June 14, 2017

The First Pancake is Always Lumpy


The First Pancake is Always Lumpy
Filming and interviewing gets underway. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

The Children of 1917 Expedition is underway.

We began in the most logical place, in St. Petersburg, the birthplace of the Russian Revolution. And we began at a very symbolic time: June 12, Russia’s independence day.

Those who remembered the history of 27 years ago, were marking the day in 1990 when Russia declared its independence from all the other Soviet republics. Yet a not insignificant number of people all across the country also came out to participate in meetings against corruption. But the majority of Russians took this Monday holiday in its most literal sense and simply rested.

For our team, it was a double holiday, perhaps even a triple.

First, the night before our team grew by one. At the last minute, as our ship was sailing from the shore, Zhenya Mashchenko jumped on board as our documentary cameraman. He had just returned from a six-month trip to Asia, where he had been making a film about a hired assassin who had gone into retirement. He returned to Russia safe and sound, and with a burning desire to film something interesting in Russia. And we made him an offer he could not refuse: a tour around his homeland in search of the secrets of long life. And exclusive interviews with centenarians.

Second, we interviewed and filmed the first “child of 1917.” And, despite the fact that this was the “first pancake” of our journey, it was lump-free (as the Russian proverb has it: первый блин всегда комом, “the first pancake is always lumpy,” meaning the first try on something is always a flop.)

Alexandra Nikolayevna Antonova {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

Alexandra Nikolayevna Antonova is the most beautiful woman in the world of long-livers. Slender and fit, she is strong and graceful, like a ballerina in retirement. Her movements are deliberate and noble, like a dowager queen. Nature gifted her with fine, porcelain skin that even wrinkles have not spoiled. She has an attentive, lightly sardonic gaze, and a soft, intelligent way of speaking.

There is a shared myth we have about the true Petersburg babushka: a noblewoman, a graduate of the Institute for Noble Maidens, a blockade survivor, and a frequenter of the Mariinsky Theater and Hermitage Museum.

The truth is that Alexandra Nikolayevna was born into the family of a railway trackman in a distant village, received a degree from an accelerated accounting course and arrive in Piter (that is, Leningrad) as an adult, a few years after the war.

Her story is the century’s-long tale of a single mother struggling for a modest place in the sun. It is a tale of arriving in Leningrad with a babe in her arms and a fictitious letter of invitation to Leningrad (without which provincials were simply not allowed into the city) in her pocket, of how a simple Russian woman conquered the cradle of the revolution.

“The most difficult thing in life,” she said, “is the apartment problem.” All other problems that she encountered in her hundred years, she said, were nothing by comparison. And somehow she won for her and her family a very compact, five-room apartment in the city. And there, over several decades, she hosted crowds of random visitors and longtime friends, visiting from all across the country.

Alexandra's library {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

Many of those former visitors are no longer of this world. But Alexandra Nikolaevna, living to see her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, has given her large “mansion” to her relatives and moved into a small top-floor apartment. For two years, she has not left the walls of her new home. She spends her days chatting with her daughter, reading books, getting her exercise walking between the kitchen, the bedroom, and back again. Occasionally she will go out on the balcony and, from her ninth-floor perch, survey the area with her theater binoculars.

{Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955