суббота, 3 июня 2017 г.

Conan Doyle vs Shakespeare. Round!

It is a widely known fact that RGL department is always in the public eye attracting attention of many students with its spectacular performances related to various events. As a matter of fact, this time RGL students pampered all the spectators with their amazing talents in the day of Arthur's Conan Doyle works which took place on the 19th of May. It was an unexpected turn of events as students broke a long-lasting tradition devoted to Shakespeare which had a significant impact on the cultural development of the department. Nevertheless, such innovation didn't spoil the impression but embellished the event and didn't leave anybody indifferent. 1st and 2nd-year students were singing songs, acting out a short dialogue, presenting a video - were making everything possible to turn this evening into a miracle. What's more, cookies and sweets provided by the organizers made the atmosphere even more homey  and friendly.



There is no doubt that after such a brilliant evening all the performers suffered from press intrusion and were not willing to talk their impressions up. However, our magazine has got a great chance to pry into the life of one celebrity and  take an exclusive interview from the amazing singer Viktoria Pedchenko. 

-Viktoria, it is needless to say that your performance has been highly praised by all the guests, but can you reveal the secret and keep our readers informed about your preparations and rehearsals? What was your life behind the scenes?
- Well, as I always feel elated when singing I didn't feel any discomfort during our rehearsals. We didn't have any mishaps as the event itself was perfectly organised. The only thing which bothered everybody was the trouble with microphones as they didn't work properly but the situation was instantly improved.
- Lets go back to your past: when did you realize your ambitions as a singer and how it affected your present life?
- I started to realize singing was my destiny at the age of 6 or 7 if I'm not mistaken. I need to give credit to my music teacher as he always urged me to develop my skills and did everything possible to help me with my singing career. He thought the word of me and once told me I was a real prodigy. And these words were the most crucial for me because they made me the person I am now. 
- Last but not least, as you have already won a lot of praise for your performance how are you going to celebrate your achievements
-Surely it won't be in the full glare of publicity as we deserve privacy, we decided to gather together and relax a bit after such a tiring but truly exciting evening. 

The only thing left to do is to wish all the participants good luck and inspiration for the future performances.


















        The present of the past

       My blogpost is not going to be about the horrors of a war or about fierce fighting. I’m not going to tell you about sth that threatened world peace or caused civil unrests. I will not tell you about the person who declared a war or brought about peace. In fact, the thing which is going to be presented came in useful for many people living during those times. And this phenomenon is called Khrushchyovka. Why exactly Khrushchyovka – you’ll ask. Well, this is a part of 20th century history which exists till nowadays and we face with it every single time we visit our grandmas and grandpas as this kind of apartment had a huge effect on them (well, at least this thing affected my family in particular). Khrushchyovka is an unofficial name of type of low-cost, concrete-paneled or brick three- to five-storied apartment building which was developed in the USSR during the early 1960s, that sprang from Nikita Khrushchev who directed the Soviet government.  During 1947–1951 there was a severe housing shortage which caused a great anxiety among citizens. In fact, the situation was a perfect recipe for disaster. But soviet architects made useful contributions and evaluated various technologies attempting to reduce costs and completion time. During January 1950 an architects' convention, supervised by Khrushchev, declared low-cost, quick technologies the objective of Soviet architects. During 1954–1961, engineer Vitaly Lagutenko, chief planner of Moscow caused a sensation and designed and tested the mass-scale, industrialized construction process, relying on concrete panel plants and a quick assembly schedule. 64,000 units of this type were built in Moscow from 1961 to 1968 and brought about peculiar changes into people’s everyday lives.
       Planners regarded elevators as too costly and as too time-consuming to build, and Soviet health/safety standards specified five stories as the maximum height of a building without an elevator. The panel buildings called 'Khrushchyovka' are found in great numbers all over the former Soviet Union and still have a lot of influence on people living in the 21st century. They were originally considered to be temporary housing until the housing shortage could be alleviated by mature Communism. Khrushchev predicted the achievement of Communism in 20 years (by the 1980s). Later, Leonid Brezhnev promised each family an apartment "with a separate room for each person plus one room extra", but many people continue to live in Khrushchyovkas today. And as we see now for communists “temporary” means “forever”. Nevertheless, I consider K-s to be remarkable achievement as it brought about positive changes into the society.