Russia UK Blog Vladimir/Haema Channel 4's 121

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2007-03-06T11:36:00.001Z

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Life is so harsh - it gets you when you least expect...

2006-06-06T14:25:00.000+01:00

Hello Haema

Thanks for the words of condolenses. Many people who knew her sent their messages.
It's so happened that for almost during a decade we hosted foreing students from US and western Europe, ho came here to study russian. And everybody my mom treated very well. They were like her sons or daughters.
My Mom was born on 22 of March in 1939 -the year when the second world war boke out. She is Ukranian. from the village about 100 kilometer from Kiev. She had a hard and severe life. At the age of 14 she left home because it was very hard for her family to support all kids. She's got 2 sistrs and a brother who died in a car accident in the army during 60-s. Some sisters died during the war. My mom could die during the war. She was in fire. But german soldier saved her giving her mom some uniqie medicine for that time. (Germans were feeding kids when they were towards Moscow nach ost. Of course they shot all the communists in the village. But they were extremly auwfull on the way back burning practically everything down.
In Mosow (at that time it was Moscow region) she worked for the factory.
She had the first unhappy marrige though she loved her first husband a lot.
Before his death (he died several years ago) she saw hm in her dream.
She had unsuccesful pregnancy and almost died.
Then she broke her leg on the 31 of December and two students of medicine fixed it wrong so till the end of her life it didn't bend and was a little bit hooked.
But she was very pretty. Ukranian girs frankly speaking are more beautiful then russian ones.
My Mom used to say that she was unhappy till the time when i appeaped. She gave birth at the age of 42. very late espatially according to soviet measures.
She met my dad a year before. nd they married when I appeared/ It was his second marriage also. (So I've got a half-brother on my dad's side.
She was a very kind and honest person. And she will be in paradise. That's for sure.
I'm so sorry for being rude and naughty to her.
The thing is I didn't a change to say good-buy and to ask for fogiveness.
Last year Mom had a heart attack. Since fouties she had high blood presuare.
In april she was in a hospital for a month but it didn't help. During the week she felt not good. Early on Friday morning I went for a day to Kazan (the capital of Tatarstan) on business. The next mornng in airort I call to her but my cousin answerd that my 's in hospital. Late at night she had a stroke/ and on the fifth day she died in the emergency box. They didn't let me in/ I was only on Sunday in an ordinary room in the hospital.
For three days Kristina (a girl from the UK) came to visited us. As iif to say farewell. After Kristy found out all she sent flourwed via internet and sent a letter. here it is a part from it.

"Dear Volodja,

how are things with you all.

I imagine it must feel terribly empty. She was such a warm, friendly person who made you feel happy and loved; I cannot magine what it must feel like to be without her.

I hope you are all looking after each other. I feel really useless being over here, I wish there was something I could do.

Did you receive my flowers? I know it's not much but I wanted to show my last respect - and I know how much she loved flowers.

Life is so harsh - it gets you when you least expect it and throws you into cold, empty spaces, with no comfort other than that time eventually will make the pain fade, slowly...just try to remember the good things, be grateful for all the happy times you had and for the love she═had═for you all, ═and remember how she invoked that deep feeling of comfort and love in everyone that met her. She was loved by everyone and I think she knew that - how could one fail to tell her, you just had to - she was always there with open arms.

She was a person that had the fortune of meeting so many people from all over the world - she will be remembered across several continents for decades to come. That is no small feat. We can only hope that we, too, will be remembered in that way one day.

Your mum will be remembered with love - she will always be in my heart, just like you all will.

Please remember that, and please tell your father too - you are all always with us in our thoughts".

So we'l all remember her til I die or lose my memmory.
So buy for now Haema.
Now I have a constant access for the free internet.
Write back
Vlady

So so sorry

2006-05-25T16:00:00.000+01:00

Dear Vladimir,

I am so sorry to hear your very sad news. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Haema

She died yesterday.

2006-05-25T11:52:00.000+01:00

Funeral will be tomorrow.

My mom's in the hospital

2006-05-23T07:54:00.000+01:00

Hello Haema

I wanted to write a proper blog text, but my mom got a stroke.
She is in the hospital. The situation is hard.
I'll write back soon.

2006-05-22T10:11:00.000+01:00

Now I can't help thinking I have said something to offend?

Haema

World Cup football.

2006-05-19T16:09:00.000+01:00

Hi Vladimir,

Just wondering how things are at your end? Hope all is well.

In the UK at the moment the mood is reaching fever pitch for the football World Cup in just three short weeks. Is football one of the main team sports in Russia? Does it have a dedicated ( and rather large) following as football does here? personally am not a football fan but it is impossible not to get caught up in the zeitgeist of the bigger events.

At the risk of discussing the weather, there is talk of a drought warning here in London given the lack of rainfall over the last few months.

