
What we would call ’tokkies’ or ‘gabbers’, and what elsewhere might be referred to as white trash or hooligans – in Russia, these are called gopniki. Folk culture in a tracksuit.
Since the age of sixteen, Игорь Мухин (1961) has been taking photographs. Armed with a
Смена-8М camera, he started his journey. So, when he found himself among artists and musicians in the 1980s, he already had a trained eye – and a better camera. Mukhin (sometimes Moukhin) witnessed major changes and began documenting them.
Freedom of speech is decreasing everywhere, though the reasons vary by region. Meanwhile, Big Tech’s power is growing, along with its interference. In this new era, a nearly forgotten Soviet answer is reemerging: samizdat, the underground DIY press and distribution network.
Every country has a flag and a coat of arms. The Netherlands has a lion, France has a rooster, New Zealand has a kiwi, and the United States has a bald eagle. In Russia, it’s an eagle with two heads and three crowns, and a man on a horse who has just killed a dragon with a spear.
