Staff Articles

A Russian Citizen's Perspective on the Russia-Ukraine War: Interview with Pavel Zakharov

Fallon O'Malley

On March 20th, 2022, I was able to discuss some topics with a Russian citizen related to the current war in Ukraine in order to better understand an average citizen's viewpoint, as well as recognize how popular protest is possible. Pavel Zakharov works in the international trade business and has received a degree from Southern Federal University in Russia. He has protested several times in his hometown of Mineralnye Vody against the war and has dealt with censorship in the workplace regarding anti-war sentiment. The following interview will discuss his personal views on the subject presently, while also contemplating the future.

What are your thoughts on the war generally?

I feel terrible about the war and condemn it. It hurts me to realize that currently there are people dying and killing each other. My country started it. Whatever the prerequisites, global games, grievances, or personal ambitions, this war should never have happened. Big, strong, wise, influential Russia, as I hope to see it in the world, would be able to solve this with soft power, and not in this way.

Russia and Ukraine are very similar. It is notable to add that every Russian has some relatives or acquaintances from Ukraine. My grandfather was Ukrainian, my grandmother studied in Odesa, and my mother in Kharkiv. When I see footage from Ukraine, I see the same squares, the same buildings as in any city in Russia. It's not distant (emotionally) from Afghanistan or Syria. Everything looks familiar and it hurts even more. Another thing that worries me is that Russians and Russian culture are very much so being canceled. Russia has been expelled from all possible competitions, and contests. Foreign businesses are leaving the Russian market because they feel pressure from society. Further, people all over the world are negatively disposed against Russians. However, it was not the Russians who unleashed the war, but one particular crazed dictator who is in power just because of massive electoral fraud and the destruction of the opposition in Russia. I never supported this regime and I have always voted against it. I have been attending rallies regularly since 2017 and do not want myself and my country to be associated with Putin.

Are there possible outcomes that you predict will occur in the future?

It is very difficult to predict the outcome of the war because no one knows how crazy Putin really is. No one fully believed that this war would happen at all. Today, it is already clear that Russia's plan for a blitzkrieg and a quick takeover of Ukraine has failed. There is no second echelon of troops that should replace and continue the war with the same pace and strength as the first. Additionally, there is a lack of necessary logistics, food, and fuel. This suggests that there was no plan B at all. I do not think that the war will continue in the same form as it was before since some big shift must happen. One option is that Putin will agree with Zelensky on something much smaller than what was stated as the goal of the "special operation." The second option is a terrible blow to the civilian population in order to force Kyiv into a more serious compromise.

Who pays the cost of sanctions in Russia?

We all pay the cost of these sanctions. Even my cat pays. His feed and litter are already worth twice as much after only two weeks of war. He will have to eat cheaper, lower quality, and less healthy feed. Although he definitely has nothing to do with the events in Ukraine.

For now, it seems that Europeanized Russians suffer most of the sanctions. Those Russians who still oppose Putin's policies, who protested and were on the side of the Ukrainians are who I refer to. They were the ones who flew to Europe, used Spotify and watched Netflix, and bought imported goods. Putin’s nuclear electorate didn’t suffer at all. I would go as far as to say that they don’t even know the word “Netflix." They receive their salaries on the MIR card (Russian analog of Visa/Mastercard) and have gone on vacation to Sochi. At the moment they are adrenaline-fueled by propaganda and do not fully comprehend the full scale of consequences. However, I am watching prices skyrocket in stores and I tend to believe that in two to three months at the most the refrigerator will defeat the TV and there will not be a single person who would think - was it worth it?

What does the media say about the war (portray to the people)?

It must be said that this is not only a war against Ukraine but also a war against dissenting, thinking people. Therefore, in the very first days of the war, all free media in Russia were completely destroyed. We were blocked from accessing Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I'm afraid that YouTube is next. Many media sources have been forced to shut down due to a new law that threatens up to fifteen years in prison for spreading fake news about the activities of the Russian army in Ukraine. A "fake source" is any information that contradicts the statements of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Thus, one can go to jail simply for calling the events in Ukraine a "war," because according to the official version, this is a "special operation to establish peace." Not to mention the number of dead, wounded, prisoners of war, which are greatly underestimated by our authorities. The participation of conscripts and the death of civilians are hidden. No self-respecting media could lie to its viewers. Therefore, they all had to close.

