Babushkas are not actually a people. Babushkas are a unique Russian (East European) phenomenon. The word "babushka" means "a grandmother," though one does not have to have grandchildren to be a babushka. One does have to be old and a female to be a true babushka. These old women are usually poor and widowed. Most often you would find them in two places: sitting on a bench at an apartment building entrance or at a roadside. Babushkas sitting on a bench at an apartment building entrance (or on a bench near their house, if in the village) are doing it for two main purposes: to exchange/spread rumors and to stare at passers-by. In the cities, such babushkas are the life of the apartment buildings. While the children are having fun in schools and kindergartens, while young adults are busy cramming for university exams or looking for a job, and while their parents are making careers, babushkas are quietly passing their days socializing with other babushkas from their own and neighboring apartment buildings. 

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