Hear soon.

Haema

Much to be proud of?

2006-05-04T10:44:00.001+01:00

Hello Vladimir,

Thank you for sharing with us the achievements of your Uncle Nick. Sounds like he was a bit of a hero and you are obviously extrmely proud of him. Do you really mean to say that he died as a result of a wardrobe falling on him? That is a sad way to go and an entirely unexpected way for anyone to imagine as their end.

I can also gather from your posting that you are very proud of Russia and Russians ( not so sure about the kalashnikov?). That is a great way to be and I wonder if one was to see things with a more critical eye...would one's view remain the same? Is there full press freedom in Russia now?

So I am still waiting to hear what life is like for a lawyer in Russia. What field of law do you practice in? Is it a good profession to be in? Do many young students aspire to become lawyers or is it a profession they wish to avoid?

We have solicitors and barristers here that form the two branches of the profession and each branch does have a specific role to play although there are many plans afoot for the two branches to become more alike. Solicitors are more 'front-line' and have more client contact and deal with case-preparation etc and barristers ( they wear the wigs and gowns) deal mainly with advocacy in the courts.

Becoming a lawyer is , I think, still a fairly popular choice although I think it would be right to say that the image of lawyers here has had a bit of a beating... Fairly? Unfairly?

I look forward to your response.

Haema

One of the first in the fight for the space...

2006-04-15T00:29:00.000+01:00

Hello Haema
Sorry for keeping silence for so long. I'm glad we're still in a contact. I promise I'll start writing more often. It didn't take me long to understand what an interesting job you have. However I'm still impressed that they can marry. Yeach I heard about Civil partnership act. If only Oscar Wilde were alive! Then instead of prison- he would have a world wide publicity like Elton John and a hooneymoon to Hawaii. (I've written more about my attitude and some recollectins but is's all desipered suddenly - I pressed something on the keybord).
Now I'd like to talk about real man.
It is 45 years today since U. Gagarin became the first man in space. A russian spaceman. Not being russian I'm very proud of him and my ex-country (I mean ex- Soviet Union, however there aren't so many things to be proud of except the victory in the WW2, Kalashnilov, Vodka, pretty girls for example Maria Sharapova and Kurni, ballet and classical music, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and big territory. And Oil and Gas, of course.
The cold war is over. The USSR has lost. America is the only superpower in the world. However in 1961 a year before the Caribian crisis-we were the first.
My Mom's cousin was an Air force test-pilot. He lived in Star town (Zvezdny gorodok) near Moscow,a town of soviet-russian spacemen and he might have gone to the space. He was a doubler of a spaceman Leonov. However it didn't worked out and the later became the first man in the open space.
My mom's cousin died last year at the age of 68. Rather tragically I should say. ( he was in the hospital went to the toilet and in the corridor he lost consionse grabed the wardrode and it killed him. I really liked my uncle Nick. and will always remember him with a warm felling. He who would probably could be a spaceman, and for sure would be among the first pilots in case of WW3 died in 21 centuary on his way to the toilet. Very simbolic.
Mom told me that on the half year anniversiry since his death his pupils flew over semetry several circles tributing the last honor.
He was among the first in the fight for the space.
And only now he has found his last place. Rest in peace, uncle Nick. The fight is over.
I wrote it on 12 of April. But I could't place it on the site somehow. I suggest more frequency correspondence. I oblige to answer you messages within 3 days.

Fight for peace?

2006-03-31T12:31:00.000+01:00

Dear Vladimir,

A long silence from me I'm afraid...partly to work out how to match the breadth of information and political discourse in your last posting. Gosh, conspiracy theories abound. Your take of that very short period in Russian history (which is pretty much the only period that westerners get taught about) is somewhat different to what we know of the 1917 revolution. It's always interesting to get a 'local' viewpoint, as it were.

Speaking of words and lawyers, I think the ' fight for peace' emblem a very interesting one, don't you? Yet where has the 'fight'left us/them? We are told the fight is over. Is it? Where is the peace? Will it ever be?

The weather is always an easy start to conversations isn't it. Not being English but having lived here for over 20 years, it has become a stock conversation opener with strangers. I have to say though that sometimes it can be pretty fascinating, the weather. Not really.

I am a family lawyer so I deal with family and relationship breakdowns mainly, dealing with financial matters and sadly, disputes about continuing contact or residence of children. My specialism is in the area of same sex couples and families. As you may know in the UK laws were passed recently allowing same sex couples to register their relationships formally and gain rights and responsibilities akin to that of married couples. This relates to all areas such as children, financial provision, inheritance rights, pension rights etc. One might say, FINALLY!

We are a small practice and there are six lawyers here all specialising in all areas of family law. We also do a lot of work with children and families in trouble where the local authority may be involved for child protection purposes or even just to support a family having a difficult time.

