Sochi Olympics Alphabet (with video)

[russian_pianist]

Hello Everyone!

Всем привет!

Have you been watching the Olympics in the past few days? I have. Could not stay away. Some say it is addicting.

Did you watch the opening ceremony? It was really impressing. A hand of a Cirque de Solei director was quite obvious at times, but everything was presented with style.

I would like to draw your attention to the very first minutes of the video, which opened the ceremony - the Alphabet, where every Russian letter is associated with something meaningful in the Russian history or present time.

Let's see, if this will be an easy way for you to remember the letters and may be learn something new about Russia through this list of letters.

Here we go! Поехали!, as Yuri Gagarin said just before leaving the planet for cosmos.

A - Азбука /Alphabet

Б - Байкал/Baikal - the largest pure water lake

В - Вертолет/Helicopter

Г - Гагарин/Gagarin - everyone knows him

Д - Достоевский/Dostojevsky - Have you read any of his novels?

Е - Екатерина II/Catherine the Great, the Empress who is still quite fondly remembered

Ё - Ёжик в тумане /Hedgehog in the fog - a charming russian cartoon, have you watched it?

Ж - Жуковский/Zhukovskij - not sure what exactly this engineer has invented, but something important

З - Зерноуборочная машина/Combine-harvester

И - Империя/Empire, Russian Empire, whatever you say - it was and may be still is an empire

Й - ЧайковскиЙ - /Tchajkovskij, famous composer

К - Кандинский/Kandinskij - famous artist, I've recently seen his works in ...well, they are really in the museum all over the world, very colourful and bold works, if I may say so, timeless...

Л - Луноход /Lunokhod - Moonrover, when was it sent to the Moon? a very long time ago. May be the Chinese rover will meet it there....kidding\

М - Малевич/Malevich - another famous artist

Н - Набоков/Nabokov - novelist, wrote both in Russian and in English. Did you know, that his Russian and English versions of Lolita are slightly different? They are not word-by-word translations.

О - Орбитальная станция/Space station - It is an International Space Stations, but cosmic explorations have been of great interest to Russians for a long time

П - Периодическая таблица/Periodic Table - Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements. Did you know, that Mendeleev also invented the best way to purify Russian vodka?

Р - Русский балет /Russian ballet - no need to talk about this one - it is a staple, eternal beauty, no idea how they do it, but you can always tell a Russian balerina from her foreign sisters. Simply magical.

С - Спутник/Sputnik - that very first piece of metal, which could only beeep, but when circling our blue planet.

Т- Телевидение/Television

У - Ушанка/Ushanka - a warm fur hat, which covers your ears to keep you really warm in the midst of the Russian winter

Ф - Фишт/Fisht - a mountain peak in the Caucasus Mountains, not too far from Sochi

Х - Хохлома/Khokhloma - khokhloma painting, a Russian wood painting style

Ц - Циолковский/Tziolkovskij - have you heard of him?

Ч - Чехов/Chehov - well, I am sure you've heard of this writer

Ш - Шагал/Mark Chagal - aren't his paintings amazing? They are so full of life and mystery...mystery of life!

Щ - Щусев/Shusev - another artist

Ъ - Пушкинъ/Pushkin - what a choice for a mute letter! It was a part of a great writer's/poet's last name, and you cannot really imagine Russian without Pushkin. Did you know that he's never been out of the country? Never travelled abroad...

Ы - МЫ/We - a good choice for the letter

Ь - ЛюбовЬ /Love -

Э - Эйзенштейн/Eisenshtein - a famous russian film director, one of the pioneers of the industry

Ю - ПарашЮт/Parachute - we all know what it is, do we know where it was invented?

Я - РоссиЯ - Russia - a lot of little я's make a big country.

Well, this is a very impressive alphabet, don't you think so?

Here is the video of it, images are marvelous. Have a look!

Азбука России

And here is a cartoon "Hedgehog in the fog" mentioned before. It is worth watching!

See you next time!