As for the state media, they are now seriously discussing that the United States developed biological weapons in secret laboratories on the territory of Ukraine, which were supposed to be spread by migratory birds and which only affect the Slavs. It also says that Ukraine planned to develop nuclear weapons and generally wanted to attack first. There are also state media stories that project the lie that Ukrainian neo-Nazis are holding civilians hostage and installing missile systems in their homes, provoking the Russian army. The stories just continue each day.

Do you feel any pressure for your thoughts on the war?

On the day the war began (February 24), I went out to a peaceful protest in my city, where I was detained by the police. I was not allowed to see a lawyer for three hours and I was given to understand that I would have problems if I continued to express my opinion. A few days later, a new law was adopted providing for administrative liability for "Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the RF Armed Forces in order to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, maintain international peace and security." It became very dangerous to go to rallies. At the last rally, I did not see anyone except the police. Theoretically, if the law enforcement agencies of Russia read your newspaper, I will most likely incur an administrative penalty and pay a large fine. Repeated violation within a year threatens criminal liability and imprisonment for up to 3 years. I also faced pressure at work. My boss made me remove the "no war" picture from my WhatsApp profile. I had to go against my principles in order to maintain my livelihood in such a challenging economic environment. However, I will never give up my beliefs. I will always find ways to spread the truth and will show footage of Ukraine to my friends. I will put up leaflets and continue to go out to peaceful protests. I hope to express this final message in summary: No war! Russia is not Putin!

Мелодии Миры №7: Краснознамённая дивизия имени моей бабушки (КДИМБ)

Мира Вроблевски

Альбом: УВЫ

Группа: Краснознамённая дивизия имени моей бабушки (КДИМБ)

Избранная песня: Последнее лето детства

The uniquely-named Краснознамённая дивизия имени моей бабушки (КДИМБ) was founded in Moscow in 2008 by Ivan Smirnov and Yana Smirnova, who gathered 10 amateur musicians to experiment with songwriting in a rural bathhouse. On their official Facebook page, they translate their name to “My grannie’s red flag band,” though the literal translation is “The Red Banner Division named after My Grandmother.” The name was inspired by a review by music critic Ivan Chernyavsky, in which he described American band Gogol Bordello as “Краснознамённый бордель имени Николая Васильевича Гоголя,” or “The Red Banner Brothel named after Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.”

The group is large, so its members are ever-changing—even founding member Yana Smirnova has left the band, while her husband remains involved. Although its composition has shifted several times, КДИМБ currently consists of 8 multi talented members who play a variety of instruments, including the xylophone, ukulele, accordion, and saxophone, alongside more traditional rock instruments. They describe their genre as “experimental rock with elements of baroque pop, post-punk, academic minimalism, shoegaze and afro-pop.” The topics of КДИМБ songs are often bittersweet, covering the themes of growing up and grappling with religion, anxiety, and existential experiences. These sentiments are vividly illustrated in their song Последнее лето детства, or Last Summer of Childhood, off of their album УВЫ.

Избранный текст песни Последнее лето детства:

Это сердце не отпустит, не переболит

Это чувство колким сгустком прячется внутри

Юный невесёлый человек

Примет натощак и унесётся

С пустой головой в пустой кабинет

Дети вырастают за стеной

Люди угасают и смеются

Так странно немеет сердце

В последнее лето детства!

В каплях битума горят разбитые коленки матовой бронзой

Дальше, в палевой дали, умри, но догони

Там катится солнце

Прыгай и лови

Усталый жгучий шар по старым этажам, кустам и колодцам

Двигай и беги

Отсюда втихаря, там не было тебя, там катится солнце

This heart won’t let go, it won’t recover

This feeling, like a sharp clot, hides inside

A young unhappy person

Will take on an empty stomach and be carried away

With an empty head to an empty office

Children grow up behind a wall

People fade away and laugh

How strangely the heart goes numb

In the last summer of childhood!

