TakingITGlobal - Panorama - What I Would Like...

Published on: Nov 4, 2004

Topic:

Type: Opinions

https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=4596

I am Sveta Perkova. I live in Belgorod. I am 15. All Russians have enormous, passionate and burning hearts. Anatomically speaking, the hearts of Russians are the same as hearts of other people. Perhaps they are more vulnerable and fragile because of many profound and deep experiences. A Russian heart is like a book. Judging only by the binding of it, you can see a simple, unattractive volume, but when you open it and begin to read, you will see a whole huge world of different feelings: love, suffering, sorrow, gladness. Often all of these feelings mix together and turn into a boiling cocktail which runs through our veins. This cocktail has such a huge variety of combinations that it turns every Russian heart into an extraordinary mystery.
How much love is in the Russian heart?! We are able to love everything and everybody: friends, relatives, family and, of course, our motherland to excess, to self-forgetfulness. For Russians self-sacrifice is a normal and simple thing, especially if it's for beloved ones. Our love is rather strange: sometimes it is humiliating and absolutely futile. Not without a reason all Russian classical writers described love in their writings as unhappy, cheerless and gratuitous feeling. It is really so. Russian heart finds some delight in such a feeling. In Russia, love without suffering, tragic oaths and painful dreams is not love. And what about happinness? I think that only Russians are capable of such a mad and crazy happinness with loud songs, dances, Russian vodka and French champagne (mixed). In such an outburst, plus in not a very sober condition, Russians can break furniture to pieces, break the dishes, lose all money playing cards and then fall asleep with their face in the salad. And then have the headache in the morning! Russians don’t care! Sure, it is not a very good feature, but what can we do? Such is our heart! But it can feel not only joy and happiness…
How much suffering it undergoes! If somewhere in Zimbabwe a dog was run over by a car, our heart is bleeding, though many people firmly hide their feelings. A heart made of a stone is rare in Russia. So you can imagine how we were shocked by the terrifying terrorist attacks in the USA, explosions of Spanish trains and repeated instances of hostage-taking in different European countries.
In Russia terrorist acts with their endless brutalities break people’s hearts. Which one of us hadn't been cryign in front of the TV screens, during recent events in Beslan. Deep sorrow and grief haven’t left us even today. That is why we, Russians, understand very well what it means to lose friends, parents and children.
I am writing this essay on the eve of the third anniversary of that awful tragedy in the USA. And I want on behalf of my whole wonderful country, which, I know, remembers that day with pain in hearts, to express my sincere condolences to the relatives of all people who died in New York, in Beslan, in Washington, in Moscow and in Spain. I want them to know that nowadays my heart and hearts of all my fellow country men are with them. The warmth of our big common Russian heart...

« return.



by Svetlana Perkova
Published on: Nov 4, 2004
Topic:
Type: Opinions
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=4596


I am Sveta Perkova. I live in Belgorod. I am 15. All Russians have enormous, passionate and burning hearts. Anatomically speaking, the hearts of Russians are the same as hearts of other people. Perhaps they are more vulnerable and fragile because of many profound and deep experiences. A Russian heart is like a book. Judging only by the binding of it, you can see a simple, unattractive volume, but when you open it and begin to read, you will see a whole huge world of different feelings: love, suffering, sorrow, gladness. Often all of these feelings mix together and turn into a boiling cocktail which runs through our veins. This cocktail has such a huge variety of combinations that it turns every Russian heart into an extraordinary mystery. How much love is in the Russian heart?! We are able to love everything and everybody: friends, relatives, family and, of course, our motherland to excess, to self-forgetfulness. For Russians self-sacrifice is a normal and simple thing, especially if it's for beloved ones. Our love is rather strange: sometimes it is humiliating and absolutely futile. Not without a reason all Russian classical writers described love in their writings as unhappy, cheerless and gratuitous feeling. It is really so. Russian heart finds some delight in such a feeling. In Russia, love without suffering, tragic oaths and painful dreams is not love. And what about happinness? I think that only Russians are capable of such a mad and crazy happinness with loud songs, dances, Russian vodka and French champagne (mixed). In such an outburst, plus in not a very sober condition, Russians can break furniture to pieces, break the dishes, lose all money playing cards and then fall asleep with their face in the salad. And then have the headache in the morning! Russians don’t care! Sure, it is not a very good feature, but what can we do? Such is our heart! But it can feel not only joy and happiness… How much suffering it undergoes! If somewhere in Zimbabwe a dog was run over by a car, our heart is bleeding, though many people firmly hide their feelings. A heart made of a stone is rare in Russia. So you can imagine how we were shocked by the terrifying terrorist attacks in the USA, explosions of Spanish trains and repeated instances of hostage-taking in different European countries. In Russia terrorist acts with their endless brutalities break people’s hearts. Which one of us hadn't been cryign in front of the TV screens, during recent events in Beslan. Deep sorrow and grief haven’t left us even today. That is why we, Russians, understand very well what it means to lose friends, parents and children. I am writing this essay on the eve of the third anniversary of that awful tragedy in the USA. And I want on behalf of my whole wonderful country, which, I know, remembers that day with pain in hearts, to express my sincere condolences to the relatives of all people who died in New York, in Beslan, in Washington, in Moscow and in Spain. I want them to know that nowadays my heart and hearts of all my fellow country men are with them. The warmth of our big common Russian heart... « return.