This is the Part 3 of my weekly series about Russian women. It’s about the babushkas, bless their hearts. The babushka, or grandmother, has a special role in Russian history and life. They are the social conscience, and humorously, the … [Read more...]
Bless the Babushkas!
There are the babushkas, bless their hearts. The babushka, or grandmother, has a special role in Russian history and life. They are the social conscience, and humorously, the collective mouthpiece of Russia. They have an opinion about … [Read more...]
Good Sisters Make a Good Family
It is such a pleasure to see the good that is done when people of different cultures respectfully get together. The result is a realization of how much we have in common, not in difference. Harmony and mutual appreciation happen—and we learn so … [Read more...]
Russian Women
In Chapter 38 of “The Domostroi”, which I jokingly call a sixteenth-century, Ivan the Terrible, version of Good Housekeeping, the husband is admonished exactly how to discipline his wife and children, “...beat them only with the lash, in a careful … [Read more...]
The Banya
Even after eleven years in Russia, I had never enjoyed the pleasures (?) of the banya. It is an institution in that country. As we collected our sandals, sheets, and bunches of birch twigs the Russian in our group said, “Citizens of The United … [Read more...]