In drops of asphalt, skinned knees burn with matte bronze

Further, in the pale-yellow distance, die, but catch up

There the sun turns

Jump and catch

A tired burning ball along the old floors, bushes, and wells

Move and run

From here secretly, you weren’t there, the sun turns there

Цитаты:

Red Banner Division named after my grandmother (gl5.ru)

https://www.facebook.com/kdimb/

Краснознаменная дивизия имени моей бабушки (undergrundheros.ru)

My Grandmother's Red Banner Division

Ссылка на песню: https://youtu.be/FGTqvhLmQYU

Insult to the Queen: Nona Gaprindashvili’s lawsuit against Netflix

Райян Клопп

In 2020, the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit took the world by storm. An adaptation of a novel by Walter Tevis, it told the story of a fictional character (loosely inspired by the legendary and controversial Bobby Fischer) who battles drug and alcohol addictions amidst a meteoric rise to the very top of the world of chess. Acclaimed by both the general public and by the chess-playing community – Magnus Carlsen, the reigning world champion, described it as “extremely enjoyable”– the series was greeted with a torrent of praise for both its narrative quality and for how it realistically depicts the stresses of competitive chess. However, one notable inaccuracy cast a shadow over the production, provoking a 5-million-dollar lawsuit and reigniting the debate over how it allegedly “toned down” the sexism experienced by female chess players.

By any measure, Nona Gaprindashvili is among the greatest women to ever play chess. The first woman ever to be awarded the “general” title of Grandmaster (FIDE, the world chess governing body, awards both “general” and women’s-specific titles, with the women’s-specific titles being significantly easier to attain in recognition of the fact that most competitive chess players are men), she won the Soviet women’s championship five times and reigned as the women’s World Champion for 16 years. By any measure, her accomplishments are remarkable. However, in The Queen’s Gambit’s final episode, a minor character makes a reference to her in order to belittle the fictional protagonist, saying “The only unusual thing about her, really, is her sex. And even that's not unique in Russia. There's Nona Gaprindashvili, but she's the female world champion and has never faced men.” This statement, in addition to being insulting, is inaccurate- Gaprindashvili competed regularly against male opponents, and is Georgian, not Russian.

In response, Gaprindashvili filed a lawsuit against Netflix in September 2021, seeking that the episode be edited to remove the defamatory statement in addition to $5 million in punitive damages. The case languished in the courts until January 2022, when a judge ruled that it can proceed to trial, setting a potentially significant legal precedent by arguing that The Queen’s Gambit’s status as a work of fiction does not immunize its creators from charges of defamation when they reference real people. While the case is still ongoing, several prominent female chess players have weighed in to express their support and their beliefs that the show understates the sexism present in the chess world, including Judit Polgar (generally considered the strongest female player in history), Sarah Longson (former British Ladies’ Champion), and Alexandra Botez (five-time Canadian Girls’ Champion). Whatever the outcome of Gaprindashvili’s lawsuit, her quest for justice helps remind us that even in a work of fiction centered on one, women chess players often struggle to receive their due.

References:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/nona-gaprindashvili-sues-netflix-the-queens-gambit

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/arts/television/queens-gambit-lawsuit.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUB6P59CUko

Film Review: Gals [Девчата] (1961)

Яша Барт

1. Introduction

In celebration of one of the most important holidays in Russia and across the world, International Women’s Day on March 8th, I figured that it would only be appropriate to highlight a classic romantic Soviet film from 1961 — Gals (девчата). Directed by Yuriy Chulyukin, the film presents viewers with a romantic, but complicated, relationship that forms between an 18-year-old kitchen worker Tosya and laborer Ilya. The film highlights the life of many workers in the frigid climate of Siberia and the difficulties that arise with being in such a remote location, both physically, socially, and romantically.

