HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: DeVoid@cup.portal.com (David - Lyall)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Movies
Date: Sat,  3 Oct 92 01:51:36 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

>And finally I have a question to experienced and knowledgeable of this
>group. Watching "Dances With Wolves" and especially "Driving Miss
>Daisy" I've got an impression that they got all those "Oscars" not for
>high quality of work (IMHO both are quite bad, except picture in
>"Wolves") but rather for "political correctness", so to speak. Am I
>right? Or this is just another case of cultural differences?
>
>                        Sasha
	Well, I enjoyed "Wolves". It probably won't stand up over
time as a great film, but who knows? I saw "Gone with the Wind" a few
years back and shuddered with revulsion at the glorification of the
slave holding aristocracy. Happy darkies rushing off to fight against
the nasty Yankees.
	"Gone" was anOK film cinema wise, no "Birth of a Nation"
(aka "The Klansmen") tho.
	Commercial success is absolutely important in the awards race.
This is America, no?
	(Didn't see "Daisy")

==> J. David Lyall > DeVoid@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: bil@burka..aix.kingston.ibm.com (Igor Belchinskiy)
Subject: Re: More education talk...
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 14:17:22 GMT
Organization: Be. I am.
Keywords: Russian students, "cookbook recipes."

In article <1aalj8INN6cc@agate.berkeley.edu> muh@physics.Berkeley.EDU (Yury M. Mukharsky) writes:

>I'm not fully understand what do you mean by "out of context". I'm not sure
>that your article deserves full quotation, on which you apparently
>insist, but just once, maybe you will show us some subtle thoughtm which
>escaped my crude mind: so you wrote:
>
>  If level of English usage in this posting (after US high school,
>  U of Illinois and Ph.D. program now) is representative -
>  no reason to go anywhere else :-)
>
>  Sorry to mention that, but in Russia Ph.D. was at least associated with
>  certain level of correct spelling in principal language.
>
>
>iYour turn, maestro.
>Yury.

"ya vyhozhu teper' na bis" (Pugacheva's voice on background :-)

OK, let's try to be serious.

Seems like current problem is in different image of what's 
expected from educated and intelligent person in Russia and US.
Ph.D. in Russia is considered as aforementioned person 
and is respected.
From my experience in US I may say the same seems true here.
(Of course, I'm not speaking now about that thin level of society
to which a lot of us belongs and where absense of Ph.D. may be 
explained only by lazyness or unlucky circumstances or unwillingness
to spend some time preparing thesis).

In Russia correct spelling as a part of correct and clear language
was as a rule considered necessary part of that image. The same
way as it wasn't expected to see a person in jeans in theater,
it wasn't expected to meet "potatoe" person with Ph.D.
It was a norm in the society - as it was norm to wear accurate clothes
for intelligent in Russia hundred years ago.
Look at old pictures of aristocracy.

I could hardly imagine that person who got his education in Russia and who
knows his habit to make grammar error in Russian language every second line 
would explain in Russian language that Russian education is superior.
At least he would understand this his own example as a result of this
education proves quite opposite.

In US this is acceptable. You may say this is projection of freedom to
education. To my taste it's degradation of education. 

The same as was absence of classical languages in our education.

Should I explain more?

Serious mode off.

Poshel sobirat' biser. Poigraem, pobrosaem. :-)

(Rough translation: In case somebody would ask more explanations, I'm going
to gather glass beards. We'll play, we'll throw away).

	-igor, Ph.D.
From: qasama@banach.WPI.EDU (John Grossi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Languages in Ex-Soviet Union
Date: 5 Oct 1992 20:05:29 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609-2280
Distribution: world
Reply-To: qasama@banach.WPI.EDU (John Grossi)
NNTP-Posting-Host: banach.wpi.edu


If one is interested in Languages of the World most libraries have books
which give brief descriptions of most of them......
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
qasama@wpi.wpi.edu  / V   V OOOO TTTTT EEEE\ Always store beer in a dark place.
Worcester Polytech /_ _V V  O  O   T   EEE  \__ Moderation is for monks.
God save Lazurus Long!/ v   OOOO   T   EEEE    \ Women need no excuse.
From: cema@eng.umd.edu (Simon Hawkin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: OLYMPIADS (and U.S. students poor performance in math/science = bull...)
Keywords: Olympiads education
Date: 30 Sep 92 23:19:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: eng.1992Sep30.231924.3960
Distribution: usa
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: cema@signal.eng.umd.edu


