174
SUBJECT 11
.
POST SERVICE, LETTERS AND TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS
"Кто стучится в дверь ко мне
С толстой сумкой на ремне?...
Это он, это он -
Ленинградский почтальон".
"Who is
knocking at my door
With a big bag over his shoulder?...
This is he, this is he -
A Leningrad postie."
Several generations of Russian children grew
up with these simple
verses and learnt them by heart. That postman was a kind and cheerful
person who always delivered only good news. He obviously enjoyed life, and
some children while reading the poem were a little bit envious...
But the reality of the situation was different. In the past
почтовые ящики
("mail boxes") adorned front doors of each and every flat. Therefore, a postman
would feel
himself very lucky if, when entering a new building, he discovered that
the building had a lift and the lift was in working order. Otherwise he could sing a
line from a popular
Soviet song "
Шагаю я по этажам" ("I am walking from floor
to floor"), but his lyrics would not sound so joyous as in the song. Far from it.
Besides, in most cases it was she (not he) who did this job, walking
upstairs
with a heavy bag, delivering
письма ['pis'-ma] "letters",
телеграммы [tye-lye-'gra-m.y] "telegrams",
газеты [ga-'zye-t.y]
"newspapers",
журналы [zhur-'na-l.y] "magazines", and sometimes even
книги ['kni-gi] "books".
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Fortunately, all residential buildings built since the middle of th
е 20th
century were provided with standard mail boxes installed on the ground floor.
This modern provision made the life of a city postie significantly easier than it
was in the past.
The official term for any Russian post office is
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
