I hesitate to write yet again about this, since I have had precisely zero personal contact with anybody connected with Asgarda or the Ukrainian Boyovyi Hopak movement. However, I still get a lot of traffic about it, probably because I seem one of very few people who have made any real effort to do a bit of research (in English, anyway), rather than just copy-and-paste the original article.

So, I just want to add one more post. One of the things that really seems to exercise people’s minds is the suggestion that Asgards is an all-female movement seeking autonomy from men. In my last post about Asgarda, I pointed out that this has been pretty much debunked, and noted that I’d seen her training in a mixed group on YouTube – although at that time, the clip had been taken down. Now it seems to have been re-posted by someone else…

First of all, from the picture set, here is Katerina Tarnouska.

Now here’s the video (which uses a few clips over and over again). Ms. Tarnouska can be seen clearly at several points – and is pretty good with the double shashka!

The original English-language website for Asgarda isn’t online any more. I wonder – was this a joke that took on a life of its own? Was it a university group that didn’t survive the graduation of the original members? (Most of the women featured were undergraduates).

If Ms Tarnouska or anyone who was involved with Asgarda (or anyone who knows them) should happen to read this – get in touch! I’d love to run an interview on ‘the real Asgarda story’.

2 Comments »

1. 

   I think I deleted a comment by accident; if you left a comment here and it has not appeared, could you please write it again?

   Мне кажется, я удалил комментарий от аварии, если вы оставили комментарии здесь и не оказалось, не могли бы вы написать еще раз?

   Comment by Emlyn — January 18, 2010 @ 9:38 pm

2. 

   So everyone knows that it would seriously hurt if you did get shot right there but your not exactly going to have a serious chance of getting killed so it’s much more sensible to have a bullet proof vest rather than pants, plus you may have to put something pretty heavy there so it might way you down a bit

   Comment by distance education — January 21, 2010 @ 10:34 am

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