In article <1a0s1rINNfdf@agate.berkeley.edu>, muh@physics.Berkeley.EDU (Yury M. Mukharsky) writes:

> <...> And Olimpiades, that
>was a great thing. I think it is what is needed for kids, having some
>element in sport in it. It will be interesting to know if there is equivalent
>stuff here. It looks like local community centers offers mostly arts/craft/sports
>classes. What are those science fairs? Is that something of the kind
>of Olimpiades?

Univ of Maryland at College Park holds "Maryland high schools programming contest"
annually. Any further info about math or phys contests is welcome.

In Russia, those "olympiads" were really ubiquitous, like pioneer halls (dvortzy ?)
-- and helpful: they encouraged the students (==schoolchildren) to enter math and phys
schools, then proceeding to "universities" (instituty, nu i universitety tozhe) to
engineering, phys, and math majors (and others...)

Thank you.
---
This is Simon Hawkin from Merry Land.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: avdeyev@dsf58a.desy.de (Dmitry Avdeyev)
Subject: Re: Internet in Russia
Organization: Deutches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 10:57:54 GMT

vadik@cs.umd.edu (Vadim Maslov) writes:

>Hi, guys

>It looks like there is a stable (but slow) connection to kremvax.
>Look:

>telnet kremvax.hq.demos.su
>Trying 192.91.186.8 ...
>Connected to kremvax.hq.demos.su.
>Escape character is '^]'.

>kremvax (%t)
>login: who
>Password:
>Login incorrect

>................

You can also try to connect to vxitep.itep.msk.su. But not from US.
US-Europe gateway has filtering for xUSSR IP numbers :-((
This domain (*.itep.msk.su) has dedicated line to Hamburg.

>Vadim Maslov.

Dmitry Avdeyev.
--
---
Dmitry A.Avdeyev		+49-40-8998-2583
Computer networks analyst	USG DESY, Hamburg
From: viznyuk@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Use of Western software in the CIS
Date: 4 Oct 92 18:17:29 EDT

In article <BvM89z.HE8@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, pmaggs@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Peter B. Maggs) writes:
> davidson@ccrs.emr.ca (David Davidson) writes:
> 
>>A private software firm has asked me to find out how Ukrainians, Russians
>>etc. use software with an english interface. They are not prepared to
>>rewrite their code but someday wish to market their software in E. Europe.
> 
> Usually they use it by just pirating it and not paying royalties.
> If there are substantial amounts of text to be input and output,
> for instance with a word processor, they add a Russian keyboard,
> screen, and printer interface, by replacing the normal keyboard
> drivers.  Some foreign software will work with general purpose
> Russian language drivers;  other software needs special drivers.
> If it is scientific or technical software, since scientists generally
> know English, they use it as it comes out of the box (or rather as
> it comes out of their pirated diskettes).  Obviously the question
> can't be answered in general.  Conversion would be much more complex
> for an English language Thesaurus than for a program that simulates
> a desk calculartor.
> 
Huh, I know the simplest way how to "russify" the existing
software: just use the DUMP editor to change the output ASCII
characters in _machine code_. The only thing required is a
little bit of imagination: the number of characters in
a "Russian" text should match the number of substituted
"English" chars.

Serega & Co
From: muh@physics.Berkeley.EDU (Yury M. Mukharsky)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Amer/Rus movies
Date: 30 Sep 1992 01:02:37 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: physics.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Sep30.003523.18023@leland.Stanford.EDU> arto@leland.Stanford.EDU (Artavazd Khachikian) writes:

>it is very often something between dinner and desert, IN USSR WE DID NOT BYE
>POP-CORN IN THE MOVIES. Detail? Yes, but incredibly characteristic

Where have you seen pop-corn in USSR? Lot's of people buy sunflower seeds,
though.

