03 Feb 2016 21:44:03
Why do Americans always make a mess of Russian names in films? Especially women's. Just to annoy me.

{Ed001's Note - you are correct, it is just to annoy you.}


 
04 Feb 2016 13:25:56
It's frustrating how they give woman male surnames.

Let me explain. let's use a well known Russian Vladimir Ulyanov

Lets say he has 2 children, a boy and a girl and let's call them Mikhail and Natalya.

Now Mikhail's full name would be Mikhail Vladimirovich Ulyanov

But Natalya's would Natalya Vladimirovna Ulyanova

The patronymic is simply son/ daughter of Vladimir similar to Icelandic familial names. A hangover of our Viking heritage and previously an aristocratic privilege. The surname remains the same on males but changes for females. Hence Russian tennis players line sharapova or Kournikova etc.

 

{Ed001's Note - I never knew that.}


 
04 Feb 2016 13:47:29
Well that's your thing learned for today. Next time we will do diminutive names.

 

{Ed001's Note - you sound like teacher now, I hope not an evil one like the nuns at my primary school!}


 
04 Feb 2016 14:39:57
Well I have done lectures previously. Down on London. Don't think I was evil.

 

{Ed001's Note - well I grew up in the 80s so obviously I know all Russians are evil....}


 
04 Feb 2016 16:15:58
That's just your corrupt decadent imperialist upbringing and propaganda based education.

 

{Ed001's Note - hahaha something like that.}


 
04 Feb 2016 20:58:18
A film I watched recently that you might enjoy was child 44.

 

{Ed001's Note - I do like Tom Hardy as an actor, I might give that a go. I remember me dad visited the USSR when I was a kid, it was some trade union thing. Only thing I really remember was our phone being tapped after that. But that might have been because he was in CND rather than the visit, probably both really.}


 
04 Feb 2016 21:12:51
I believe this is relevant. It's also pretty funny.
Mock the Week - David Mitchell - poking the Russians


 
04 Feb 2016 21:13:42
That's his name. He did do a decent accent really. Gives you an idea what it was like in that society.

It would have been bugged because you were foreign. Even though British trades unions received support and money from Moscow and some of the big wigs were actively employed. Cnd also were an approved organisation as the uk removing nuclear weapons would have been a win.

 

{Ed001's Note - bugged by the UK govt Kim. Lots of people were at that time, as Thatcher was an evil witch.}


 
04 Feb 2016 21:26:04
Here's one for you.

â—¾A hotel. A room for four with four strangers. Three of them soon open a bottle of vodka and proceed to get acquainted, then drunk, then noisy, singing, and telling political jokes. The fourth man desperately tries to get some sleep; finally, in frustration he surreptitiously leaves the room, goes downstairs, and asks the lady concierge to bring tea to Room 67 in ten minutes. Then he returns and joins the party. Five minutes later, he bends to a power outlet: "Comrade Major, some tea to Room 67, please. " In a few minutes, there's a knock at the door, and in comes the lady concierge with a tea tray. The room falls silent; the party dies a sudden death, and the prankster finally gets to sleep. The next morning he wakes up alone in the room. Surprised, he runs downstairs and asks the concierge what happened to his companions. "You don't need to know! " she answers. "B-but. but what about me? " asks the terrified fellow. "Oh, you. well. Comrade Major liked your tea gag a lot. "

 

{Ed001's Note - that's a good one.}


 
04 Feb 2016 21:28:48
Ah well in that case then yes mi5 did like to do that with people of interest. And yes there wasn't something quite right about her.

 

{Ed001's Note - there was nothing right about her!}


 
04 Feb 2016 21:47:28
Its the eyes. Very strange. I met her at a government reception once and was around when she met Gorbachev.

 

{Ed001's Note - she was pure evil.}


 
04 Feb 2016 21:53:36
â—¾The KGB, the FBI) and the CIA are all trying to prove they are the best at catching criminals. The Secretary General of the UN decides to set them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest, and each of them has to catch it. The CIA people go in. They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations, they conclude that the rabbit does not exist. The FBI goes in. After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and make no apologies: the rabbit had it coming. The KGB goes in. They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit! "

 

{Ed001's Note - hahaha, that one is better still.}


 
04 Feb 2016 21:55:29
I found her patronising.

 

{Ed001's Note - I can believe that. She was no doubt looking down her nose at you.}


 
04 Feb 2016 22:25:39
Joke shows how agencies operate too.

She had a way of talking down to you. At the meetings with Gorbachev, gordievsky was the translator. But such a superior attitude.

 

{Ed001's Note - they wouldn't work if they didn't make sense and tie in with the way people see them as operating.

That is what comes of being entitled and never having to do any real work.}


 
04 Feb 2016 23:21:14
I study languages and was aware already about the Russian names bit, but I had no idea it was due to an Icelandic influence. Thanks for that, very interesting. I think there was an example of a brother and sister and their differing names in War and Peace the other day.


 
04 Feb 2016 23:42:00
Whilst danish and Norwegians went West to Britain and beyond swedes went east and founded Kiev.


 
04 Feb 2016 23:59:08
Same reason you get blonde blue eyed Russians and Ukrainians.

I presume the bbc series and not the tedious bookstop or the 13 hour film.


 
04 Feb 2016 23:26:04
Just like editor of website nyet? I tease. We all talked about her afterwards. Of course gordievsky presumably passed all our comments on to mi6.

 

{Ed001's Note - surprising you are alive to tell the tale then.}


 
05 Feb 2016 13:17:33
By the time I moved over here permanently she had gone.

 

{Ed001's Note - lucky escape then.}


 
05 Feb 2016 16:15:53
One of many.


 
05 Feb 2016 22:42:52
Now goldeneye gets it right.

 

{Ed033's Note - goldeneye, the james bond movie?


 
05 Feb 2016 22:42:52
Now goldeneye gets it right.

 

{Ed033's Note - goldeneye, the james bond movie?


 
06 Feb 2016 13:09:39
Yes. They managed to get the names right at least.