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What is confusing about that sentence, exactly? I am guessing they are speaking metaphorically.

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Can you give me a more English way of saying it? The direct translation makes me feel like I'm missing something.

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I'm not a native Russian speaker, but I would read it as:

The difficult, grueling Soviet way of life, however, reduced the lives of young women to penal servitude.

(ps--I think it's изнурительный?)

"in" doesn't really work as a translation for в here. Since каторга is accusative, it indicates, to my logic which could be faulty since grammar isn't really my thing, a sort of transformation/directional movement. So "into" or "to" works better.

Native speakers, feel free to correct me.

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and looking it up, каторга can also mean straight up drudgery.

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andrey-lensky.livejournal.com

"Каторга" is a standard metaphor in Russian; nobody reading this really imagines penal servitude. Here it means only very harsh, difficult, joyless life.

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thanks!

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oryx_and_crake

You are absolutely right. Translating prepositions mechanically is an extremely bad idea, as one and the same Russian preposition can be equivalent to a lot of different English ones depending on the context.

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oryx_and_crake

I mean, here "в" works as "into", but in other contexts it can be translated as "at" (в пять часов - at five), "to" (в некоторой степени - to some extent), "as" (в качестве решения - as a solution), etc.etc.

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No, you don't. "Каторга" is used here metaphorically, as a stand-in for a lifestyle full of grueling, unrewarding toil, without joy or satisfaction. Soviet life actually wasn't that poor or difficult objectively, but one thing that could best characterize it was an utter lack of comfort or consideration for an ordinary citizen's circumstances. For example, normal working day typically ended at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., but almost all shops closed at that time too -- except some groceries that worked until 8:00 p.m.

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thanks!

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I'd say it this way:
"But the heavy, exhausting domestic life convicts a Soviet young woman to hard labor".

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I don't think we'd use "convict" in this way--perhaps "sentenced" would be idiomatic.

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Maybe I'm a bit too heavy on a metaphor here, yes. The idea was, I believe, that Soviet life made a woman into something of a kitchen serf.

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paparazzzzi.livejournal.com

not only kitchen

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Sure, but kitchen was the most popular symbol of it.

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i'm just saying that you can't use the verb "to convict" that way. :) "Sentenced" is what you're looking for. You're convicted of a crime, and then the judge/jury sentences you to your punishment. :)

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pinky-the-cow.livejournal.com

Shouldn't it be present tense in English? It is present tense in Russian.

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I think that there is a historical present in academic Russian that doesn't work in English. The Soviet Union is over, hence an article about what life was like in Soviet Union would be in the past tense.

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Are you sure Historical Present doesn't work in English?? It surely does. A patient comes to see the doctor... In 18... she gives birth to... His first novel does not get published until 18...

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No, it sounds funny.

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It would be a very specific stylistic decision, meant to make the reader feel like they are "there." It would probably not be used in an academic textbook or scholarly article, for example. It's more for storytelling.

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vakhitov.livejournal.com

A patient comes to see the doctor...

It sounds as if you were telling a joke.

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Well, the author refers to a story by Наталья Баранская "Неделя как неделя". It was published in some magazine and was met VERY ENTHUSIASTICALLY by Russian working women. My elder sister was all thrills. It was just about her life. Day-to-day life with queueing in shops, no washing machine, no possibility for a mother of 2 kids to stay at home to look after them was QUITE a bit of a hell.

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Well, we were talking about a particular piece of literature, were we not? ))) And it was related to a life of a young woman-scientist and a mother of two in late 1960's, apparently in Leningrad. The story was the first of its kind and has been a favourite with feminist and gender scolars ever since. So it may be only compared to another story, NOT to living conditions of other social groups at another historical moment. Would you agree with that? ))

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Sorry, I didn't think it was important. The story was published in Tvardovsky's Новый мир in No.11, 1969.
Text at http://www.belousenko.com/books/russian/baranskaya_nedelya.htm
Public reaction to the story view at http://www.a-z.ru/women/texts/kashkarr.htm: "Многие женщины именно с "Недели..." повели отсчет новой жизненной позиции: "Так жить нельзя!"

As for the chores and their burden for a woman in the 70's you probably can't know much as Moscow was the least troubled city of all - as ever. I'm a non-moscovite survivor! )))

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