Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023) • Hacker News Board

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#11

Post by rdtsc » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:29 PM UTC

practice9 wrote: post #10

[flagged]

One of the biggest shock for me was a few years ago I saw pictures of a protest in Portland and the people were waving the Soviet flag around. I thought, sure this is political satire and trying to make a point, then I was explained that those people are dead serious.

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#12

Post by bugglebeetle » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:55 PM UTC

practice9 wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The Russian Revolution and subsequent Soviet mobilization are one of the main reasons why the Nazis didn’t end up taking over all of Europe, so these things aren’t really comparable.

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#13

Post by lovegrenoble » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:57 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #11

practice9 wrote: post #10

[flagged]

One of the biggest shock for me was a few years ago I saw pictures of a protest in Portland and the people were waving the Soviet flag around. I thought, sure this is political satire and trying to make a point, then I was explained that those people are dead serious.

For me, it was the nicest country in the world. (I live in France, but was born in CCCP)

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#14

Post by lovegrenoble » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:58 PM UTC

bugglebeetle wrote: post #12

practice9 wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The Russian Revolution and subsequent Soviet mobilization are one of the main reasons why the Nazis didn’t end up taking over all of Europe, so these things aren’t really comparable.

Thank you.

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#15

Post by sorokod » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 6:05 PM UTC

practice9 wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The people leading the Russian revolution of 1917, genuinely believed that it will make the world (and not just Russia) a better place for all humans.

Different from the Nazis in Germany.

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#16

Post by throwaway74354 » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 6:12 PM UTC

practice9 wrote: post #10

[flagged]

>He was a part-time propaganda poet of the Soviet regime

Also a prominent futurist and a self-proclaimed proletarian poet. Historical figures such as Mayakovsky shouldn't be perceived as black or white.

By 1925, it still wasn't obvious that Soviet Regime would become what we know about it now. NEP period had something to be excited about in terms of economic development and political/personal freedoms (as opposed to dekulakization and related changes, which happened in the late 20s).

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#17

Post by lykahb » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 7:57 PM UTC

sorokod wrote: post #15

practice9 wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The people leading the Russian revolution of 1917, genuinely believed that it will make the world (and not just Russia) a better place for all humans. Different from the Nazis in Germany.

Nazis believed that they would make the whole world better. Both ideologies explicitly stated that the world is better without some groups of humans. And both USSR and Third Reich were murderous regimes with global ambitions and little regard for human life.

Re: Mayakovsky in Cleveland (2023)

#18

Post by comonoid » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 9:20 PM UTC

yaky wrote: post #9

Along with an interesting story, the Russian-language flyer has fascinating Runglish words, phrasing and grammar. "Кливланд" (Cleveland) is spelled with "а" at the end, which makes the pronunciation "Cleev-lahnd". The modern version is "Кливленд", which is pronounced almost the same as English. "Мувис" is just transliterated "Movies". I suppose the movies were new enough that the current words "кино(театр)" (kino(the…

An apostrophe instead of ъ was sometimes artifact of using an old typewriter (1920th). One hero of literature wondered why all the words are written with ъ (where appropriate), but об'явление (an advertisement on a bulletin board in this context) was invariably written with an apostrophe. Well, many advertisements on boards was typewritten, and even handwritten advertisement started to follow this spelling, and even when typewriter was produced with ъ, this spelling persisted in this context.

But it may be an urban legend.

Upd: sometime this "legend" says that after the spelling reform of 1918 the ъ at the end of words was banned, this letter was forced to be removed from typewriter as well (though it may be used in a middle of words). The article on this reform in Russian Wikipedia mentions, that for the same reason ъ was seized from typographies to restrict its usage. In both cases an apostrophe was used instead. It seems these facts are consistent with each other and this particular usage of the apostrophe.