Starting Russian Alphabet series

I am starting a Russian Alphabet series - with a twist. I will be telling you about Russian culture - in alphabetical order.  If you have any suggestions or special requests, please let me know.

So, let's start at the beginning.

Russian Letter:

Read it as if it was "a" in "father"... or like "Ah!"



Russian names:

Probably the most common woman's name that starts with letter "A" is Анна.  If you are close friends, or if she is still a little girl, she will probably like it if you call her Анечка ("AH-nech-kah"), Анюта ("Ah-NYOOT-ah", or maybe "new" in the middle will be easier to remember: "Ah-NEW-tah") or Аннушка ("AHN-noo-shka" - please please PLEASE remember to stress the FIRST syllable if you use this variant).


A Soviet-born Polish singer Анна Герман (here in English) was once very popular in that part of the world.




Another common Russian name starting with "A" is Алла ("AHL-lah").  Again, if she is your close friend or still a little girl, you can try calling her Аллочка ("AHL-lahch-kah").  Here, of course, I have to mention Алла Пугачёва (here in English), another singer, vastly popular in the 80-ies and 90-ies, and not completely forgotten to this day.

Here is a classic from the 80-ies (was our favorite nursery school song - not officially, of course... for some reason it was perfect to shout when on a swing.)



Here is a newer one:

Now, to the gentlemen:

Андрей ("Ahn-DRAY") is a fairly common name. Unless you are his mother or he is a little boy, he may not like being called Андрюша ("Ahn-DREW-shah").

Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров (here in English) was one of the Soviet h-bomb creators, a Nobel Prize laureate, a dissident and one of the best-known Perestroika people.

Photo: "book, Заступница. С. В. Калистратова. Составитель: Е.Печуро. «Звенья», 1997. (in Russian)", retrieved form Wikimedia Commons, Copyright: M.A.Kallistratova et al. 




Another name I would like to mention is Антон ("Ahn-TOHN"), or Антоша, ("Ahn-TOH-shah") if you are his mother, or he is a little boy.  If he is a little boy, his buddies probably call him Антошка ("Ahn-TOHSH-kah"), a diminutive variant used in an old Soviet cartoon:

On a more serious note,
you have probably heard of
Антон Павлович Чехов (here in English).

Source: Wikimedia Commons

OK, enough for today.  For tomorrow:  fruit, cities and countries starting with "A".  Can you think of any?  Drop me a line.



Here is a challenge:

There are  

11 countries 

that in the Russian language start with "A".  

How many can you name?

The answer (as well as more letter "A" words) is here.