The Babushka Factor

Understanding the babushka factor is key to grasping many things Russian. Often one of the first Russian words foreigners know, they pronounce Б≈абушка! with gusto. Which is easy, since it is so simple, compact and colorful. But little do they know that this word is steeped with cultural connotations.  

The babushka is omnipresent in Russian folklore, culture and even economics. In the mid-1990s, analysts often talked of “the babushka segment” of the economy – the lines of babushka-pensioners selling “impulse-buy” items near metro stations. This “segment” once accounted for 40 percent of total Russian retail tobacco sales.

Pushkin’s babushka, Arina Rodionovna, unwittingly participated in the creation of many literary masterpieces, through her retelling of fairy tales to her soon-to-be famous grandson. Mikhail Lermontov’s babushka, Elizaveta Arsenieva, was also instrumental in the brilliant, yet short-lived, military and poetic career of her beloved Misha. 

Б≈абушка has many tender, diminutive suffixes – e.g. баб≈уля – yet they are not always used tenderly. “Самом≈у не хват≈ает, баб≈уля!” (“I don’t have enough [money] myself”), a New Russian was overheard replying to a begging б≈абушка outside a McDonald’s. And the hero of the film, The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed, Vladimir Sharapov, mimicking folksy speaking habits, would say over the phone: “Ну спас≈ибо теб≈е, баб≈анька!” (“Thanks a lot, you old woman!”)

Perhaps the rudest way to address an elderly woman is to call her б≈абка (б≈абки in plural, but not to be confused with б≈абки or б≈абульки, slang words for money). To wit: “Что ты ворч≈ишь, как ст≈арая б≈абка?!”  (“Why are you as grumpy as an old woman?”) In the same vein, when you feel like “sending somebody to hell,” you can send him к чёртовой б≈абушке – “to the devil’s grandma.” Tennis megastar Marat Safin once lobbed out a rather crude babushka-related proverb to deride those who were second-guessing his performance at the Kremlin Cup tournament. To a bewildered crowd of international journalists, he proclaimed: “≈Если, ≈если… ≈Если бы б≈абушка был≈а д≈едушкой, у б≈абушки б≈ыли бы ≈яйца…” Which can be mildly translated as, “If grandma were a grampa, she would have all of grampa’s parts.” 

That babushka is normally seen as a font of truth has given rise to other, more socially-acceptable idioms, such as “Б≈абушка н≈адвое сказ≈ала” ( “it remains to be seen,” or literally, “Babushka was ambiguous, so we can’t take anything for granted”). When someone is really sure of something, it is good to say, “И к б≈абке не ходи” – (literally, “I’m so sure of this, you don’t even have to ask grandma.”) Synonymously: “и к гад≈алке (fortune teller) не ход≈и.” 

What about the humorous and elegant proverb, “Вот теб≈е, б≈абушка, и ≈Юрьев день”? Yury’s Day was an annual holiday of sorts when unencumbered Russian serfs could leave their landlord without explanation and move to live under another landlord or settle in virgin lands. Ivan the Terrible banned Yury’s Day in the late 16th century, tying serfs to the land and taking away one of the few freedoms Russians then enjoyed. Thus was the proverb born. Ever since, it has been used to express a disagreeable surprise resulting from governmental resolutions or decisions.  

Finally, when Russians talk about someone who wants to spite someone, albeit to their own detriment, they say, “назл≈о б≈абушке отмор≈озить себ≈е ≈уши” (“to freeze one’s ears to spite the babushka”). This proverb evokes the classic situation where a babushka forces a recalcitrant grandson to put on his hat before going outside in winter… But, once he is out of the house, he takes off the hat to spite his grandma, only to freeze his ears and catch cold. A synonymous expression is “назл≈о б≈абушке отр≈езать себ≈е ≈ухо” (“to cut off one’s ear to spite babushka”). Or, as you say in English, “to cut off one’s nose to spite their face.”  

When the famous impressionist Vincent Van Gogh in 1888 cut off his right ear, he doubtless had nothing against his babushka. It is believed he did the deed in an act of self-loathing or disease-ridden rage. (Another theory has it that his right ear was cut off by his friend Paul Gauguin in a drunken brawl.) Be that as it may, Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Bound Up Ear, where he wears a bandage and a fur shapka of sorts, is now worth fabulous баб≈ульки – a few million at least. И к б≈абке не ход≈и!