
The Kingdom of the Dead: For post-Soviet people, Crimea was a gigantic madeleine - lermontov
https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-kingdom-of-the-dead/
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serg_chernata
The first paragraph really spoke to me, because that is how I spent every
summer for the first 14 years of my life. My family took a trip from Kiev to
Yalta as a summer vacation. The joy and excitement mixed with hot, gross
conditions of the train are spot on. I will forever hold onto those memories
as some of my most precious.

This year I went back to Kiev for the first time in well over a decade since I
moved to the US. To see my family, friends, as well as show my wife all of the
places and the way that I grew up.

Due to the current political climate and overall conditions in Crimea going
there was not even an option for us. A real disappointment as some of my most
cherished memories were formed there.

~~~
andreiw
I am pretty sure that visiting Crimea would have been a safer option to
visiting Kiev. Many, many Ukrainian citizens continue to visit the peninsula
even today.

~~~
serg_chernata
This isn't something to have an argument over. However, while in Kiev I did
not see a single armed person nor any signs of conflict. My visit was almost a
month ago.

On the flip side, Crimean border is protected by armed forces on behalf of
Russia and overall sentiment in the peninsula is not that favorable to
Ukrainians.

Though I do agree that many still visit. My only point was that I did not feel
comfortable.

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rdtsc
> They called the Tatars “heathens,” “uncivilized” and “warlike,” evoking old
> stereotypes about the Turks.

That resonated with me. My childhood is peppered with memories of Russians,
who were bused in at some point by the Soviet Union to take over
administrative positions, telling me to speak a "human" language - Russian
instead of my native language (implying I was sub-human). I always remember
that and am sad for them for living with that kind of prejudice (especially
when you tell that to a child).

~~~
patrickg_zill
The Tatars, 300 years ago, were excellent warriors and horsemen.

They would raid the nearby Ukrainian and Russian villages and sell the
villagers into slavery. In one year, 1769, they captured 20,000 and sold them
in slave markets in the Ottoman Empire.

From 1500 to 1700 or so, between 1 and 2 million Slavs were captured and sold
off into slavery.

The end of the Crimean Khanate is about as distant in history as the
Revolutionary War that started the USA. Of course Tatars don't do this
anymore, but some people unfortunately prefer to remember old grievances and
raise them again and again.

~~~
myth_drannon
That's why when I see photos of the Syrian war, I see so many blond and blue
eyed children. I assume they are the descendants of the Slavs(slaves) you are
talking about

~~~
casualstroller
You have no clue what you're talking about. To begin with, Slavs != "slaves".
Learn the etymology of the word and read up on some history:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs)
Once you're done, use Wikipea or Google to look for Indo-Iranians, their
physical characteristics and their movement from 4000-1000 BCE ((TL;DR blue-
eyed people didn't originate in Europe). Good luck.

~~~
myth_drannon
Origin of the word Slave : "The term slave has its origins in the word slav.
The slavs, who inhabited a large part of Eastern Europe, were taken as slaves
by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD."

Source BBC:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafr...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter1.shtml)

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
In terms of Kingdom of the Dead, what is interesting is that the Black Plague
(which would kill about 1/3 of Europe) is speculated by some to have entered
Europe from Crimea due to the siege of Caffa (also spelled Kaffa) by the
Tatars. The Tatar army was devastated by the Plague, and before they left,
they catapulted the infected bodies into the city. In the city were Genoese
traders who left the city and took the Plague back to Europe.

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Asooka
Can someone explain what is the meaning of "madeleine" here? Is it referring
to the famous incident of "let them eat cake"? I'm not familiar with it being
used to refer to anything other than food.

~~~
drivers99
I think it's "one that evokes a memory": [http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/madeleine](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/madeleine)

That seems to be how it's used in the article and some of the comments here:

"Crimea was the ideal site for this post-Soviet reunion, since it was the
place where so many children, now adults, had spent their happy summer
vacations, flocking there from all over the Soviet Union. For post-Soviet
people, Crimea was a gigantic madeleine."

I see others have beat me to a response. m-w also has a paragraph about it:

"The madeleine is said to have been named after a 19th-century French cook
named Madeleine Paumier, but it was the French author Marcel Proust who
immortalized the pastry in his 1913 book Swann's Way, the first volume of his
seven-part novel Remembrance of Things Past. In that work, a taste of tea-
soaked cake evokes a surge of memory and nostalgia. As more and more readers
chewed on the profound mnemonic power attributed to a mere morsel of cake, the
word madeleine itself became a designation for anything that evokes a memory."

I had never heard of it either.

~~~
CobrastanJorji
This is also the reason that you sometimes find Madeleines flavored with earl
gray tea. It's something of a literary joke about Proust, who helped make the
cookies famous.

~~~
eps
Technically, they are small cakes, not cookies.

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clarry
Well, it does make me want to go and see for myself. It could be more
interesting if I knew some russian.

