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History
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www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_humour
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH THURSDAY_OCTOBER 25_2007
Wikipedia on Russian Humour
It happened in
November
EVENTS THAT MADE
HISTORY
BY DMITRY BABICH
Convoy
RUSSIA PROFILE.ORG
November 1, 1907
The third State Duma starts its work
Russia was not always a dictatorship
Contrary to a widely held belief, Russia has had
elected bodies of power for most of its history. In
the 16th and 17th centuries tsars were selected
by Zemsky Sobor, an elected body represent-
ing the gentry, the clergy and “people of the land”
(zemstvo). In 1905 Russia became a constitutional
monarchy, and the following year the State Duma,
the first elected parliament, was introduced, but
it became effective only after the third Duma of
1907 when one third of the delegates represented
Rightist parties, one third the Centrist Oktyabrists
and one third constitutional democrats and the Left.
November 7, 1917
October Revolution begins in St Petersburg
A coup brings the radical Leftists to power in the
world’s largest country
The event that shaped 20th-century history for
Russia and much of the rest of the world started in
Petrograd (St Petersburg) on what was then Oc-
tober 24, which corresponds on today’s calendar The Arctic 1941-1944:
with November 7. On that day Vladimir Lenin led the
Bolshevik coup against an ineffectual Provisional
Government in Petrograd. Five years later the Sovi-
et Union was established and five years after that,
on November 12, 1927, two of the revolution’s main When we stood shoulder
movers, Lev Trotsky and Grigory Zinovyev, were
expelled from the party by its new leader, Joseph
Stalin. Persecution of their followers began, grow-
ing into the Great Purge of the 1930s, during which
hundreds of thousands were put to death. to shoulder
ROBERT DIAMENT_PERSONAL ARCHIVES L.DIAMENT
November 16, 1957
Over three days, from the first Arctic convoy (Au- one-mast boat. The mine- navigate the ice-bound doctor, yet her crew eventu-
Doctor Zhivago published in Italy September 29 to October 1, gust 21-31, 1941). American The cost of aid sweeper came alongside the White Sea, while Murman- ally got all the survivors on
Pasternak’s life achievement sees light three 1941, delegates from Britain and British veterans often craft and a line was thrown sk, the only ice-free Soviet deck, into cabins and the
years before its author’s death and the United States met fly to Murmansk to recall During World War II, arctic across to the survivors, but port, lacked cranes and radio room.
Boris Pasternak’s epic novel, reflecting the Soviet officials in Moscow. An their wartime experiences. convoys were formed in Scot- the British sailors were too workers. Some of its piers Three or four hours later, the
tragic destiny of Russian intelligentsia in the agreement was reached to One, William Short, an en- tish harbours, such as Loch exhausted to grab it. The had been destroyed, and Russians spotted a burning
beginning of the 20th century, was published supply the Red Army and gineer-mechanic from the Awe and Scapa Flow, and Russians had to pick up the there was no reliable air-de- oil slick, hundreds of bags of
by Italian publisher Feltrinelli, who had it bolster the Soviet war effort merchant vessel SS Induna, in Iceland’s Reykjavik and helpless men and take them fence system. flour and people in orange
“smuggled” to him by a former Italian com- against the Axis. The three which sank in the spring of Hvalfjordur and subsequent- aboard. Mikhail said that although life-jackets drifting in the
munist living in Moscow. The novel won powers signed the pact under 1942, hopes to find the per- ly unloaded in Arkhangelsk, Nikolai Dityatev, 19, was a his father had told his supe- water. On July 15, the SS
Pasternak the Nobel prize, which the poet had the First Russian Protocol. son who brought him back Severodvinsk and Murmansk stoker when his ship, the SS riors in August 1941 that the Murmanets rescued survi-
to refuse under pressure from the authori- to life. in the Soviet Union. Arkos, sailed to England. In vors from the SS Paulus Pot-
ties. Relatives of the then Soviet leader, Nikita
ELLA MAKSIMOVA / IZVESTIA
William explains how a Ger- Until 1942, each convoy had May 1942, the SS Arkos ter, who had spent 10 days
Khrushchev, remember that he later regretted
MOSCOW
man U-boat torpedoed his between five and 12 ships, but joined the 35-ship PQ-16 ‘SS Murmanets on the high seas.
suppressing the novel, saying that it would ship, and a second torpedo later on their number increased convoy on the trip back
had picked up
By that time, the SS Murm-
have done no harm. The book was not pub- In 1941, the Germans were finished off the crew who to between 30-35. Allied war home from Iceland. anets had picked up 71 peo-
lished in the Soviet Union until 1990. rapidly advancing. Soviet had not had time to row to supplies to the USSR under the A German reconnaissance
71 people and her
ple, and her food rations that
industry had not switched to safety. Lend-Lease Act accounted for plane flew over the convoy
30-day food
were meant to last 30 days
military production and the He jumped into the sea after 2pc of Soviet industrial output. 24 hours later, and the Luft- rations were eaten were eaten in a week. None-
embattled Red Army was the explosion, and did not In all, 42 convoys or 811 ships waffe started bombing with-
in just a week.
theless she carried on, even-
short of everything from think he could last more were dispatched to the USSR; out respite five days after tually rescuing 147 sailors.
