Russian vocabulary is dying

[ybelov.livejournal.com]

At the beginning of the 20th century dictionaries of Russian and English languages contained approximately same amount of words: 200 thousand. In the 1930s English dictionaries had already 600 thousand, while Russian contracted to 88 thousand…

The Russian vocabulary of the 19th century had 153 words with the root LUB (love); now there are only 41 such words. “Love” has shrunk by three fourths...

This data has been collected by philosopher and linguist Mikhail Epstein.

Complete article (in Russian):
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2009/075/22.html

Avtovo, Saint Petersburg

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

I hope this question is not too out of place in this community. I am studying in St. Petersburg in the fall and have found a possible host family who lives in the Avtovo suburb of the city. I've been told the commute from there is about 35 or 40 minutes to the center. Is this true?

I will be studying at the Philological Dept of Saint Petersburg State University (located at on Ul. Leitenanta Shmidta I believe). How far is the commute to there from Avtovo? 

In general, does anyone have any opinions about living in Avtovo? Or, as always, if anyone knows of a potential host family for me in St. Petersburg, I am interested in that as well. Thanks very much.