2010: A Russian Odyssey

One week, three centuries

Last week for me spanned about 300 years of Russianness, which I’ll retell in historically chronological order instead of the order in which they happened, just for kicks.

This weekend I had the urge to leave Petersburg – I didn’t really care where to, I just didn’t want to spend another weekend roaming around the same parts of town. I opened up Google Maps and found an island sitting in the Finnish Gulf a little ways away from Petersburg’s center and figured that’s as good a place as any. After actually reading up on the island and its main city Kronstadt, I learned it has some historical value – it’s Peter the Great’s lovechild with the Russian navy, built in the early 18th century.

The bus ride out there was around 45 minutes, and it was nice having a view of the Finnish Gulf that wasn’t tarnished by fat, old Russians in speedos. Unfortunately the main attraction on the island is currently being repaired and looked like a circus and/or house under fumigation. But there were some other slightly interesting things on the island, including a statue of Lenin, which made up for it.

Plus, I got to improve my chi:

Next up on our timeline is the CIEE Ball! Our study abroad organization put together a ball for all students, teachers, and Russian friends of ours. The best part was that the ball was 19th century-themed, and we were given awesome costumes to wear. I got a costume called “Marquis,” but it looked more like a flamboyant British aristocrat in his pajamas.

We had some dancing lessons for the ball, so I learned some dance I won’t attempt to spell and also the polka. By “learned” I actually mean “watched and poorly imitated,” but that was true for 90% of us anyway. There was a professional photographer at the ball so there will be many photos soon to come, but for now here’s a photo of my regal self and my two serfs:

Now as a stark contrast to my 19th century adventure, we arrive at the 20th century on April 22, Vladimir Lenin’s birthday! The largest statue of Lenin in Petersburg was reopened at “Ploshchad Lenina” earlier last week after being gone for about a year due to someone throwing a bomb at it and exploding a hole in Lenin’s butt. I knew that there had to be something going on around the statue to celebrate his birthday, so on the morning of the 22nd I looked into it and saw there’d be a meeting of Petersburg communists there. I decided to go because really… how often do you get to go to a communist rally?

There were more people there than I expected, although the turn-out was still pretty bleak for an entire political party. The communist parties in Russia are all extremely weak now and are normally associated with older people (and rightfully so, 70% of the people at this rally had white hair). There was a small group of university students there which I was about to approach until I saw that their flag proudly displayed an AK-47.

I got to talking with an old woman who was a little disappointed when I revealed I’m not Russian and can’t vote for her party. I didn’t really have much to say to her but it was interesting listening to her views, even though they were a bit intense. She was convinced that everybody at the rally was pitiful and all they wanted was more money. She said that Russia doesn’t need Putin, Medvedev, or even Lenin – they need Stalin! He really got things done! She was clearly looking for some support on her call for a new Stalin, which I couldn’t really agree with or comment on, so she just resorted to repeating “I am right! I am right…”. The meeting ended with a presentation of flowers at the foot of Lenin’s statue.

And so ends my journey through time. On Friday classes are cancelled and instead we’re going on a weekend trip out of Petersburg to the city of Pskov. Monday is also a day off, so I foresee a lovely long weekend ahead.