Found in translation:
tanks to canned meat. In re- than several minutes. Other and of that number, 58 mer- PQ-16 left port.
But she carried on,
Yevgraf Yakovlev, then 15,
turn for military aid, the Al- sailors launched a motor- chant and 16 war ships were The SS Alamar was the first
eventually rescuing
was a cadet on the tanker
To understand
lies received Russian raw boat, but it was swamped as sunk and 1,944 sailors killed. to sink. She was followed by 147 sailors’ Mikhail Frunze and had to
materials, including gold huge waves hurled the boat Arctic convoys supplied 22.7pc an American ship, which stand watch twice a day. His
the Russians better
and other precious metals. about and everyone on board of Lend-Lease aid received by cracked apart after a bomb ship sailed along the coast
Although Lend-Lease aid was drenched with icy the USSR in 1941-1945. The hit her. The SS Stary Bol- ships would not be able to and joined other convoys en
accounted for just 4pc of So- United States estimates the vol- shevik, near Nikolai’s ship, enter Arkhangelsk in win- route. Yevgraf, who saw the
Nation of jokers
viet wartime industrial out- ume of the aid at $9.8bn. was attacked by a dive ter, no action was taken be- Luftwaffe in action, met a
put, it arrived at a critical ‘Over the years bomber and caught fire after cause that summer Stalin German pilot on Novaya
moment.
42 Arctic convoys
a bomb exploded on her had ordered all ships to an- Zemlya 60 years later.
MICHELE A BERDY However, the Lend-Lease
(811 British, US and
the ship sank, 17 of 34 men forecastle. chor there. As nobody had He explained that the Arctic
programme eventually con-
Soviet ships),
were dead. Just as all hope The ship was packed full of the courage to object, ships Convoy society in St Peters-
JOURNALIST
tributed about 17pc of the seemed lost, a Soviet aircraft explosives, and the crew and human lives were lost. burg had invited several
fighters and 20pc of the consisting of spotted the survivors. It was rushed to throw their cargo Valentin Dremlyug said that Russians, Canadians, a Brit-
bombers flown by Soviet
vulnerable and
April 3, 1942. overboard. The corvette Ro- the ill-fated PQ-17 (June 27- on and a German to sail to
forces during the war. And
slow merchant
Sergei Antropov, command- sales went to help. Accord- July 17, 1942) had a power- the final resting place of the
Soviet logistics depended on
ships, plied
er of the Russian mine- ing to Nikolai, the intrepid ful but distant escort, while PQ-17 ships.
Lend-Lease: American- sweeper that picked up the warships saved crews even its close escort comprised 23 At first, nobody liked Heino
One of the strangest misconcep- built lorries handled 75pc of the hostile waters’ survivors, said his ship had under heavy enemy fire. warships. The convoy was Hermann, their 90-year-old
tions about Russians in the West is that they are all cargo and passenger traf- left port that morning. The Mikhail Golovko, son of Ad- carrying 297 aircraft, 495 German companion and a
humourless. I can’t imagine where this comes fic on the Eastern Front. crew subsequently spotted a miral Arseny Golovko (1906- tanks, 4,246 lorries and famous Luftwaffe ace, who
from, since a more joke-loving nation is hard to The Soviet Union received water. People started freez- Hurricane fighter, whose 1962) who commanded the 15,600 tonnes of other mate- had fought in the Spanish
imagine. Russians have a rich culture of humour, Allied war materiel via Arc- ing and fell asleep, never to pilot told them to head Soviet Navy’s Northern riel for Stalingrad, where civil war, France and Africa
going way back to the skomorokhi (wandering tic, Pacific and Iranian ports. wake; the bodies of the dead north-east. Fleet in 1941-1945, said the main battle of World and bombed London before
bawdy minstrels) and the lubok (a folk drawing The 2,000-mile Arctic route, were thrown into the sea. The minesweeper’s look- Arkhangelsk received the War II was about to begin. he served in the Arctic.