Yury
From: voykhans@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: The Russian Embassy Phone ( N E E D )
Date: 5 Oct 92 14:02:01 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <14091.2acdd75e@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu>, vadim@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu writes:
> Please, if you know the phone of the Russian Embassy let me
> know. Thanks a lot.
> Vadim.
The CIS embassy number is
(202)628-7551
1125 16th Street
Washington DC, 20036-4801

The Consulate is
(415)202-9800
(415)959-0306 fax

2790 Green Street
San Francisco,CA 94123-4609
From: jeffrey@rigel.econ.uga.edu (Jeffrey A. Thompson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Cyrillic Terminals
Date: 6 Oct 92 20:47:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: rigel.1992Oct6.204733.22884
Organization: University of Georgia Economics Department

Does anyone know of a Cyrillic serial terminal that I could buy? I would
like to hook it up to a UNIX system running on an intel 486 computer. 
I would appreciate any help you could give me. 

Thank you very much,

Jeffrey Thompson
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: nobby@milton.u.washington.edu (Vitaly Shmatikov)
Subject: Re: More education talk...
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 01:09:23 GMT

	I'm a bit surprised by the discussion going on here about
the comparative virtues of American and Russian education. I would
never expect to meet so many people bashing American schools and
praising Soviet ones. So I would like to advance my humble opinion 
since I believe I have the firsthand knowledge of at least some aspects.
	I spent almost 3 years (Sept.'89-Apr.'92) at Moscow University,
at its infamous VMiK department (literal translation for the American
readers: Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics). The
quality of education was truly depressing. With few exceptions
instructors were almost incompetent. Student body comprised mostly:
	a. Computer geeks
	b. The folks who flunked Mekhmat entrance exams or were
	   kicked out of there after 1-2 years of study
	c. Idlers who couldn't care less about education, VMiK
	   and all that stuff.
	Grades that we used to receive had nothing to do with the
knowledge on the subject. It was more than easy to get straight A's
not having attended a single lecture. I never met some of my classmates.
For instance, after almost 1/2 year in America I'm still enrolled at VMiK.
	Upon my arrival to the U.S. I worked at Brown University.
After VMiK the level of teaching there was amazingly high.
The entire approach towards education at Brown is totally different 
from the Soviet one, it's much more individualized and apparently 
brings much better results. I foresee an objection that Brown is perhaps 
one of the finest schools in the country but in Russia I know only 
a couple of institutions that would be able to compete with Brown - 
Mekhmat, Fiztech, what else?
	I must admit that an average American school seems to be as
swampy as an average Soviet one. Right now I'm at the University of
Washington in Seattle. It's a big public school with roughly the same
enrollment as Moscow University (30-35,000). The resemblance is
sometimes scary. All the same bureaucracy, endless paperwork, scores
of students without the faintest idea of what they're studying.

P.S. I didn't mean to insult anybody who studied at VMiK. After all,
     studying there was some perverted kind of fun.

					Nobby
					nobby@u.washington.edu 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: ftsam@acad3.alaska.edu (Sergei Maurits)
Subject: Alaska Airlines
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 01:24:04 GMT

In article <1agk55INNe1s@agate.berkeley.edu>, muh@physics.Berkeley.EDU (Yury M. Mukharsky) writes:
> In article <1992Oct1.195312.1@acad3.alaska.edu> ftsam@acad3.alaska.edu (Sergei Maurits) writes:
>>
>>For these who are interested in less adventurous transportation I can suggest
>>regular Alaska Airways and Aeroflot flights to Magadan, Khabarovsk, and Moscow
> 
> iFlight to Magadan is seasonal and does not flyes any more, till spring (or never)
> I have not heard about Alaska Airways flight to Khabarovsk, that's interesting
> Do you have more info?
> 
> Yury

Yury, I just call Alaska Airlines (1-800-426-0333). They indeed calcelled 
their flights to Magadan ($898 RT) AND Khabarovsk ($1275 RT) till spring.
I am positive that all-season all-weather Aeroflot's interseptors still 
flying around. All three mentioned destinations are available.
From: nikolay@husc8.harvard.edu (Philip Nikolayev)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Russian Poetry
Date: 27 Sep 92 06:20:20 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc8.NIKOLAY.92Sep26232020
Organization: Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services, Cambridge, MA
In-reply-to: mashina's message of Tue, 22 Sep 1992 04:43:59 GMT

In article <1JHHRB1w165w@halcyon.com>, mashina <novost@halcyon.com> writes:

> I don't know who is the author of this poem, but I thought it
> was kind of interesting.  

