Two bottles of vodka for some history

Noviy Vestnik ^ | September 8th, 2004 | Natal'ya Fomina

[struwwelpeter]

Original Title:

Two bottles of 'Talas' for some history

Some scraps of an old Japanese newspaper were found in the ruins of the old summer theater

All week long correspondents from 'Noviy Vestnik' searched for this ancient newspaper, which was left here by Japanese prisoners of war more than a half-century ago. We were told that the papers were found by workers in the 13th precinct, who were working on the demolition of the old summer theater. When the stage was torn apart, stuck to a support beam was a yellowing scrap of paper, speckled with incomprehensible hieroglyphics.

Covered in lime and dust, the boys tearing down our historic landmark assured us that, not too long ago, they found a Japanese newspaper, or at least part of one. "Someone probably tore a piece off to roll their own cigarette, licked it, but was interrupted and stuck it on the wooden beam for later." This was the theory of Kaysar, the most senior in the work brigade. As far as where exactly this paper was to be found, he thought awhile, then recalled that it was passed around and a friend of Kuanysh by the name of Kuk finally took it home.

Over at Kuk's apartment on the outskirts of Maykuduk that evening, it turned out that the paper was sold four days ago to a historian from the museum of folklore. "I didn't even get enough for a good drunk, just two bottles of 'Talas'."

But the students of folklore over there only heard of the paper and its hieroglyphs for the first time from us. The museum's deputy science director sternly interrogated the employees, but was disappointed: none of them had gone to the summer theater or had acquired the Japanese newspaper.

Demolition worker Kuanysh then remembered the telephone number of a mysterious collector by the name of Askar.

Trade
Here it is, the miraculously preserved Japanese rarity. A blackened scrap of paper, now rotted in two. One side depicts three gloomy profiles in military caps. The other side is fully covered in hieroglyphics. Askar Kairbekov keeps them between the pages of a book. It turns out the this trained physician is not a professional historian, but his interest in the past he explains is just from a "love of my region". He never passed himself off as an employee of the museum, that was made up by the workers at the site. Askar Ashkenovich explains: "They had to think of a way to address me, so one little fellow shouts 'Historian!' and it stuck."

"I'm not a collector, I work in the municipal disaster department," he says. "One morning, after being on duty all day, I went to the summer theater, or at least what remained of it. Something drew me there. I thought: I'll just have one last look. I wanted to feel the spirit of the past. Well, the boys there were getting ready for work, so I asked them: 'Did you find anything interesting?' 'Yes' they replied, and one one said: 'We found some sort of a Japanese newspaper'. So they showed me it. The quality of course was better then, it was brighter and wasn't torn. I was immediately interested. 'Where's the rest of the paper?' I asked. 'There wasn't any, that's all we found' they said. So I said 'Give me it', 'Why do you need it?' they asked. I said 'Well, you certainly don't'. They said 'Buy it from us', and so we agreed. But I didn't have any money with me, but I got an advance and came back the next day."

Too late
Seeing how the newspaper had changed in a day, however, Askar Ashkenovich was very sorry that he had not immediately procured the money.

"This Kuanysh fellow put the paper in a matchbox and left it outside," the history lover sighs. "When I saw this, I was heartbroken! The box was left out in the rain. The paper got soaked and got dirt on it. I was too late! It was good that at least something was still left. For the boys at the site it was just a piece of paper! That's how they treated it, though they demanded 500 tenge ($3). To be honest, I wanted to pay that, but, after seeing how it was ruined, I objected that it was no longer worth it. And so they agreed in principle to 200 tenge. Later, I went there a few more times, climbed up on the foundations, but, except for rubbish from the demolition, I didn't find anything else. The workers tried to get me to buy some other things, an old chisel or something. They must have decided that I was a foreign millionaire."

The long-suffering scrap of a Japanese newspaper now repeats the fate of those homeless ones who once read it in a foreign land behind the barbed wire. Ironically, Askar Ashkenovich keeps what used to belong to prisoners of war in an old book by the Soviet writer Mikhail Prudnik, Ticket to Afar, a story about secret agents during World War II.

