Letters

To the Editors:

Kitai Gorod is No Chinatown!

I have always cautioned my students and other people (even Russians) against thinking that “Kitai Gorod” meant “Chinatown” (very tempting for unlearned tourists).

Now, on page 36 of your September/October 2013 issue, I read in an article by Paul E. Richardson: “in Kitai Gorod (‘Chinatown’).”

Kitai Gorod has nothing to do with China, nor Chinese people.

The word kitai refers to huge walls surrounding a location. Kitai Gorod was surrounded by medieval walls.

Kitai Gorod is a business district within Moscow, Russia, encircled by mostly reconstructed medieval walls. (...)

Some scholars tend to derive Kitai from an old word for the wooden stakes used in construction of the quarter’s walls.

Elena Carducci
Montréal

Elena:

You are correct. The error was a simple slip of the keyboard under deadline. Yet, as we found when working on our forthcoming edition of Moscow and Muscovites (excerpted in this issue), even the erudite Gilyarovsky was not clear (correct?) on the origins of the Kitai Gorod name. So we feel we are at least in good company.

– The Editors

To the Editors:

Thank you! First of all for the magazines, they are amazing! But also for highlighting some things near and dear to my heart that I would have never expected to see anywhere in print.

In one of last year’s issues you had a relatively recent Cathedral (Uspensky) in downtown Omsk on the front cover. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was so good to see it! and in July/Aug 2013 issue Anton Agofonov wrote about the true birthplace of Tchaikovsky – the tiny town of Votkinsk. I have been there many times (spent my childhood summers there), including the estate of the Tchaikovsky family.

I just wish he wrote even more about the museum and the town. My maternal grandmother still lives in Votkinsk. Thank you!!!

Yulia Ballou
via email