You can watch the film for free on YouTube using the following link: https://youtu.be/8CYY8EM5xYE

2. Fun Facts

• During one of the scenes filmed in Siberia (near the Ural Mountains) in -30 C weather conditions, Nikolai Riybnikov (Ilya) became so engrossed in his role that he licked the aluminum spoon of his “soup”, which then immediately got stuck to his lip. He ended up just pulling the spoon off, along with some of his skin, in order to avoid the doctor and continue filming. Additionally, the soup wasn’t actually soup, but rather just pure boiled water.

• The cold steam that comes into rooms from outside when characters walk inside is in reality a special effect: there is a technician behind the door blowing warm steam in since the filming of these scenes was done in the south of Russia.

3. Review

I first saw this film when I was fairly little and didn’t really understand much of it. Watching it again, I realized that I barely remembered it, making this revisit all the more worthwhile. The dynamic between Nadezhda Rumyantseva (Tosya) and Nikolay Rybnikov (Ilya) is impeccable; they are both in each other’s faces and the best of friends at the same time. The comedic aspects, whether it’s the faces made by the actors and actresses, the silly-style flirting between characters, or the jokes played on one another had me smiling throughout the majority of the film. Perhaps the best part, unlike many other Soviet films, is the fact that these types of interactions could have taken place even today and is something that many of us could relate to. While the use of black and white may not suit everyone’s tastes, it pairs nicely with the visual effects used to depict Siberia: lots of natural and artificial snow and dense forests, and the cold air. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the film is the music, composed by Aleksandra Pakhmutova, as it really sets the mood for a romantically conflicting tale of two lovers-to-be, especially the song Old Maple (старый клён). This would be a perfect film to enjoy with your family, friends, and/or your significant other and perhaps each one of you can relate to Ilya or Tosya in one way or another as you watch.

4. Vocabulary

Бабник - womanizer/player

Филиал - branch of something/subsidiary

Старый клён - old maple tree

Сиротинка - orphan (f)

5. Citations

“The Girls.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 7 Mar. 1962, www.imdb.com/title/tt0134614/.

Lebovsky, Sergio. ДЕВЧАТА Интересные Факты о Фильме. YouTube, 10 Mar. 2021, youtu.be/vA4OHtFEn_I.

Chulyukin, Yuriy, director. Девчата. MosFilm, 1962, https://youtu.be/8CYY8EM5xYE.

Бог дал, люди взяли: on Kamila Valieva

Сара Лаги

I’ve been planning to write an article about my “experience” with Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian figure skating prodigy who is taking the world by storm– having won the 2022 European and Russian National Championships and, most recently, leading Russia to gold in the team event at the 2022 Olympics, which is currently being held in Beijing. She was the first woman to land a quadruple jump in the history of the games. Valieva, of course, was also expected to win the gold medal in the individual event.

However, it was recently revealed that the 15-year-old tested positive for trimetazidine, a medication banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that is used to treat angina, a painful condition caused by a lack of blood flow to the heart. (Freydkin 2022, Wikipedia 2022) The news left doctors all over the world bewildered. Why would a 15-year-old be prescribed this medication for cardiac problems? What purpose would trimetazidine serve in enhancing a figure skater’s performance? Perhaps most importantly, why would an athlete use this medication dishonestly when its presence in the body is so easy to detect through routine drug testing? The presence of two other substances used to treat cardiac problems, Hypoxen and L-cartinine – both of which are not banned – was also detected in her sample. Used with trimetazidine, these substances can increase endurance by reducing fatigue and increasing blood flow to the muscles. (Maresca 2022)

I can’t speculate too much about these medications specifically; I don’t have the medical or scientific expertise to explain the properties of trimetazidine which led to its prohibition in sports and I, too, don’t understand why Valieva would’ve been given this medication. I do know, though, that I don’t want to describe this situation in a manner which places the blame on a child. Valieva is a 15-year-old girl. She has coaches, doctors, parents, and countless other adults in her life who are responsible for preparing her for competitions, performances, and her voyage to the Beijing Olympics; and, as a young Russian athlete, she has essentially zero agency in both her life and career (something the American audience doesn’t seem to understand). If it turns out that Valieva was given this medication solely to enhance her performance (every day, this reality becomes more clear), the blame – in my eyes – lies with the adults who should’ve trained and prepared her in an honest, ethical way.