> Pesnya Korobejnika

> Ekh, polnym polna moya korobushka,
> Est' i sitets i parcha
> Pozlej dusha moya zaznobushka,
> Molodets kogo plecha.

> Vyjdu, vyjdu v pozh' vysokuyu,
> Tam do nochki prosizhu,
> Kak zavizhu svoyu chernookuyu
> Vse tovary razlozhu.

> Tseny sam platil ne malye
> Ne torgujsya, ne skupis'
> Podstavlyaj ka gubki alye,
> Blizhe k molodtsu sadis'.

> I have a question about this poem.  Is the connotation here, that
> maybe the tovary she is laying down has a dual meaning?  Is my
> question clear?  IE, Could the goods be something other than
> silk and velvet?

>          Jeff

Nekrasov, 'Korobeiniki'. Quite right, the traditional
stereotypic notion about those hucksters was that they
were awfully promiscuous and prone to corrupting young
innocent girls. Instances of group violence against the
_korobeiniki_ were not infrequent in the 19th century,
precisely for that reason.

Philip Nikolayev at nikolay@husc.harvard.edu
From: shimkevi@buchmf.bu.edu (Sergey Shimkevich)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Amer/Rus movies
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:55:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: bu.97141
Organization: Boston University Chemistry Department

In article <1992Sep29.211931.8246@leland.Stanford.EDU> arto@leland.Stanford.EDU (Artavazd Khachikian) writes:

>	Oh no, no, no. Russian/Soviet acting school, in my opinion,
>is one of the best in the world. As for the American actors, yes, some
>of them are good, but the vast majority - standardized dulls, standardized
>mimics, standardized bodies and muscles, standardized images etc.

I beg to differ. I find most Soviet/x-Soviet/Russian/whatever actors
ridiculously unprofessional.

>	You mentioned the main point yourself - in the Soviet Union movies
>were closer to ART, in America - closer to ENTERTAINMENT and BUSINESS, this
>just another aspect of the wholesale utilitarianism of the American society.

Once again, I beg to disagree with you. Professionalism and art go hand in
hand and professionalism was something that most Sov actors lacked.
I am really hard-pressed to name a decent Soviet movie (Tarkovsky aside - he
truly was a great master).

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Ryan: What is it to you, demon?       //// Sergei Shimkevich             //
// Lune: It is Sir, Demon to you, worm!  //// shimkevi@buchmf.bu.edu        //
// -Phantasy Star III                    //// shimkevich@A1.tch.harvard.edu // 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: avdeyev@dsf58a.desy.de (Dmitry Avdeyev)
Subject: Re: CIS on Internet?
Organization: Deutches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 13:26:34 GMT

nobby@carson.u.washington.edu (Vitaly Shmatikov) writes:

>I was able to finger @kremvax.hq.demos.su, @moscvax.hq.demos.su and
>@jumbo.hq.demos.su from Brown University mainframe. BTW these three
>accounts + vxitep.itep.msk.su (Inst. for Theoretical and Experimental
>Physics in Moscow) seem to be the only addresses nslookup recognize.

Sure, it's so.

>However, I couldn't rlogin or FTP to vxitep.itep.msk.su though 
>kremvax.hq.demos.su accepts even anonymous FTP.

As I already mentioned earlier, it's not possible to connect to
*.itep.msk.su from USA. Transatlantic link has gateway wich filters
these IP numbers.

>Has anybody been able to talk to a *.su computer?

Yes. It is possible from Europe to talk to *.itep.msk.su. But I
have a problem with connection to kremvax.hq.demos.su from here. I think it's
due to the same problem with filtering. 

--
---
Dmitry A.Avdeyev		+49-40-8998-2583
Computer networks analyst	USG DESY, Hamburg

Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: mashina <novost@halcyon.com>
Subject: Russian/American Education
Originator: novost@halcyon.com
Reply-To: novost@halcyon.com
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 01:05:11 GMT

There have been a lot of discussions here concerning the subject of
mathematics and I am glad to see some other areas being discussed.
I do however have a couple of question that maybe could be thrown
around a little bit.

1)  Isn't mathematicafforded more time per week than any other
    subject in a Russian grade schook (desyatkilother than
    the study of the Russian language itself in grades 1-4?

