The Complete Poems of Tyutchev In An English Translation by F.Jude

is possible to read here.

FYODOR TYUTCHEV

By Lyubov Tsarevskaya

Tyutchev's amazingly, sonorous, musical and lyric verse is something every Russian gets to know at an early age. Many of his lines now enjoy wide currency here in Russia and Russia's greatest poet Alexander Pushkin and the formidable Leo Tolstoy both heaped praise on Tyutchev's inimitable verse.

Fyodor Tyutchev was born into a noble family of modest means at Ovtsug in the Oryol region on December 5, 1803. Obtaining excellent home education, he then moved on to become Moscow University graduate. Falling in love with literature at an early age, he started making Russian translations of Horace at the early age of twelve and wrote his first poem at sixteen. Because every respectable nobleman living in mid-19th century Russia was supposed to take up a civilian or military career, Tyutchev opted for a diplomatic job serving his country as a diplomat with the Foreign Ministry headquarters in St.Petersburg and later was posted to Munich and Turin successfully combining official paperwork with writing poetry. He was married to Eleanor Peterson, a widowed scion of a family of old Bavarian aristocrats. After her death, he married Ernestine Dehrnberg, also a German.

On the face of it, his life looked so quiet and successful, but hiding under that impression of well-established felicity was intense moral endeavor.

Tyutchev the poet never sought fame and public admiration and only a chosen few of his contemporaries managed to recognize in him the big time poet he really was. Fyodor Dostoyevsky was the first to appreciate Tyutchev's larger than life talent describing him as “the finest poet of a truly philosophic caliber, after Alexander Pushkin.” Christian philosophy factored in very heavily m Tyutchevs writings where he managed to portray the hard hitting elements, the fear and helplessness man feels when confronted by their all-crushing might, wrote about God's will which brings man's life and the Orthodox faith into one as the eternal moral foundation of Russian life.

Twenty two years spent outside Russia, his foreign wives and his mingling with the European cultural elite never made him embrace the European civilization values. As a
professional diplomat, Tyutchev became strongly convinced in Russia being an Orthodox superpower that was, is and will always be a major element of global strategy and human history as a whole.

Russia is baffling to the mind,

Not subject to the common measure,

Her ways — of a peculiar kind,

One only can have faith in Russia…


This stirring verse still rings very true today and it always will… Tyutchev's inimitable lyrics inspired many equally stirring love songs written by leading Russian composers, including Sergei Rakhmaninovv who wrote this beautiful romance based on Tyutchev's famous Spring Waters poem.

Source:The Voice of Russia

Magna Int'l, Sberbank to invest 500 mln euros in Opel's capital

MOSCOW, September 11 (Itar-Tass) - Canada's Magna International and Russia's Sberbank /Savings Bank/ will invest 500 million euros in the registered capital of the German car manufacturer Opel, Sberbank said in a statement Thursday.

Opel's current owner, General Motors, found Magna and Sberbank's joint proposal for purchasing a 55% in Opel to be the most promising one from the angle of view of future development of the German company.

The proposal suggests that Magna and Sberbank will split the package fifty-fifty.

General Motors will retain a 35% stake and the remaining 10% shares will go over Opel's labor staff under the terms of a new labor contract.

XL Report: Moscow metro - world beneath daylight

Moscows underground railway is believed to be the most beautiful in the world. It has more than 170 stations, almost 300 kilometers of tunnels and nine million passengers a day. RT correspondent Aleksey Yaroshevsky explores Moscows underground world, visits the most beautiful Metro stations and takes a step back in time.

Chavez says Venezuela recognizes S.Ossetia, Abkhazia

MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday his country recognizes Georgia's two former breakaway republics as independent states.

During talks with President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin, Chavez said: "I want to take the opportunity to announce that Venezuela is joining those recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia."

Chavez said Venezuela will start the relevant procedures today.

Moscow recognized the two pro-Russian regions after a brief was last August to repel Georgia's attack on South Ossetia. The move, seen partly as response to the broad recognition of Kosovo's independence from Serbia, was condemned internationally.

Nicaragua was until recently the only other country to have followed Russia's suit. Russian media reports have said that more Latin American nations could recognize the two republics, which have maintained de-facto independence since bloody post-Soviet conflicts with Georgia in the early 1990s.

Moscow's ex-Soviet allies, including Belarus, have so far refrained from recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Ex-Soviet Georgia, backed by the United States and Europe, severed diplomatic ties with Russia last year over it's recognition of the republics.

Medvedev told Chavez: "We have been taking these states' fate close to heart and I want to thank you for this decision."

The Venezuelan leader is in Russia on a two-day working visit, his seventh as president, which is part of his 11-day foreign tour.

The visit is dominated by energy and military deals. A senior Kremlin official said on Wednesday that Russia was considering granting Venezuela a loan to buy more Russian arms.

Chavez has recently announced plans to buy dozens of Russian tanks in response to U.S. plans to deploy military bases in neighboring Colombia.