Three hundred and sixty yen
How the prisoners, working under the barrels of machineguns, could have managed to receive newspapers from their home island is a mystery for historians to work out. In order to find out what was written on the paper, we invited a Japanese linguist to translate for us.

In his youth, Svyatoslav Mashtakov lived for some time in Japan, and now teaches Japanese at KUBUP (Karaganda university). He glanced at the scraps of newspaper, and shrugged his shouldners: "Well, and what kind of a charade is this! No beginning, no end, and no middle to the text!" Reading from right to left, top to bottom, Svyatoslav Mikhailovich comes to the conclusion that that one side talks about some kind of 'questions being investigated by philosophy'. The side which shows the men: 'Section for readers', while on the top margin is written: '28 May, Sunday edition'. From the text the linguist can discern only that 'for 360 yen one can join the reader's club'. Svyatoslav Mikhailovich explains here that it speaks of a rather large sum, since the average monthly wage in Japan back then was only about 150 yen.

Natal'ya Fomina

[struwwelpeter]

A little snippet of history, from a neat little online weekly in Kazakhstan. Other (mis)translations from Noviy Vestnik:

A Dead City
Behind the wire they are also searching
She only knows her name
Soviet tankers learned to drive on the bones of the dead
To Beslan to her son's grave
Who am I?
Whose cow is mooing there?

[struwwelpeter]

(ping)

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thank you for sharing this with me.

If only we could simply hold the paper in our hands and "know the rest of the story"...

I have posted several old finds in the Files of Terror, found some links to the WW2 era declassified papers, as they were not what I was on the hunt for, I posted them, and will someday go back and dig into them.

The story of the Nazi and the Black Eagle Gold is one to work on, many of the titles of the papers, will pull links in Google......LOL....if Google ever folds, I will die of boredom, with nothing to read.

They will be found by working backwards from the end:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192738/posts

[nw_arizona_granny]

A Ping to an interesting article.

[Velveeta]

Fascinating, thank you.

[struwwelpeter]

I found it interesting that:

1 - a 'trained physician' had to get an advance on his salary in order to buy a $3 scrap of paper

2 - that 200 tenge ($1.40) buys two bottles of vodka.

[Velveeta]

Out of curiosity, how much does a loaf of bread or a liter of milk cost?

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[struwwelpeter]

Out of curiosity, how much does a loaf of bread or a liter of milk cost?

I'm not sure about all Kazakhstan prices, but what I've looked at so far are very close to those in Ukraine.

Here's a shopping list I accumulated not too long ago in Donetsk:

(One Grivnya = 18.6 cents)

Groceries:
Eggs, large 3 grivny for ten (56 cents), Small 2 grivny / 10 (37 cents)
Raisins, 5.60 per kg ($.47 / lb)
Dried apricots, 7.50 / kg ($.64 / lb)
Lemons, 3.20 / kg (27 cents / lb)
Oranges and Bananas, 4.50 / kg (38 cents / lb)
Sugar, 2.30 / kg (20 cents / lb)
Rice, 1.90 / kg (16 cents / lb)
Bread, 1.18 / kg loaf (22 cents)
Potatoes, .90 - 1.10 / kg (9 cents / lb)
Buckwheat and oatmeal, 1.60 / kg (30 cents)
Macaroni, 1.20 - 1.50 / kg (13 cents)
Ramen noodles, .35 pack (7 cents)
Strange-looking Ukrainian soda pop, 1.00 per 1 1/2 liter (19 cents)
Scarey-looking Ukrainian cheetos, .50 / 100 g (9 cents)
Bottled water, 2.80 for 5 liters (52 cents)
Toilet paper, .40 for 50 meters, .50 for 65 meters (9 cents)
Homemade pickles, 5.70 for a 3 liter jar ($1.07)
Tomato sauce, 2.40 for 1 kg jar (45 cents)
Chewing gum, 1 - 1.50 per pack (28 cents)
Smoked sausages (salami, cervalat) 4 - 7.50 per 400 gram stick ($1.40)
Fruit juice 3.50 / liter (65 cents)