In looking at Valieva’s social media, it seems as though – in light of this situation – she still has a lot of fans on her side. Comments like “Золотая наша, держись!” (Our golden one, hold on!) and “Камила! Пусть светлые силы будут на твоей стороне! Мы с тобой.” (Kamila! May the forces of light be on your side! We are with you.) fill her feed. Multiple famous names in figure skating have voiced their personal support for Valieva, including Ilya Averbukh, Evgenia Medvedeva, Evgeniy Plushenko, Maksim Kovtun, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, and Katarina Witt (who also added that the adults responsible for this situation should be permanently banned from the sport– an idea I can definitely get behind). However, as to be expected, she has received a massive amount of hate.

This situation has been difficult for me to grapple with. A minor child being involved in a doping scandal of this magnitude is almost unheard of, and it boggles my mind that human beings are capable of creating these situations. The training methods Kamila’s coach, Eteri Tutberidze, employs have been under scrutiny in the figure skating world for years now. Tutberidze led then 15-year-old Alina Zagitova, who is now unofficially retired, to Olympic gold in 2018. In 2014, Tutberidze was by 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya’s side as she made her Olympic debut in Sochi, winning gold in the team event. Lipnitskaya had to end her sports career in 2017 after a lengthy battle with anorexia nervosa. (NBC Sports 2022) Two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva, another pupil of Tutberidze’s, announced her retirement from competition this year at the age of 21. She disclosed that a chronic back injury she sustained as a teenager now prevents her from turning her upper body to the left. (Макарена 2021) This will certainly have a long-term impact on her mobility as she ages. It is worth noting that Medvedeva, at the age of 18, competed at the Olympics with both this chronic back injury and a stress fracture in her foot. (Longman 2018) She was apparently given injections to dull the pain.

As time has passed, people have begun to pick up on this pattern; Tutberidze’s students explode onto the scene like fireworks and then quickly fizzle out after a couple of seasons in time for a newer, younger champion to replace them.

Fans often debate and speculate about this. Some want the International Skating Union (ISU) to raise the age limit for senior competitions, while others posit that this cycle is simply the price we must pay in order for the sport to progress– that the decrease in skaters’ ages and career lengths is natural and no formal rule changes would solve the problem. These are important conversations to have, and the discourse has been ongoing for a while now. But doping, until now, never came up during these debates. It is unfathomable that adults could do this to children.

On February 14th, the International Olympic Committee decided to let Valieva compete in the individual event under one condition: if she were to win or medal, there would be no victory ceremony. This, obviously, was a horrible decision and hugely unfair to the other skaters (interestingly, though, two of the other girls who were expected to medal are also Russian and coached by Eteri Tutberidze). Olympic champion Yuna Kim perfectly summed up my reaction to the decision; she wrote on Instagram, “[An] athlete who violates doping cannot compete in the game. This principle must be observed without exception. All players' efforts and dreams are equally precious.” Valieva should not have been allowed to compete. The International Olympic Committee’s decision sets a dangerous precedent.

My heart aches. Valieva has been a prodigy for so long; she is objectively the most naturally gifted skater of her generation. While Russia as a whole is still behind her, I don’t think she realizes that in the rest of the world, her reputation is tarnished. People who don’t even watch figure skating now know her name only because of this scandal, in which her involvement almost certainly wasn’t by choice. She didn’t need trimetazidine to be great.

