How to Celebrate Like a Russian – 12/09
At the beginning of November, there are two holidays in Russia. Revolution Day commemorates the October Revolution and has a long history in the Soviet Union, but is no longer officially celebrated. Unity Day is a newly invented holiday that commemorates the time when the mysterious holiday makers decided that Russians should no longer celebrate Revolution Day. So what are the legacies of the October Revolution in Russia now, and what does “unity” mean to a country that has recently been torn apart? Before I came to Moscow, my only ideas about Russia were from what I saw in Eisenstein films. I thought Russia was the magical land of Lenin and Trotsky where people valiantly sacrificed themselves for the freedom of all. When I got here, I found that I was shockingly not surrounded by Bolsheviks. There were no factories to occupy, no palaces to storm, and no Red Army in pointy wool hats. On the morning bus, a man viciously berated me for ten minutes for reading a book by Alexandra Kollontai. It seemed as though this moment in history is not so much a part of the people’s consciousness as a story in a history book and artwork in the metro station. But was it capitalism that destroyed the Revolution or did it simply lose or change significance over time? After all, Americans still have great mythological ideas about the heroes of the American Revolution, but it would be considered pretty irresponsible for somebody to not pay taxes today. When I raised this question to a group of Russians, a heated argument erupted about whether revolutions are necessary for change or a waste of human life and effort. This is when I learned that there is no concept of “how Russians think”, but rather how individuals think, which brings me to… What is unity, who has it, and why does it get a holiday? I think unity is a beautiful concept. It is and always has been necessary for human survival, but how are Russians united? The peaceful socialist artists I lived with believe in unity in some way, but so did the skinheads who patrolled their neighborhood. In a country where new borders have so recently been drawn, along what lines do you create unity? In citizenship? But immigrants are part of the country too. In ethnicity? That’s racism. In common history? Different people were on different sides of history. In common goals? Everybody has a different goal…so what is Russia united in? I don’t have much of a conclusion to this question yet. Perhaps it’s a common experience; perhaps it’s just being there. I feel like I’ve been in such a different world since I’ve been in Russia to a point that I have more in common with some Russians than I do with many Americans at home. I’ve experienced something that nobody can possibly understand without being here. Maybe this unites me with Russia in some way. On the other hand, there are so many things that Russians experience that I can’t possibly understand, and this divides us. I haven’t fully understood the concept of Russian unity or Unity Day yet, but I’ll gladly take the day off class.
Kristin Parrotta
American University, Moscow, 2009
Bravery – 12/09
After fighting the desire to scribble three or four little paragraphs about life in St. Petersburg, now, at the moment where time, and space, and freedom should converge into creation, I have nothing to write. It is this city, no doubt. It is becoming hard to remove the dirt from under my fingernails, but for some reason its special. If there ever was a city in need of a good scrub down its St. Petersburg, but I am deathly afraid that to remove one minuscule speck of dust would irrevocably change it. Now that wouldn’t do. I live next to the Alexander Nevsky lavra; one of Russia’s highest ranking monasteries which houses a cathedral, the city’s only Seminary Academy, and three major cemeteries. Some of Russia’s greatest citizens such as Tchaikovsky, Lomonosov, and Dostoevsky are buried here. On the way to school I can almost feel the ghosts of the dead writers and musicians all pulling at my heart to write, make music, or to draw. But I am too scared. I consider myself a brave person. After all, there must be a certain courage that one needs to travel to the might bear of Russia with nothing but two suitcases and a tattered dictionary. An even greater courage is needed to survive and to succeed. But language acquisition consists of ebbs and flows, days of confidence and complete utter failure. Today, unfortunately, was one of those days. It started out by confusing the verbs “to write” and “to pee” (only an accent mark difference!), and ended with referring to my younger host sister in the formal, male-gendered speech. However, after having a day full of contempt at my language abilities, and allowing myself to envision a future without a solid proficiency in any language including English, I was sent from the mighty beings that be a wonderful and truly special bit of encouragement. After dinner I confessed to my host dad that I was often scared to speak Russian. He looked at me straight in the eyes, the windows into the soul, and said, “Forest. Do you understand this word, forest?” I did. “Wolf. Do you understand this word, wolf?” Where was he going with this? “The wolf,” he said, “lives in the forest. If you are afraid of the wolf, then you will never go into the forest. You must go into the forest. You mustn’t let the wolf scare you.” I replied by smiling the most thankful smile I could muster. He gave me the encouragement I needed to renew my passion and my energy. I was reminded of why I love meeting new peoples and discovering strange new worlds. I seek to understand the souls of the musicians buried next door, and I seek this through my language and my studies. Nothing happens in Russia until the exact moment that it occurs; when time and space and freedom all converge into creation and produce a masterpiece. All in all, it was an inspiring little day.
