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LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
A Grandmother's Advice for the New Year
Historical memory has preserved certain traditions for celebrating Christmas and bringing in the New Year. The fir tree, the dinner, the gifts, and to some extent we even incorporate customs of other countries. For some people the Chinese calender regulates the color of dress that one must wear to greet the New Year. For others, what is most important is the "magic of the first day."
On New Year's Eve and on the first day of the year our ancestors tried to keep from quarreling with anyone, from entering into debt to anyone, from abandoning unfinished projects and from complaining. If all this was fulfilled, the rest of the year would proceed on the same level.
2001 is the first year of the millenium. So far, we have not learned how our ancestors celebrated the start of earlier millenia. But if we keep in view this principle of the "magic of the first day," then it follows that the rest of the millenium will remain for our descendants as it was on this its first day.
Speaking of descendants,we right away think of our ancestors who lived in past centuries. But here a problem arises. Most of us do not know who our ancestors were. In all the European countries geneology has been becoming a special discipline of history, recording not only the facts of kinship but also their historical significance, while here in our Russian life the information about our ancestors is hidden from us. In the past [the Soviet period], information was hidden about families who were of the nobility or had suffered repression or were religious believers. Now it is the family connections to the Communist elite that are kept quiet. As a result links between the generations are severed. History permits no "if only." But if only in the beginning of the 1990's, when the events of the closing century began to be analyzed, we had thought to ask about our "severed ancestries," it is likely that we would have achieved a lot. Now when people talk about repentance, it seems to me that rehabilitating one's ancestry, rehabilitating ones sense of pride in one's lineage, in one's homeplace, might serve in Russia as a kind of repentance. Maybe only the family tree is able to instill in us a sense of responsibility towards our descendants.
The link between generations is broken, and the very idea of family lineage has lost its meaning. How else can we understand the huge number of orphans whose fathers and mothers are still living, all the infants abandoned in our maternity homes, and violence in family life.
It often happens that the fates of ancestors are repeated in the fates of their descendants. We can learn a lot from our lineage. Take, for instance, knowledge about health that might help us to know what to be wary of and what sorts of health problems get passed down through the generations. People seem to think that the concept of "my lineage" holds meaning only for those of aristocratic birth. That is not true. Old people in villages always used to know an oral lineage reaching back seven and sometimes twelve generations, which was important for match-making.
Writing down the history of one's origins is painstaking work calling for patience and perseverance; but even the smallest discovery makes the work more and more engaging, as with any path into the unknown. And in this case the interest is strengthened by blood ties.
If the past century has done much to obliterate the family's knowledge of its ancestors, the end of the century has just about killed off the older generation, those who bear the knowledge about family heritage. And this is very sad.
But we need to remember about our descendants, and we need to take up the task without delay. A family tree is the most valuable gift we can give our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Get to work, grandmothers! The work is urgent and imperative! And now a little practical advice on how to begin.
Rule #1. Collect everything: identification papers, letters, personal affairs, placards, tickets, and so on. Write down everything you can remember about your parents, grandmothers and grandfathers.
Rule #2. When putting together a family archive, record everything you have and know, not concealing anything.
Advice #1. Before you start, get yourself a notebook or some clean sheets of paper, and a case for filing things.
Advice #2. Once you have gathered everything together, look through all your albums and identification papers. Separate them into files so as to keep from losing them.
Advice #3. Stop watching those television soap operas for a couple of weeks. Try to live in "that" time. Charge yourself with the wish to make a geneology for your descendants.
Advice #4. Write down everything you remember about your mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers.
Advice #5. Locate a copy of How to Compile Your Geneology. It is possible to find the book, although the print run was quite small. Libraries have it. Contact the Geneological Society of Russia and the women's NGO "Grandmothers Care." Galina Vladimirovna Skorokhodova, director of the women's organization "Grandmothers Care"
Dear Editors,
The Dushanbe coordinating center "Women's Initiative" wants to convey heartfelt thanks for the journal We/Myi,The Women's Dialogue, which you sent to our address and which is read with great interest here by women of all ages, social backgrounds and educations.
We wish a Happy New Year and new millenium to all who work on the journal and to its many readers. We wish you success and personal happiness.
Respectfully yours Director of "A Women's Initiative," Safargul Davlierova
We have already become so used to women's journals that write only about "ladies'" worries and wallowing in old grievances, that when I came across We/Myi, The Women's Dialogue -- a journal that deals with serious socio-political issues -- I was in fact surprised. But after all, women are interested not only in culinary recipes, cosmetics and relationships with men; women can think too, and work, and even stand up for their own rights. And boldly at that. This is of course very gratifying.
When you read the articles, you begin to understand why women need to stand up for their rights: how and where conferences are going on, who takes part in them, what goals they set and what has already been achieved. What's more, the journal features articles from authors of many different countries.
