Anastasie Vondra

* 1937

Rusko, Česká menšina v bývalém SSSR
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    Uhlans ride o’er the water

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    délka: 03:46
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    “Uhlans ride o’er the water, oh, their pretty horses go, horses go! Uhlans ride o’er the water, oh, their pretty horses go! My love she does follow them, her sweet blue eyes a-wiping, a-wiping. My love she does follow them, her sweet blue eyes a-wiping. Sweet blue eyes, go to sleep, to wake up in the morning, the morning! Sweet blue eyes, go to sleep, to wake up in the morning! Early morning, morning, morn, right before the sun comes up, sun comes up. Early morning, morning, morn, right before the sun comes up. When the sun has risen up, my loved one is a-walking, a-walking. When the sun has risen up, my loved one is a-walking. Walking up and down the square, all the boys some news to bear. Such a piece of news it is, that the army is drafting, is drafting. Such a piece of news it is, that the army is drafting. If they’re drafting, they will go, such a pity of the beaus, of the beaus. If they’re drafting, they will go, such a pity of the beaus. Pretty boys... (end of singing) There we, when... well, when we drink a tad of rum... (singing) Pretty boys to the wenches, ugly ones to the farmers. Oh, what wife for a cobbler, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler, a hobbler, oh, what wife for a cobbler, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler. (end of singing) I like this song because my father-in-law was a shoemaker. Well, and he was kind of... hunched, and the older of my sons was also hunched... And then, well, back then cobblers weren’t held in respect, and even as a daughter-in-law I said: Oh, what wife for a cobbler, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler. Well, as you can see, now, one must respect a person who’s a cripple, and before - it was reckoned that only a cobbler had to marry a humpback, a cripple perhaps. So, what wife for a cobbler, any wife, perhaps a humpbacked hobbler.”

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    Kyselachka (sour soup)

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    délka: 01:45
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    “Czech food - that’s halushky, dumplings, kyselachka [sour] soup is cooked... Kyselachka is cooked... Well, it’s cooked. Do you know how kyselachka is cooked? Well, I’ll explain it in Czech, so write it down. You beat the butter, there’s this kind of churn, now they do everything electrically, but in the past we beat the butter in a churn like this. You beat the butter, pour it out, you scoop the butter out, and you pour buttermilk from the churn. You cook potatoes, boil them a bit in water, and the buttermilk is done a bit... sour. You cook the potatoes, buttermilk, and then you make dough with bits like this, and you cut it up into leaf-shapes - like this, throw the dumplings in, and the cream, when it’s skimmed, we even had manual separators... you skim the cream, mix it up, an egg and the potato broth, you pour it in, pour it in, and it’s kind of - a soup, when it’s cold, it’s... what is now called okroshka, and the Czechs here called it kyselachka [sour soup]. Kyselachka, soup.”

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    Feather stripping

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    délka: 01:22
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    “Czechs stripped feathers, everything that came in the summer, so they wouldn’t lose them, the geese, their feathers, they plucked them and put them in duvets, you know... And then in December when it was, before the new year, we got together in a group, that was Mum, I came, Grandma too... one... to the first we came to strip feathers, we’d strip the feathers - then we came to the next, and Grandma kept telling us stories - oh, what stories they were, terrible... and what work I had with the sheep, cold it was, nothing proper to wear, and so... we came - we’re nodding, nodding, well... children, children, running all the time... and the boys caught some live sparrows and let them loose in the cottage, and the feathers blew all over... that’s how cheeky they were... But could you hold it against them? No! And boys... my hubby was also Czech, he...”

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    obec Repinka, Omská oblast, 24.06.2012

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    délka: 40:55
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories from Czech communities in North Caucasus and West Siberia
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Life was good

Anastasie Vondra
Anastasie Vondra

Anastasie Vondra is a Czech expatriate from West Siberia who was born in 1937 in Novogradka, Omsk Oblast, into a family of mixed nationality. Her mother, née Pohořelová, was a Czech, and her father, Adam Svenč, was Latvian. At home they spoke Russian. As a child she and her brother attended primary school in the neighbouring village of Voskresenka; she started working (as a shepherdess) at eleven years of age. She married a local Czech, from 1961 they lived in another district of the Omsk Oblast. After her husband‘s death in 1977 she returned, and even today she still lives in Repinka, where she was long employed at the local canteen. She brought up three children. All her children obtained secondary or tertiary education. She remembers many Czech folk songs and customs, and she speaks a good Czech dialect, even to her adult children, although they do not speak in Czech.

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