All of the adults responsible for Kamila’s safety, training, and success have failed and betrayed her. They’ve tarnished her Olympic experience and are putting other Russian athletes in an awful position; every victory they achieve will now be questioned. I agree with Katarina Witt; the people who created this situation should be punished and barred from further involvement in the sport. Although I wish the circumstances were more joyous, I still feel compelled to tell this seemingly insignificant yet deeply meaningful story involving the girl at the center of this scandal.

I've been a fan of figure skating since I was a teenager, and this love of mine is actually what led me to study Russian at William and Mary. Before I got the chance to take formal courses at the university level, I tried, in high school, to teach myself as much as I could. I would often practice by leaving positive comments on photos posted by Russian skaters or messaging them directly with words of encouragement. The vast majority of the time, my comments were never noticed. A lot of skaters on the international level have massive fan bases and simply can’t read and acknowledge every message they receive.

I discovered Kamila Valieva when she was still a junior; her Picasso-inspired Girl on the Ball short program mesmerized me (this program deeply moved even Picasso’s granddaughter, who invited Valieva for a visit– watch the program here!). I began to root for her from afar, and whenever she'd win a competition, I would send her a direct message in Russian expressing my congratulations. I recently revisited these messages and was struck by how horrible my grammar was at the time. There are some sentences that I'm unable to parse today; I genuinely can't figure out what I was trying to express.

Nonetheless, despite having thousands of devoted followers, Kamila always read and liked my messages. She could've easily concluded that they were gibberish and deleted them (I probably would’ve if I were her), but she chose not to. Those small actions meant so much to me at the time.

I was utterly starstruck that this young Russian prodigy acknowledged me, a teenage fan from America with essentially zero command of the Russian language. I knew even then that Valieva was going to do big things. Until recently, I was in awe of the fact that I’d interacted with the future Olympic champion. I took the promise of Kamila’s uncontroversial victory for granted. Now, I feel that I’ve interacted with a girl who should have and could have won fairly.

I really hope that everything works out for Kamila Valieva. As of right now, I can’t say what “everything working out” would entail. Valieva won the short program, but it seems as though the pressure and vitriol got to her by the free skate, where she fell multiple times and ended up, despite winning every competition she competed in this season, not medaling. Some speculate that Valieva purposefully performed poorly in order to ensure that a medal ceremony would be held for her fellow teammates. Indeed, as she sat crying while awaiting her scores, she remarked “now the ceremony won’t be canceled.” There’s essentially no way Kamila will make it to the next Olympics; this was her one and only chance to win an individual gold medal and sadly, it didn’t happen. Anna Shcherbakova and Aleksandra Trusova, who are both coached by Eteri Tutberidze, won gold and silver, respectively. Kaori Sakamoto of Japan won bronze. I think Kamila’s loss may be a blessing in disguise. If she had become the Olympic champion, there would’ve forever been an asterisk next to her name. People would’ve been angry and her triumph would’ve been seen as illegitimate.

I wish we could’ve done something to save Kamila. Such a feeling of powerlessness comes with watching this unfold from afar. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if she’ll be able to keep competing internationally as a result of this scandal; the international outrage may prove to be too powerful. If she is forced into early retirement, the skating world is going to lose a giant. I wish Kamila the best with whatever comes next and hope that the people who did this to her get punished. May her kind, gentle spirit never leave her.

Цитаты:

Freydkin, D. (2022). What is the Olympic Russian skater’s banned drug? Today. https://www.today.com/news/beijing-olympics/russian-skating-drug-rcna15634

Longman, J. (2018). Success of Russia’s Female Figure Skaters Takes a Toll in Injuries and Stress. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/sports/olympics/russia-womens-figure-skating.html

Maresca, T. (2022). Kamila Valieva had three substances in system, reports say. https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2022/02/16/olympics-kamila-valieva-drug-test-trimetazidine-hypoxen-l-carnitine/7361644987037/

Mayo Clinic. (2022). Angina. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/angina/symptoms-causes/syc-20369373

Wikipedia. (2022a). Figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Team event. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_skating_at_the_2022_Winter_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Team_event

Wikipedia. (2022b). Kamila Valieva. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamila_Valieva

