Не будь укрытия, мы бы не переждали ветер.

Yes, будь is formally the singular imperative of быть, but in this sentence не будь + noun in the genitive is being used in a fixed conditional pattern.

So:

• Не будь укрытия, ... = If there were no shelter, ...
• More naturally in English: Had there been no shelter, ...

This use sounds more bookish, literary, or compact than everyday speech. In normal conversation, many speakers would more likely say:

• Если бы не было укрытия, мы бы не переждали ветер.

So here не будь is not really a command like don’t be. It functions as a condensed conditional expression.

Because after this kind of negative existential / absence construction, Russian uses the genitive.

Compare:

• Есть укрытие. = There is shelter.
• Нет укрытия. = There is no shelter.

The phrase не будь укрытия follows the same logic of absence, so укрытие becomes укрытия.

This is similar to how Russian often uses the genitive after negation when talking about non-existence or absence.

Because Russian can express conditional meaning without если.

The clause:

• Не будь укрытия

already means something like:

• If there were no shelter
• Had there been no shelter

So если is unnecessary here. This structure is more compressed and stylistically elevated than the standard если бы construction.

A more explicit version would be:

• Если бы не было укрытия, мы бы не переждали ветер.

Both mean essentially the same thing.

In Russian conditional sentences, бы does not always need to appear in both clauses.

Here the first clause uses the special pattern не будь + genitive, which already signals an unreal or hypothetical condition. Because of that, the main clause carries the explicit conditional marker:

• мы бы не переждали ветер

So the sentence works as:

• condition: Не будь укрытия
• result: мы бы не переждали ветер

This is normal for this construction.

Because Russian forms the conditional with:

• past tense form
• plus бы

So:

• переждали = past tense plural
• бы = conditional particle

Together:

• мы бы не переждали = we would not have waited out / we wouldn’t have made it through

This is standard Russian grammar. Russian does not have a separate special verb form like English would survive / would have waited out. It uses the past tense plus бы instead.

Not exactly. Переждать means to wait something out, to sit through, to remain somewhere until something unpleasant passes.

So:

• ждать = to wait
• переждать = to wait out, to outlast by waiting

Examples:

• переждать дождь = wait out the rain
• переждать бурю = wait out the storm
• переждать ветер = wait out the wind

So the sentence means not just wait for the wind, but remain sheltered until the wind passes.

Because переждать takes a direct object in the accusative case.

So:

• переждать что? — ветер

Since ветер is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular:

• nominative: ветер
• accusative: ветер

That is why the form doesn’t visibly change.

It is grammatical and natural, but it sounds somewhat literary, formal, or stylistically elevated.

A more everyday version would be:

• Если бы не было укрытия, мы бы не переждали ветер.

Or even more conversationally:

• Если бы не было укрытия, мы бы не смогли переждать ветер.

So the original sentence is not wrong at all; it just has a more polished, written feel.

Yes, that is a very natural English rendering.

Depending on context, these are all possible translations:

• Had there been no shelter, we wouldn’t have waited out the wind.
• If there hadn’t been any shelter, we wouldn’t have been able to wait out the wind.
• If it weren’t for the shelter, we wouldn’t have made it through the wind.

The exact English wording depends on style and context, but the Russian grammar expresses an unreal condition tied to the existence of shelter.

Переждать is perfective.

That makes sense here because the idea is successfully waiting until the wind is over—a completed result.

Compare:

• пережидать = imperfective, process/repetition
• переждать = perfective, complete the waiting-out

In this sentence, the meaning is about whether they would have managed to get through the whole event, so the perfective is the natural choice:

• мы бы не переждали ветер = we would not have managed to wait out the wind

Yes, that is a very good way to understand it.

For learners, it is often easiest to map it like this:

• Не будь укрытия, ...
• ≈ Если бы не было укрытия, ...

That is not a word-for-word substitution, but in meaning and function it is very close.

So if you see не будь + genitive, you can often interpret it as:

• if there were no...
• had there been no...
• if it were not for... depending on context.