Meat:
chicken leg & thigh 7.80 / kg ($.66 / lb)
chicken (whole) 8.00 / kg ($.63 / lb)
turkey leg & thigh 9.60 / kg ($.81 / lb)
ground beef (suspicious) 13.50 / kg ($1.14 / lb)
beef 15 - 18 / kg ($1.65 /lb)
pork 15 - 17 / kg ($1.44 / lb)
duck 7.50 / kg ($.66 / lb)

Cheeses:
Edam 19.50 / kg ($1.65 / lb)
Gouda 19.50 / kg ($1.65 / lb)
Rossiskiy 17.00 / kg ($1.44)
Butter 10.00 / kg ($.84)

Cigarettes:
Belomorkanal (prison & army-issue) .39 / pack (7 cents)
Kozak brand .50 / pack (9 cents)
Prima (Russian imported) .65 (12 cents)
Tu-134 (Russian) 10 pack carton 7.50 ($1.40)
Rothman's (British) " " 47.70 ($8.90)
Camel 24.00 / carton ($4.48)
Winston 21.90 / carton ($4.09)
Marlboro 30.90 / carton ($5.77)

Fast food:
Shaurma (gyro) small 2.50, lg 4.50 (huge) (84 cents)
Hot dog 1.25 (15 cents)
Hamburger 2.00 (39 cents)
Cheeseburger 2.50 (46 cents)
Coffee .80 dbl 1.10 (21 cents)
Tea .60 (11 cents)
Boullion .40 (7 cents)
Beer 1.80 / 1/2 liter (33 cents)
Pizza (small, yech) 1.40 (26 cents)
MacDonald's combo meal 9.95 ($1.85)

Booze:
Wine in liter tetrabrik 4.40 - 7.00 ($1.31)
Wine in 3/4 liter bottles 8.00 - 14.00 ($2.62)
Cognac 12.00 / 1/2 liter ($2.24)
Vodka 5.50 (Moskovskaya) - 9.00 (Nemiroff) / 1/2 liter ($1.68)
Champagne 12-15 / 3/4 liter ($2.80)
Moonshine 3.00 / 1/2 liter (56 cents)
Beer 1.90 - 3.75 / 2 liters (70 cents)

Other:
Apartment rentals - 100 to 400 ($19 to $75) a month
Public transportation - Bus .40 (7 cents)
Express van .75 (14 cents)
Train ride to Kiev (350 miles) - 55.00 ($10.20)
Bus ride to Mariupol (50 miles, Azov Sea) - 8.00 ($1.49)
Bus ride to Sevastopol (500 miles, Black Sea) 95.00 ($17.75)

[struwwelpeter]

This article here discusses price increases for basic telephone service:

S 1 oktyabrya Kazakhtelekom povyshaet stoimost' svoikh uslug. Abonplata za gorodskie telefonnye peregovory podprygnet do 440 tenge, uvelichivshis' na 70 tene.

"From 1 October Kazakhtelecom is raising the cost of its service. City telephone subscribers will pay up to 440 tenge ($3.14), an increase of 70 tenge (50 cents)."

[Velveeta]

LOL, I love this one:

"Scarey-looking Ukrainian cheetos"

[struwwelpeter]

Some of the non-imported toilet paper was the worst - more like industrial-grade sandpaper. But at least they had a sense of humor.

The label reads: "Kokhabinka toilet paper - an ecologically pure product. Decorates any place."

[struwwelpeter]

Another Kazakhi cost of living update ;-)

From NV, again.

Wednesday, 06 October 2004

Travel on the trolleybuses has gotten more expensive

What was supposed to happen a long time ago finally happened Friday: The cost of trolleybus travel jumped from 10 tenge to 15. It's possible that this is not the limit, either...

Whoa, went from 7 cents to ten. That's like Kyiv, where it runs 50 to 75 kopecks (9 - 13 cents).

[Velveeta]

Whoa, went from 7 cents to ten.

LOL! One of those price increases that's going to effect a lifestyle change.