Notes from Slavic Quick Cataloging, Pt. 6
Notes from Slavic Quick Cataloguing, Pt. 6
Things you may not have known about the layout of slavic books: the table of contents is generally at the back.
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Book entitled “Bogastvo je v nas” (Slovenian). Nas = us. Bog = God. Bogatstvo = riches (in Russian). Subtitle, “iz dnevnika novodobnega milijonarja” (something like ‘from the journal of a modern day millionaire’). Publishing house, “Divine Touch Publishing.” Is this a book about God and Us, or Wealth and Us? You decide!
Also, inside it is laid out like a high school text book. Lots of pictures. Maybe it is a get rich quick manual?
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Book on Mari mythology. Random sentence (my translation) from p. 261: Mari people believe that it’s best to talk with the souls of ancestors at the place of their death: the prayer will be heard.
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Russian book: Oral history in Karelia, vol. 3: Finnish occupation of Karelia (1941-1944).
Karelia (aka Karjala) is ethnically very close to Finland; I don’t think the Finns view it so much as an occupation as much as a brief repossession of what ought to have been part of their country, except that Russia has always been bigger, militarily. And the Finns have learned to be diplomatic and neutral.
I wouldn’t say taht about all of Karelia; eastern parts of it have been a part of Russia all the way back to Novgorod Principalities. The strip along Karelia’s Western Border and a chunk of what is now St.Petersburg Oblast’ have been annexed from finland after the Winter war, but Finland has no claim on the rest of it, including Petrozavodsk and the lands to the North. On the other hand, I would not mind it at all if Karelia decided to secede from Russia and become a part of Finland; Finland is my favourite country, after all…;)
Oh, and as far as the Slovenian book is connserned, I’d translate it as something along the lines of “The Wealth is within us”, but I wouldn’t want to guess about its purpose.
Thanks for your comment! Interesting to know there are readers beyond my mother.About Karelia — I suppose with any border area it’s easy to make the case on one side or the other, about who it most belongs with. In this particular case, though, keep in mind that in the 800-odd years preceding Finnish independence, it was the Swedes and the Russians deciding how to divide Karelia, so I’ll stand by the Finns not viewing it as occupation, because who knows how it could have been, had history gone differently?I do go through the books relatively quickly, so I don’t know which part of Karelia it was referring to, either the Ladoga region that was lost later, or one of the areas that has been Russian longer.