with comic texts and verse), through satirical from Iceland to Murmansk At first William felt scared, outs spotted what looked first Arctic convoys. The Germans attacked, Heino was already a colonel
writing, plays and then films in the pre- and and Arkhangelsk in north- but his fear faded as the days like a submarine’s conning In November 1941, heavy sinking 24 of the 35 mer- and squadron commander
post-Revolutionary periods, to the underground ern Russia, was the shortest dragged on. Three days after tower, but it was in fact a icebreakers had to be used to chant ships in three weeks. when his unit started bomb-
culture of jokes – anekdoty – in the Soviet era. and most dangerous. It was The survivors reached Ar- ing Arctic convoys, includ-
There are lots of kinds of jokes in Russian. here that the main naval
ROBERT DIAMENT_PERSONAL ARCHIVES L.DIAMENT
khangelsk and Murmansk. ing PQ-17. Reichsmarschall
Shutka is a joke in the sense of “I’m just kidding.” battles of World War II were Valentin, a hydrographer- Hermann Goering, a friend,
Baika is a tall tale, purportedly true (“My best fought in the Arctic, immor- navigator, was sailing on the subsequently transferred
friend’s brother told me this…”). Prikol’ is a gag talising the courage and ca- SS Murmanets, an 1898 hy- him to a fighter unit because
and also teen-talk for anything cool and funny. maraderie of Allied sailors dromet reporting ship with he feared for his life.
Zagadka is a riddle. Chastushka is a four-line and pilots. a crew of 27; her only arma- After the war, Heino mined
comic rhyming ditty that is often quite bawdy. All Arctic convoys heading ment was two high-calibre coal for 10 years in a prison
But the grandfather of all Russian jokes is the for Russia and back were machine-guns. camp in Vorkuta. He re-
anekdot: a story – either short or long – with a designated PQ and QP re- Although his ship was or- members how the malnour-
punch line. spectively. On September dered to find convoys in the ished local women gave him
Although just about everything was and is fod- 28, 1941, PQ-1, the second Barents Sea, this time she bread and potatoes to eat. In
der for anekdoty, the most biting jokes are about Arctic convoy, left Iceland. sailed as far north as Nova- the end, everybody changed
politics and politicians. In the Soviet era, these In the years that followed, 42 ya Zemlya, high up in the their attitude towards
political jokes were whispered at work and sa- Arctic convoys (811 British, Arctic. Heino. The Allies had won
voured around the dinner table, where a good US and Soviet ships), plied On July 13, the Murmanets and Heino had paid for his
joke teller (rasskazchik) could keep his friends the hostile waters of the approached the Gusinaya crimes long ago.
and family laughing for hours. The jokes poked North Atlantic. Each convoy Zemlya (Goose Land) Pen- After reaching her destina-
fun at leaders, from Lenin to Gorbachev, and the consisted of highly vulner- insula on Novaya Zemlya tion the ship stopped, and her
injustices and absurdities of Soviet society. One able and relatively slow and her lookout spotted a passengers, including Heino,
old joke asked: “What’s the shortest joke in the merchant ships, usually es- bonfire on shore. It turned placed wreaths on the water
world?” The answer: “Communism.” corted by a battleship, sev- out that the survivors of the in memory of the sailors and
Today many people complain that without the eral cruisers, destroyers, SS Olapana, sunk by a U- soldiers of both sides.
-
edge of dissent and forbidden pleasure of the submarines and aircraft. boat several days earlier,
Soviet era, political anekdoty just aren’t the Sailors who served on Arctic had lit the fire. Some sailors
same. Maybe so – but there are still some pretty convoys still meet to mark were dying of frostbite and More on the topic in the ePaper
good political jokes making the rounds (these the anniversary of Dervish, the Russian ship had no www.rbth.rg.ru
days they arrive by email). Here’s one on the
disparity between rich and poor: “Putin’s Re-
form Plan: Make people rich and happy. List of
people attached.”
I’m always astonished that jokes appear so
quickly after an event. Who are the comic ge-
niuses who dream them up overnight? Here’s
a joke that started making the rounds right after
Tell us what topics to cover!
Tune daily to
President Putin agreed to head the United Rus-
sia Party ticket. It’s based on the old saying that
We welcome letters to editor
The Voice of Russia’s
the poet Alexander Pushkin is nashe vse (our
everything) and on the great number of sculp-
tures by Zurab Tsereteli in Moscow: “Now it’s
editor.uk@rg.ru
English Hour in London
clear: Pushkin is our everything, Tsereteli is our
558 kHz at 1 p.m.
everywhere, and Putin is our always.”
Well, I think it’s funny.
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