GENERAL ALEXANDER TUCHKOV

General Alexander Tuchkov

The battle of Borodino took a heavy death toll on both sides. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army Mikhail Kutuzov reported to Emperor Alexander I: “The battle continued far into the night. Both sides sustained heavy losses: judging by how persistently the French attacked our positions, the enemy losses must be much greater than ours. Russian troops displayed incredible courage: the redoubts passed from one side to the other, and in the long run, the enemy didn’t advance an inch anywhere”.

The battlefield was a horrifying sight: tens of thousands of dead soldiers and horses were scattered around. Now and then one could hear the heart-rending cries of the wounded calling for help.

Among those who died at Borodino was the Russian General Alexander Tuchkov. Later his wife Margarita erected a monument in his memory – the church of Christ the Savior became the first memorial to all Russian soldiers killed in that battle.

Margarita was deeply in love with her husband, the brilliant officer and nobleman whom she married at the age of twenty five. They were desperately happy and never parted. Dressed in men’s clothes, she would accompany her husband during military campaigns. When their son was born, Alexander Tuchkov made up his mind toMother Maria retire from the army. He wanted to settle in his country estate and devote himself completely to his family. But Napoleon’s invasion ruined his plans…

Watching her husband pack up his gear, Margarita felt a grim premonition. The night before his departure she saw a dream as if she were walking about an unknown city, gazing at houses and shops and on one of the shops she saw a signboard saying: “Your destiny will be decided at Borodino”. She was gripped by profound sadness and fear that something terrible was bound to happen, and then she woke up. Alarmed, Margarita awakened her husband. “Borodino, where is it?” she asked. He said he hadn’t the slightest idea and seeing the worried look on her face, began soothing her. Still Margarita asked for a map, but found nothing there. In the morning she saw him off, still wondering about her dream.

Soon Margarita got terrible news that her husband, Alexander Tuchkov had been killed at Borodino. Barely recovered from the shock, she Spasso-Borodinsky Conventset out for the place, determined to find her husband’s body and bury him according to Christian traditions.

She spent two days wandering amid the corpses, searching vainly for her beloved. What she saw nearly drove her mad. The only anchor that saved her from blank despair was her duty to their son. To ease the pain tearing her heart, she would revisit the battlefield over and over again. Margarita used part of her fortune to build a church on the site of her husband’s death, and as soon as the construction was over, moved to a small house nearby. She bore with dignity all the hardships of her humble existence and indulged in happy reminiscences about the past.


Mother_Maria.

But there was something more for her to endure, something she didn’t know yet. Her only son died unexpectedly at the age of fifteen. To Margarita his death was a sign that she must devote herself to God. She took the veil and adopted the name of Maria. A few years later she became the first Mother-Superior of a local nunnery. Initially meant to commemorate her husband, the convent of Christ the Savior commemorates all Russian soldiers who fell in the battle of Borodino.


SpasoBorodinskyConvent

Source:The Voice of Russia

HISTORY OF BOGORODSKOYE TOYS

Wooden figurines of hens, blacksmith and bear… They can be set in motion. These funny figurines are known in the world as “Bogorodskoye” toys, Bogorodskoye is a village near Moscow where they have been made from time immemorial. The way this ancient folk craft developed is shown at an exhibition which opened in the St. Petersburg Russian Museum. On display are over 200 rare exhibits from various museums and private collections.



The craft of making wooden toys in the Bogorodskoye village which is at the distance of 30 kilometers from the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery emerged under the influence of that world-famous monastery. In the 16th century it was a major center of crafts in Russia. Talent of local craftsmen gradually won recognition, and a tradition developed to bring home toys bought near the monastery’s walls. Even unpainted figurines were in great demand: they could boast natural beauty of wood since figurines were cut of a whole piece of log. Usually lime-tree was used for the purpose because it is mild and easy in processing. The main theme of craftsmen was peasant life and everyday labour. Craftsmen depicted what they saw, in the form of toys they tried to convey how severe peasant life was. In the second half of the 19th century genre scenes became popular. Set in motion groups of figurines performed peasant jobs; this was, no doubt, a sign of respect for labour which was a keynote of the Bogorodskoye craft. Another favourite theme of craftsmen was a tale about bear. Numerous variants of the figurine titled “A peasant man and a bear” are considered to be a symbol of the Bogorodskoye craft.



In the late 19th century folk toys were studied and collected as a kind of peasant art. The St. Petersburg Russian Museum houses the country’s richest collection of Bogorodskoye toys and sculpture. Substantial part of the collection is made up of the 20th-century figurines and compositions dealing with historical, Russian epic and Bible themes--that was not typical of the Bogorodskoe craft earlier, they cover almost all major events in Russian history. Being loyal to old traditions contemporary craftsmen continue a search of new images and forms. Their works are gathered and presented in a separate section of the exposition.

Sources:The Voice of Russia,www.tula.ru