2)  Doesn't a typical duration at a Russian college or unitersity
    take 5 years?

3)  Does student stipend (studencheskaya stipendiya) still
    exist?  And does the area of study one selects have anything
    to do with the amount of the stipe?  Aren't the stipends 
    higher for sciences, physics, etc say rather than for a
    historian?

Just curious if anyone thinks any of the above have anyaring
on the strengths in math verses other subjects such as literature,
economics, and maybe even computer sciences?

          Jeff
From: viznyuk@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Krivaja da neljoxkaja
Date: 25 Sep 92 16:38:40 EDT

In article <9209251825.AA20533@enet-gw.pa.dec.com>, alex@took.enet.dec.com ("Alex Allister Shvartsman, EMF,              LKG2-2/T2 25-Sep-1992 1421") writes:
> RE Vadim S. Kaplunovsky vadim@bolvan.ph.utexas.edu (internet)
>>>  1. Does anybody have the words of Wysocki's song "Krivaja da nelegkaja"
>>>  2. This is a question primarily for the esteemed (x)COBOK masses:
>>>     What is Wysocki trying to tell you in the song, if anything?
>>>     Or do you view it as a silly drunk's hallucination?
>>>
>>There are several versions of this song, with *very* different sub-texts.
>>The version published by Melodia does not tell much beyond "drinking
>>too much is not good".  Other versions are much more powerful.
>>Unfortunately, I do not have the tape handy, so I cannot post the *full*
>>text.
> 
> So, are there any volunteers to provide the words for "Crooked and tough"?
> 
> Alex

"Krivaia da nelegkaia" is really very _powerfull_ . The version I used
to listen to was "presented" by Vysotsky on his Paris concert (?).
This version probably was the best, IMHO. In France they made
LP after that concert.
S.V.
From: rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu (Jeff Bytof)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Search for Roots: Russian-Japanese War
Date: 28 Sep 92 20:44:42 GMT
Organization: sio
NNTP-Posting-Host: lutherlab.ucsd.edu

Hello,

   My grandfather was a soldier in the Russian-Japanese war.
As part of a search for my roots, I am trying to locate any records
of his service.  Are there archives available that might contain
this information?

Thanks,
Jeff Bytof
rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Land Value Taxation in Estonia
From: jim@netlink.cts.com (Jim Bowery)
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 08:00:20 PDT
Organization: NetLink Online Communications, San Diego CA

Henry George's land value tax ideas appear to be spreading to Estonia
if a recent newsletter from Commonground (an organization promoting
 land value taxation) is to be believed.  Does anyone in Estonia have
details on the status of land value tax legislation there?

--                    
INTERNET:  jim@netlink.cts.com (Jim Bowery)
UUCP:   ...!ryptyde!netlink!jim
NetLink Online Communications * Public Access in San Diego, CA (619) 453-1115
From: lenivch@fermat.mit.edu (Witold Biedrzycki)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: More education talk...
Date: 29 Sep 92 17:58:53 GMT
Organization: MIT Department of Mathematics, Cambridge, MA

In article <1a06ltINNb0l@agate.berkeley.edu> muh@physics.Berkeley.EDU (Yury M. Mukharsky) writes:
>In article <1992Sep25.165713.21284@galois.mit.edu> lenivch@maclaurin.mit.edu (Witold Biedrzycki) writes:
>>
>>Oleg is right here. When I taught calculus, as a graduate student,
>>the students expected to be given "cookbook recipes". I saw very
>>little desire to understdand why these things actually work.
>>
>I have not taught, but I have same general feeling. Not only in
>calculus, but as a general difference between russian way of
>doing something and american. American is usually much more effecient,
>and much more boring.
>I must admit that in Fiztech math classes we had too little cookbook recipes,
>from my point of view, and too much of "teorem suschestvobania i edinstvennosti".
>They are very good for training of the mind, but not very useful when
>it comes to taking integrals, or solving differential equation.
>
>Yury.


Depending on the circumstance, the "cookbook recipes" may be good for you 
or not. The reason why I wrote about all this was the posting of Seth Rosentahl
in which he claimed thaat in the USA memorization is discouraged and 
understanding is encouraged; I don't think this is true.

Witold Biedrzycki