Box Seat

St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1966. My paternal Grandmother Tatjana's younger sister, the actress Elena, wrote, "A film about the life of the past century. I am at the theater, sitting in a box seat, watching a performance. The woman who is sitting next to me I cut off. I am wearing [your] jabot. This photograph was taken in the second half of December, not long before the blows."

Perhaps Elena refers to this when she mentions "the blows."

Thanks to my friend, D, for translating the inscription on this photo.

"He who would catch fish must not mind getting wet."

Yesterday's post about a Russian proverb sparked a search about other expressions (there's a particular, family favorite, I want to find, but it's not appearing yet). The saying about the fish is one of the proverbs illustrated here.

There's also a drawing there depicting Pushkin's Fisherman and the Fish.

Foreign Press

Although I wasn't crazy about reading when I was a child, I sometimes didn't mind it when people read *to* me. I definitely enjoyed receiving beautiful books. 

Relatives living in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic occasionally mailed lovely books printed in the Soviet Union. These books were made for foreign distribution—locals could buy them only to send overseas. The books also were products of the Cold War. Whether written in Lithuanian or English, the parables exported a message the Soviets wanted American children to hear.

These are some of my favorites printed by the "Government Foreign Distribution Printing House."

Pushkin's nineteenth-century fairy tale warns about the dangers of materialism.

The back of the book features the logo of the golden fish. 

Let's take a closer look, a look past that fish. 

 You see, little child? The fisherman's wife started to act like a Tsaritsa!

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It's Cinderella!!

The artwork on the cover and first page point to a happy ending.

But the story opens with the image of the decadent aristocracy. Not only were they repugnant; they all behaved the same way.

The Silver Coin.

 
It looks biblical!

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"The titular little horse helps Ivan, a peasant’s son, carry out the many unreasonable demands of the tsar … [During the tsarist era,] [c]ensors banned the complete story for over 20 years in the mid-19th century because it made the Tsar appear foolish. Until 1856, the tale was published with dots representing omitted verses and songs in many sections. The tale is meant to be a satire on the absurdities of Russian feudal and bureaucratic life at the time."

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It's the traditional favorite, Jūratė ir Kastytis.

Cost: three rubles.

Acting in St. Petersburg

Here is Elena, a sister of my paternal Grandmother Tatjana, in another role in a Soviet-era film.

Elena wrote:

This was a film about Pushkin. I am a “Russian aristocrat” on a walk near Pushkin's house.

These photographs were particularly pleasing to me, as this was a film about Pushkin. I also appeared in Anna Karenina, but I do not have a photo yet.

St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1966. Elena "cropped out" other actors who appeared in photographs with her before she mailed the snapshots to Tatjana. Was she protecting them, so that they would not appear in photos sent to the United States?

Thanks fo my friend, D, for translating the description of this photo.