Table of Contents
The Kamendrovsky Family
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The most important people in Nizhny Lomov
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Maslenitsa
Also known as Butter Lady, Butter Week, Crepe week, or Cheesefare Week, this is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday, celebrated during the last week before Great Lent, the eighth week before Eastern Orthodox Paskha.
The traditional attributes of the Maslenitsa celebration are sleigh rides, festivities. Russians bake pancakes, dumplings and cheesecakes.
Click here for more information about the Butter Week
Willow Sunday
Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter, which celebrates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem in the days before his execution, when the people greeted him by waving palm branches.
In Russia, palms are not available in the cold climate. The first trees that bloom in early spring are willows. That is why the feast is called Willow Sunday by the Russian Orthodox Church, and at Willow Sunday services, people hold small bundles of willows instead of palms.
Paskha
Paskha is a traditional Russian cream cheese and fruit egg custard for Easter. Often with ‘XB’ on it – the Russian capitals for ‘Christ is Risen’ – Христос воскрес in Russian.
Click here for the recipe.
Outer windows
Lydia liked spring, when the outer windows were removed and all the outside sounds were brought back inside.
Chapter 4
Due to the cold winters, every house in Russia was furnished with double windows. The outer windows were displaced in spring and fitted back in September.
The bald leader
Some Bolsheviks were hanged, while their bald leader (who for some strange reason hated music) scuttled out of the city and hid in the country, wearing wigs and sleeping in haystacks.
Chapter 4
The bald leader here is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1870 – 21 January 1924) – better known by his alias Lenin, Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist.
The Worker’s Marseillaise
A Russian revolutionary song named after the French Marseillaise. It is based on a poem by Pyotr Lavrov, which reflects a radical socialist program and calls for the violent destruction of the Russian monarchy. It was sung to the melody of the last verse of Robert Schumann’s song Die beiden Grenadiere. Schumann’s melody is inspired by the French Marseillaise, but it is original. Thus, the melody and lyrics of the Worker’s Marseillaise have nothing to do with the French Marseillaise.