Anastassia Fagan
University of Notre Dame, St. Petersburg, 2009
A Little Break from St. Petersburg – 12/09
Since I last wrote, our group took a trip away from good, ol’ St. Pete. On September 26th we boarded a train from Moskovsky Vokzal in St. Petersburg and took an overnight train ride to Moscow. I had never ridden a train before, besides the one going from New York City to my town (which takes less than an hour) so I was a little apprehensive about a 14 hour ride. But I was actually surprised at how quickly the time seemed to pass. I was in a compartment with three other people from our program and we just talked and hung out and had people from other compartments come visit; it was a lot of fun, kind of like just hanging out all night with friends in your super tiny dorm room. The next morning around 9 (I think) we arrived in Moscow. We were only in Moscow for 8 hours, so there’s really nothing terribly interesting to say about it. We had a tour of the city and saw MGU and some other buildings, then had a couple free hours to do whatever we wanted. Some friends and I went to Red Square quickly and then we headed to Pizza Hut, as we knew there would most likely be only Russian food for the next 10 days on the cruise and honestly, that gets old fast. So we wanted one last non-Russian meal. After dinner, we met back up with the rest of our group and the Moscow group and boarded another overnight train, this time to Ulyanovsk, Lenin’s birthplace. The first three cities that we stopped at on the cruise didn’t strike me in any special way; they all kind of blend together looking back on them. First there was Ulyanovsk. The thing I remember about this city is that Lenin was born there and they have like a gazillion monuments/memorials to him and also that there is a cute monument to the letter ё. I quite enjoyed the monument to the letter ё. Next there was Samara and Saratov, and honestly, without looking at my notes, I could not tell you the difference between these two cities. They both had a mix of old and new building and a nice main street running through the middle of the town. One of them had Stalin’s bunker in it. The last two cities were much more interesting, in my opinion. Volgograd was the fourth city our ship, The Ivan Bunin, stopped at. This city was absolutely incredible. Мамаев Курган, a huge hill covered in monuments in remembrance to the Battle of Stalingrad, was totally awe-inspiring. We were lucky enough to see the changing of the guard in the building there which was pretty touching. We also saw the enormous statue called “Родина-мать зовёт!”. It is hard to imagine a statue that size without seeing it for yourself; I never expected it to be so massive and towering. Walking around on that hill was very sobering and emotional; just thinking about all the people that died in that place to save the world from a Nazi empire is just amazing.
The last city we stopped in was Astrakhan, a city about 60 kilometers from the Caspian Sea. Astrakhan was my favorite city by far, probably mostly because it was about 75-80 degrees and sunny there. The part of the city on the banks of the Volga was really nice and looked like a port city, but then once you went even just a block in it looked like small-town Russia, with the tiny wooden houses and homeless dogs and cats darting across the streets. The contrast between the two was very interesting to me. This city just gave me a great feeling; if I were ever to return to any of the cities we visited, this would be me pick. From Astrakhan we boarded a 37 hour train (oh my God, it was so very long!) back to St. Petersburg. And that train ride in itself is a whole very, very long post, so here all I will say about it is – if ever a проводник is trying to make you buy tea, just do it. It will save you a lot of trouble in the long run.