I travelled to work today on the bus and tube. It usually takes me about 45 minutes to get ot work from my house, on a good day. I think I would be so brave as to say that I truly enjoy the work that I do.

What about you, Vladimir?

Haema

Poets and law: it's all about words and sentences...

2006-03-23T21:48:00.000Z

Dear Haema

How is it going? Sorry for being silent. It�s just to compensate my fount of eloquence if I can put it in like this (adopting your sarcastic tone).
It�s been a hard time. And I slept only for 6 hours two nights running.
Well concerning poetry and lawyers. I guess it goes perfectly well together. It�s all about words and sentences... especially in Russia...
Also I�d like to quote Shelley (I�m reading him now) �But poets are not only the authors of language and of music? Of dance and architecture? And statuary and painting: they are the intitutors of law and the founders of civil society�.
As far as I can see this project has been launched recently and it covers the majority of the essational spheres of humans life. Unfortunately there is no such topic as politics. Would be quite interesting to watch a real �poetry of human relations� between English and Iranian fellows. Just before the planning and quite possible force actions. (Only China and the RF, the permanent members of the security counsil of the UN are against right now). However the history teaches us that it doesn�t matter since Mr Bash (I name him like this on purpose) wants to promote peace and democracy in the �fight for civilasation�. It always makes me laugh such an expresion like old Soviet-style logo �A fight for peace�
By the way a word �peace� and a word �world� will be the same in russian. It�s �MIR�. The second part of the my name-vladimir. It�s a slavic name, combined of two words and it could be translated like �the owner of the world�. That guy of a russian original who wrote a profile of Russia, stated that it all came from Kiev. And it was Vladimir (The red sun) who baptized ancient Rus in 988 since the birth of Christ.
I�d like to correct some details. Yes Bolshiviks took power in the autumn of 1917 because of a revolt (it wasn�t a revolution they just came to Zimniy ex Tsar residance and said that the provisional government was arrested.The only security was a women�s battalion and cadets some of them ran away). Cruiser Avrora fired a salvo like a signal for the begining of actions. It was a blank shot. There is a joke here. �What is the most powerful weapon in the world?�
The answer is Avrora. One blank shot and 70 years of destruction. The Soviet power existed for 74 years. But the Soviet Union was formed in 1922 and collaped in 1991. It�s 15 year anniversary nowdays.
Lenin (another Vladimir) was a German spy. At least he got money from German Impire for revolutionary work so that make Russian Impire leave the first world war. German authoritize let the wagon go through its territory with Lenin and his band when he was coming to Russia in the spring of 1917 after having spent 16 years abroad in political immigration (mostly in Switzeland). They wanted the best � you know the rest...
Being a lawyer by profession ( however after losing all his few cases) he is know for a phrase about them �We need to hold advocates in the iron hands, because this intelligence barstards often put spokes in the wheels�. I�ve translated in the polite way. The original is �...eta intelegentskaja svoloch chasto paskudnichaet�.
And now about the weather. Haema you seem like a real english lady starting our conversation with the weather. (almost literally what a disgusting weather is over there, isn�t it?)
Well my friend says it�s better to enjoy a sunny spring day with 0 degrees rather than be washed away from the isle because of the grobal warming.
But if being serious there is a saying in russian language �Martok- odevai semero portok� IF IT�S MARCH- PUT ON SEVEN PANS�. A primitive short rhyme describing the law of the national weather is the simple poetic folk wisdom.
Cheers
P.S. I�d like our letters be less formal (we're not in the court) and I�ll answer your questions tomorrow. What area of law are you in?

Lawyers and poetry- a good mix?

2006-03-21T22:51:00.000Z

Hello Vladimir. I am Haema, your fellow lawyer and blogger here in London in the UK.Thanks for reminding us all so eloquently that it is International Day of Poetry. Certainly I was in danger of allowing it to pass me by.

It is odd to hear of anyone talking of it being 'warm' at 0 degrees. We here in London are moaning at how far away spring seems when we are here struggling with the cold at 6 or 7 degrees. Probably a summer's day for you and your friends in Moscow.

I am interested to know what life is like for a lawyer in Moscow. How have you helped your clients today?

Poetry of human relations

2006-03-21T12:54:00.000Z

Dear friends

Seems like I'm on. Congratulations with the international day of poetry.
As P.B. Shelly wrote "Poetry lifs the veil from the hidden beauty of the world and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar" and so on.
I'm Vladimir Volkov ( Vlady for short or vova or volodya as you wish.
I'm a lawyer from Moscow the RF.
The weather here is good. Sunny and rather warm about 0.
So let's communicate and lift the veil as well as an iron one from our culturies and countries and personalities as a result.

Welcome

2006-03-07T12:30:00.000Z

Welcome to the 121 blog website.