Wikipedia. (2022c). Trimetazidine. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimetazidine

Zaccardi, N. (2022). Yulia Lipnitskaya details retirement, anorexia. NBC Sports. https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2017/09/12/yulia-lipnitskaya-anorexia-figure-skating-retirement/

Макарена. (2021). МИЛОХИН и МЕДВЕДЕВА - про отношения. Поцелуй на Ледниковом периоде. Собчак / 50 вопросов. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bgOWOVahRA

Summers at the Dacha

Alina Uzakpayeva

Many families in the post-Soviet republics own a dacha. In English, dacha translates to “summer house,” but it doesn't have that same ring as dacha– a place of childhood memories for many. Usually located on the outskirts of cities, dachas are the ideal place to spend the summers. Typically, a dacha is an older one-story building with a piece of surrounding land. The land is used for growing plants and vegetables. A lot of older dachas have a banya, which is a stand-alone bath-house with a sauna used for bathing and showering. One interesting aspect of the banya experience is the venik, a broom made out of tree or herb branches– typically birch, oak, or eucalyptus. The brooms get soaked in hot water, after which they are used to lightly lash the body as a form of massage. Many dachas also have сellars used for storing fruits and vegetables during the winter. The dacha is a place to escape the stress of urban life, reconnect with nature and family, and pick some fresh raspberries off the bush. Many go mushroom-picking in the nearby woods, can vegetables, and spend nights by the fireside.

My grandparents own a dacha about fifteen minutes away from my hometown of Almaty, Kazakhstan. The dacha is located in the Tian Shan mountains, one of the region’s landmarks. Our dacha is a place of many land quarrels between my grandparents. My grandfather is “team fruits and vegetables”: anything goes, from tomatoes and zucchini to pears and cherries. My grandmother, on the other hand, is all about flowers: last time I checked, she had 124 roses at the dacha and is always looking for which veggies they don’t “need” to expand her rose collection.

Dachas are also great for watching the mountain sunrises and going water rafting, if you dare. We did, which resulted in a lost flip flop and many bloody scratches from the failed attempts at trying to stop the tire we used as a raft.

Our dacha is also home to six dogs, who were the source of another memorable yet frightening experience. The youngest yet biggest, 120-lb Buddy, decided to bite me and my dad this past summer. Six painful tetanus shots later, here we are, unfortunately not scar-free. Yet, the dacha is still the place of my favorite memories.

Pirozhki

Undra Tsend

The smell of stuffed buns, or pirozhki, would pervade the streets of Ulaanbaatar where restaurants have left their doors ajar, as if to entice anyone walking nearby to stop in their tracks to feast on this popular comfort food during their lunch breaks. The smell is quite irresistible and it is not easy to go on about your day without a serving of these pies that fit perfectly in your hand. Pirozhki is a Ukrainian and Russian fried and often baked bun that boasts a variety of fillings such as ground beef, cabbage, and rice in a pocket of pillowy soft, yeasted dough. Having grown up in a household that enjoyed many Eastern European inspired dishes, I will say that pirozhki is definitely on the top three list of my favorites. Mongolian grandmas would sometimes alternate between selling fresh milk or fried pirozhki at outdoor markets, eager to feed fellow shopkeepers as well as wandering shoppers curious of the source of this heavenly smell. Back home, I used to cup the pirozhki in my hands and let the fiery warmth of the pie linger for a couple of seconds as if to absorb its heat. My people believe doing so has certain benefits for one’s well being, but it often resulted in me hopscotching the pie in my hands, almost dropping it to the ground before I could taste it. Luckily, I learned to hold on, take a deep breath, and appreciate the experience. This dish is not only a beloved comfort food in Russian and Ukrainian homes, but has certainly found fans in Central Asia, the Baltics, and even Japan which brought on a diversity of fillings depending on the region. If you’d like to try making it at home, there are plenty of recipes online that can bring you a taste of these heavenly buns. Don’t forget to cup them in your hands and absorb the heat.