There are a lot of men, I think, who would be surprised if they found out that such a serious journal can exist for women, and that it really touches on important aspects of life in society for representatives of the weaker sex. I can just imagine how a lot of men would roll their eyes and ask, "Why all this for them? Better they take care of household affairs!" Others, though, would be encouraged that at last maybe our country too will gain one more emancipated woman.
Evgenia Andreevna, Third year university student
We/Myi is more than serious. Of course, compared to other women's journals, it is harder to read,(meaning there is something here to think about). And it offers none of the easy formulas that readers of women's journals are accustomed to. So far so good -- first they tell you about a problem, describe all the details, give examples.
As far as I know, it is the only journal in Russia for women and about women, written not only with a view to attracting readers. On its pages are discussed the most relevant and pressing issues that the contemporary Russian woman encounters. Moreover, it touches on a broad circle of questions of an international character, publishes pieces on the international women's movement in countries all around the world, about the history of the women's movement, its successes and goals.
The journal is written in accessible, understandable language. Authors shed light in an interesting and detailed way on various questions of the women's movement, managing to avoid a moralistic tone. That's not to say that the journal is oriented only towards women who are in some way familiar with the international women's movement. Without fail, authors attentively explain subjects that may be unfamiliar to the average reader.
I was very impressed by the section "Journal Within a Journal." It is remarkable that the editors decided to direct their attention to problems in their own country; many get so caught up when writing about the experience of their foreign colleagues that they forget about the country they live in. Russia is so huge that it would be hard for one person to keep up with the specifics of each region, and for that very reason it was wise for instance, to invite as guest editor Tatiana Kalinina, who knows all about issues in the Cheliabinsk Region, and other such individuals, in order to raise questions of vital and contemporary importance and to make each issue full and varied.
In my view the journal's main shortcoming is its format. Some articles are printed in an absolutely unreadable script. It strains your eyes so that they practically hurt from trying to focus on the text. In other words the format very much detracts from and hampers understanding of the content. Other materials are often "deeply" formatted (from what I understand, professionals call them "tombs"). On the other hand, I was very impressed by the cover. It looks like no other journal, which means it will be recognizable. The journal has its own face.
Now I am going to contradict myself a little. Is there something the journal could add to its features that would somehow tone down the serious demeanor of the journal? It seems to me worth going in that direction (while not going overboard) so that women who are used to other journals might more easily make the transition to We/Myi, without being scared away by its seriousness.
Ekaternia Galanina, student, Moscow State University
Dear Editors,
Not long ago I came across several issues of the journal The Women's Dialogue. Once I had opened the first, I had to peruse the others. People who work on problems of the women's movement selflessly fight for equal rights for women in different countries, for the welfare of children born equal all around the world but growing up in different circumstances. It is very interesting to find out how women live who are far away from us. Often we live from day to day, not even thinking about problems that others elsewhere have to deal with constantly.
Having taken care of adolescents for several decades, I can say with assurance that women most often contribute as patient "facilitators" of adolescents who are often morally blind, especially those whom school drove away after 9th grade, leaving them with the single possibility at the age of fifteen of going to a polytechnic. After all, in a polytechnic the teachers and artisans are more often than not women, who use various methods to stay the hands of unruly children from misdeeds. And of course, the exchange and sharing of ideas and methods for education and upbringing are very helpful. The pages of this journal offer such an opportunity.
Together with my students at the technical college, we put together an album entitled "Our Families in the Country's History" (the Academy of Pedagogical Science noted that it was the first such project in the country), which reflected the geneology of those who took part. Researching and putting the album together was hard work, but it turned out to be very interesting and the pupils, from 15 to 17 years old, came to be proud of their roots, no matter where they came from.
The features in the journal on women's life is of particular interest, such as V. Kakzakova's article "Karantinnyi zabor"(The Quarantine Fence). I have the most sincere hopes for the journal, that it may continue and grow in readership, that it might be read not only by women, but also by men who will certainly take interest in women's affairs.
Alla Belova, teacher emeritus of professional-technical education in Russia, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, director of youth creative work clubs, member of the USSR and Russian Writers Union.
Dear Editors,
For two years we have been receiving your journal, The Women's Dialogue, and we having been spreading the word about it in the NPO, the committees of the Khudzhandskii region and Kairakkumskii city Khukumatov.
I work as the director of a school in which of the 50 teachers, 95 percent are women. Each month we cannot wait to receive your journal, and we read it with great pleasure and discuss the articles that touch on the women's movement in the countries of the West. Thanks to the features in the "Journal Within a Journal," we have come to know more closely the life and everyday existence of women in various regions of Russia and the CIS [Confederation of Independent States - formerly republics of the Soviet Union. Is that not dialogue?
We ourselves have had the idea of putting together and sending to your (our) journal a piece on our Tadzhik women. All the best! We await the next issue of the journal. With much respect and sincere thanks,
Dilbar