Gina Caruso
George Washington University, St. Petersburg, 2009
Learning outside the classroom – 12/09
When a person moves to a different country with the intent of learning a new language, a variety of different language learning possibilities pop up, many of which are unexpected. Here in St. Petersburg I have found quite a few effective techniques to improve my Russian. Going to class, naturally, has its benefits: new vocabulary, grammar practice, speaking with native Russian speakers. Speaking with elderly members of a host family can be helpful, but it also has its limits. I have had enough practice to now very clearly express my desires for my hostess to PLEASE not microwave my cereal with milk in the morning, but there are still a lot of conversational situations that I’m not just exposed to in this environment. One benefit of living in Russia that I hadn’t anticipated is the availability of Russian language media. Books and movies are sold in a variety of shops around the city, and mostly for very reasonable prices. Early during my stay here, I started to buy myself a few books in Russian to practice reading them. I wound up with books at varying levels of difficulty, everything from Gogol to Harry Potter to Winnie the Pooh. I’ve found that all of these different texts have proved useful with my language practice. The more challenging books are packed full with new vocabulary, but even the more childish books will present me the occasional new word and interesting new phrases and chances to easily understand Russian grammar in context. Much as the books have helped with my Russian, so too have movies. They also come in a variety of difficulties as far as comprehension is concerned. I don’t get frustrated when I don’t understand every Russian word in the dubbed version of a Disney classic, because I already know what’s happening. It can also be easy to pick up new Russian words when I remember the English equivalents from my childhood! It’s also a good morale booster when I can spot the moments where the original meaning isn’t conveyed in the new Russian dialogue. While watching American movies in Russian is fun, I’ve also found it quite thrilling to watch some Russian movies in their original language. As the DVDs are made here, in Russian and for Russians, I usually end up watching without English subtitles. This means that I really need to try to understand the dialogue in the movie if I want to understand what is going on, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by just how much I can comprehend. Not only have I finished a movie and been genuinely convinced that I understood the greater part of the plot, but I’ve understood a movie well enough to actively LIKE it, even without any English to help me along. Watching Russian movies is also great because I believe they’re introducing me to new cultural concepts, and more colloquial expressions that I wouldn’t find in a dubbed movie from a different country. Saint Petersburg is an amazing city, and it’s hard to get bored here with so much to see. But it’s good to know that when I do happen to have a little down time, I can both practice my Russian and entertain myself with Russian books and movies that are wonderfully easy to find.
Katherine Sandstrom
University of Wisconsin, St. Petersburg, 2009
The Pride of Russia – 12/09
Russians are a proud people. It does not take two months of living in Russia to realize that. Every city we passed through on our first trip from the Moscow airport to Vladimir had its own eternal flame monument. The memory that is permanently burned into the soul of Russia is, of course, World War II. None of the monuments or any of the victory parks spread along the Volga coastline, however, can compare to the memorial at Volgograd. Volgograd was the sight of the famous Battle of Stalingrad, its former name under the Soviet Union. Nazi forces surrounded the city from August 21, 1942 to February 2, 1943, when Soviet forces succeeded in expelling the Nazis from the city. This was a major point on the Eastern Front, because Hitler continued to reinforce his troops in Stalingrad, drawing them away from arguably more strategic battles elsewhere. The memorial at Stalingrad does justice to the devastating battle that took place in the city; it is more impressive than any other I have ever seen, including the monuments in DC. After walking past the first of many statues depicting soldiers in action, one comes to stairs, flanked on either side by two stone walls. The stone is intricately carved with more scenes of soldiers and phrases from propaganda posters. If reading phrases such as “For Stalin, for our nation,” “To the front,” and “Stand to the death,” is not sufficiently awe-inspiring, a speaker plays an eerily echoing orchestral piece. Further down the path is the eternal flame monument. Enclosed in a room whose walls list those killed in action, is a statue of an arm holding a flaming torch. Two soldiers guard this impressive statue, much like at Arlington. The changing of the guard ceremony silences all, while the only sound is the simultaneous clack of the soldier’s high-stepping march. Topping it all off is the statue of Mother Russia, which is the main focal point throughout the memorial. A path winds up to the base, leading visitors past the graves of the battle’s heroes. After the memorial, a trip to the panorama museum is a must for history buffs. Here, there is a personal item for almost every hero pictured, and is by far the best war museum I have been to. From mangled and charred pieces of a German plane to helmets punctured with bullet holes, the exhibits put the devastation of the battle into perspective. It struck me that these helmets were worn by real people, and the sacrifice that so many made “for the nation.” It is no wonder then why the battle panorama is full of depictions of heroic deeds, many of them sacrifices themselves. It is hard to deny Russians their pride in World War II, even if it does seem that many times they overlook the contributions of the other Allies. The Russian people suffered considerably under the Nazi invasion and their determination to repel that attack is amazing. This is clear as soon as you step off the boat in Volgograd.
Sean Crocker
University of Wisconsin, Vladimir, 2009
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