# на народные средства



## mimi2

Hi,
"Этот первый в Москве скульптурный памятник был сооружён в 1818 году *на народные средства*"
It is hard for me to translate "на народные средства" so I think of another way by expressing my understanding. Please tell me if It is correct? Thanks.
=> This first monument was erected in 1818 in Moscow thanks to the distribution of the people in the country.


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## Glafira

mimi2
I would rather use *contribution* instead of *distribution*. But I'm not sure, so let's wait for someone who knows better


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## mimi2

Ah, yes, I mean "contribution"
Thanks Glafiara.


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## Maroseika

I guess donation was meant (пожертвования).


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## Glafira

*Maroseika*
Could you explain the difference between donation and contribution? I don't know what is better here and why.

*



do·na·tion –noun 1.an act or instance of presenting something as a gift, grant, or contribution. 2.a gift, as to a fund; contribution. 

con·tri·bu·tion –noun 1.the act of contributing. 

con·trib·uteverb, -ut·ed, -ut·ing. 
–verb (used with object) 1.to give (money, time, knowledge, assistance, etc.) to a common supply, fund, etc., as for charitable purposes. 

dictionary.reference.com

Click to expand...

*


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## tkekte

contribution - вклад, содействие
donation - пожертвование


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## Maroseika

Glafira said:


> *Maroseika*
> Could you explain the difference between donation and contribution? I don't know what is better here and why.


I'm not sure there is really a difference in English; I just based on my English dictionary and chose donation as more close to пожертвования. Contribution seemed to me rather mean a kind of joint venture.


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## papillon

My interpretation is a bit different:
...was erected in 1818 with public funds (_as opposed to private money_).

To put it another way, there may or there may not have been a drive to raise the money for the project, the funds may have been simply allocated from the state coffers.


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## Glafira

As far as I know, money were raised to erect the monument.


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## papillon

You're right. Since the name of the monument was not mentioned anywhere in the thread, I forgot that we're discussing the Minin-Pozharsky venture. I guess I should have kept better track of ALL of *mimi*'s threads.

In this case, my translation is 
...erected with publicly raised funds.

Then, just as a point of curiosity, _without reading other threads here_, would "пускать шапку по кругу" (so to speak) be your interpretation of the title sentence?


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## Q-cumber

papillon said:


> Then, just as a point of curiosity, _without reading other threads here_, would "пускать шапку по кругу" (so to speak) be your interpretation of the title sentence?




In fact "to pass round the hat" means to* ask for* charity.


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## papillon

Q-cumber said:


> In fact "to pass round the hat" means to* ask for* charity.


...Which apparently is exactly what the organizers had done to get the money.


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## Q-cumber

papillon said:


> ...Which apparently is exactly what the organizers had done to get the money.



Yes, but now we are talking about the final "proceeds", so to speak.


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## Q-cumber

Glafira said:


> Could you explain the difference between donation and contribution? I don't know what is better here and why.


 
"Donation" and "contribution" aren't completely interchangeable. Donation is when you make a free payment of money towards a collection. "Contrtibution" *can* be used to cover that situation also, but it means more than that. It includes a non-money situation. Also a contribution that is not free. In other words, we might say "Mr. Scientist made a big contribution <внёс большой вклад> to the discovery of an AIDS cure", but that was not a donation. It was actually part of his job.
   Someone might knock on your door and ask you for a "donation". You could reply "Sure, I don't mind contributing to my favorite charity". Then the terms are interchangeable. But there are many times when "Contribution" is the right word, but "donation" would not replace it.


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## Glafira

2 Q-cumber 
I understand it, of course. My question was about this definite case.


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## Q-cumber

Glafira said:


> 2 Q-cumber
> I understand it, of course. My question was about this definite case.



Well, I think in this case both words are more or less OK,  however "donations" is better. "Contributions" implies that the money came for the monument from more than just the money paid by the people. In other words, the monument's cost was  <for example> 10,000 golden roubles and half only came from the people; therefore, they donated 5,000 roubles, contributing half of the cost.


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