Greetings from Russia

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Moderators: rcperryls, Rose, karen4bells, Serinde, Alex

Petrovna
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:57 am
Location: Russia

Re: Greetings from Russia

Post by Petrovna »

Back in the USSR those volunteers were told to come on their day off to their offices and do some kind of updaid work that wasn’t connected with their usual duties. They had to wash windows, clean yards, plant trees or flowers. This work was compulsory for everybody in different fields: engineers, teachers, doctors, schoolchildren, students and so on. They were usually held on Saturday (Subbota).
Nowadays subbotniks are held sometimes but they are not compulsory and aren’t connected with the office where a person works. In April or May people clean the yards and plant trees and flowers in their neighborhood.
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Serinde
Posts: 18498
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 5:46 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Greetings from Russia

Post by Serinde »

I wasn't too far off, then. On a much smaller scale, my mother used much the same approach: "Would you like to help with the dishes?" was a question where the expected answer -- the only possible acceptable answer, indeed -- was 'yes'. :doh: Drove us nuts as kids.
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Podolyanka
Posts: 1706
Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2017 4:30 pm
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine

Re: Greetings from Russia

Post by Podolyanka »

Can't help tossing in my two cents/pence/copecks. The word "subbotnik" was born in Lenin's times and means "volunteer clean-up". In this meaning the word entered other languages. And in this meaning it was used till the collapse of the USSR.
Lyudmila
Petrovna
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:57 am
Location: Russia

Re: Greetings from Russia

Post by Petrovna »

Serinde wrote:I wasn't too far off, then. On a much smaller scale, my mother used much the same approach: "Would you like to help with the dishes?" was a question where the expected answer -- the only possible acceptable answer, indeed -- was 'yes'. :doh: Drove us nuts as kids.
So did mine :)
Petrovna
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:57 am
Location: Russia

Re: Greetings from Russia

Post by Petrovna »

Podolyanka wrote:Can't help tossing in my two cents/pence/copecks. The word "subbotnik" was born in Lenin's times and means "volunteer clean-up". In this meaning the word entered other languages. And in this meaning it was used till the collapse of the USSR.
That's right! :)
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